Thích Quảng Độ
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Thích Quảng Độ (釋廣度)(; 27 November 1928 – 22 February 2020) was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and scholar who was the patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) from 2008 until his death. Since the execution of his master at the hands of the communist
Viet Minh The Việt Minh (; abbreviated from , chữ Nôm and Hán tự: ; french: Ligue pour l'indépendance du Viêt Nam, ) was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Fro ...
in his teenage years, Thích Quảng Độ had been involved in political activism, firstly against the anti-Buddhist policies of the Catholic President of South Vietnam
Ngo Dinh Diem Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of ...
. After the
fall of Saigon The Fall of Saigon, also known as the Liberation of Saigon by North Vietnamese or Liberation of the South by the Vietnamese government, and known as Black April by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese was the capture of Saigon, the capital of ...
, the UBCV was banned by the communist government, and as one of the senior monks in the organisation, Thích Quảng Độ was at the forefront of the UBCV's defiance of the government, refusing to join the government-endorsed Vietnamese Buddhist Church. He was detained repeatedly by the communist authorities in the last 45 years of his life for his resistance and criticism of their policies, particularly his calls for multi-party democracy. During the Vietnam War period, he also served as a university academic in Buddhism, translated sutras and wrote books, notably a nine-volume Buddhist encyclopedia, and two-volume dictionary between Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese. In 2002, he was awarded the
Homo Homini Award The Homo Homini Award (Latin: "A human to another human") is given annually by the Czech human rights organization People in Need to "an individual in recognition of a dedication to the promotion of human rights, democracy and non-violent solutions ...
for human rights activism by the Czech group
People In Need People in Need (PIN) ( cz, Člověk v tísni) is a Czech nonprofit, non-governmental organisation based in Prague, Czech Republic. PIN implements humanitarian relief and long term development projects, educational programmes, and human rights pr ...
, which he shared with his predecessor as patriarch
Thích Huyền Quang Thích Huyền Quang (19 September 1919 – 5 July 2008Vietnam ...
and Thadeus Nguyễn Văn Lý. He was also awarded the
Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize The Professor Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize (''Raftoprisen'') is a human rights award established in the memory of the Norwegian human rights activist, Thorolf Rafto. Organization The prize is awarded annually by the Rafto Foundation for Human Righ ...
and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.


Life

Thích Quảng Độ was born Đặng Phúc Tuệ in Thanh Chau village in
Thái Bình Province Cài () is a Chinese-language surname that derives from the name of the ancient Cai state. In 2019 it was the 38th most common surname in China, but the 9th most common in Taiwan (as of 2018), where it is usually romanized as "Tsai" (based on ...
in
northern Vietnam Northern Vietnam ( vi, Bắc Bộ) is one of three geographical regions within Vietnam. It consists of three administrative regions: the Northwest (Vùng Tây Bắc), the Northeast (Vùng Đông Bắc), and the Red River Delta (Đồng Bằng S ...
, and became a monk at age 14. During the
Vietnamese famine of 1945 The Vietnamese famine of 1945 ( vi, Nạn đói Ất Dậu – famine of the Yiyou Year or ''Nạn đói năm '45'' – the 1945 famine) was a famine that occurred in northern Vietnam in French Indochina during World War II from October 1944 to ...
, he walked for two days from Thanh Sam Temple, where he was training to his home village, where he carried his gravely-malnourished oldest brother from the home to the local temple and nursed him back to health. At age 17 he witnessed his religious master Thích Đức Hải executed by the revolutionary People's Tribunal. He quoted in open letter to Communist Party Secretary-General
Đỗ Mười Đỗ Mười (; 2 February 1917 – 1 October 2018) was a Vietnamese communist politician. He rose in the party hierarchy in the late 1940s, became Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1988 and was elected General Secretary of the Central ...
in 1994 that "Then and there I vowed to do all that I could to combat fanaticism and intolerance and devote my life to the pursuit of justice through the Buddhist teachings of non-violence." In the 1950s, Thích Quảng Độ travelled to India, Sri Lanka and other parts of Asia to further his Buddhist training and serve as an academic at various universities, spending seven years abroad before returning to
Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...
in
South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
to teach Buddhism.Taylor, p. 310. He was a professor at the Van Hanh Buddhist University and
Saigon University Saigon University (SGU) is a public university located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The university offers over 30 degree programs through its academic faculties in 3 campuses, including law, business administration, information technology, applie ...
among other institutions in the 1960s and 1970s. He translated various Buddhist texts into Vietnamese and wrote Buddhist textbooks, notably a two-volume Buddhist dictionary between Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese, and oversaw a nine-volume Vietnamese language Buddhist encyclopedia.


Political opposition

While a member of the leadership of the UBCV, Thích Quảng Độ became an activist, fighting against the anti-Buddhist policies of the Catholic President of South Vietnam
Ngô Đình Diệm Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic of ...
. After a military raid of Buddhist monasteries in Hue and Saigon, Thích Quảng Độ was arrested on 20 August 1963. He and thousands of other Buddhists endured torture and persecution while imprisoned by the Diem government. He was released after Diem regime was toppled in military coup in November 1963. As a result of imprisonment, Thích Quảng Độ struggled with
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
before having a lung operation in Japan in 1966. In 1965, Thích Quảng Độ was appointed as the Secretary-General of the Viện Hóa Đạo (Institute for the Dissemination of Dharma) of the UBCV. In 1975 Vietnam was under communist control, and the UBCV was once again unwelcome in Vietnam. As a result, the UBCV facilities were seized, and documents burned. Thích Quảng Độ was active in protesting the government's actions, and after attempting to gather Buddhists from other regions in non-violent opposition, he was arrested on charges of 'anti-revolutionary activities' and 'undermining national solidarity'. He spent 20 months at the Phan Dang Luu Prison in solitary confinement in a cell approximately 2m2 in size with a hand-sized window, before he was tried and released in December 1978. Later that year he was nominated by Betty Williams and
Mairead Maguire Mairead MaguireFairmichael, p. 28: "Mairead Corrigan, now Mairead Maguire, married her former brother-in-law, Jackie Maguire, and they have two children of their own as well as three by Jackie's previous marriage to Ann Maguire." (born 27 Januar ...
to receive the
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
. In 1982 the Vietnamese Government created a Buddhist alternative, called the Vietnam Buddhist Church, which was state sponsored and controlled by the
Vietnam Fatherland Front The Vietnamese Fatherland Front ( vi, Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam) is an umbrella group of mass movements in Vietnam aligned with the Communist Party of Vietnam forming the Vietnamese government. It was founded in February 1977 by the ...
. Because of Quảng Độ's opposition to the new church, he was again jailed. At one meeting of the Viện Hóa Đạo, he stated to the attendees that 'If you want to pursue glory, then go ahead, but this boat, regardless of whether it is disintegrating, broken or unsteady, let us look after it'. He rejected an approach from the Minister of Public Security Mai Chi Tho to take up a leadership role in the government-backed Buddhist organisation. Quảng Độ would spend the next 10 years in exile in the village of Vu Doai, in Thai Binh. His 84-year-old mother was expelled with him, and died in 1985 due to inadequate medical care and malnutrition. In 1992, he returned to the Thanh Minh Pagoda in Saigon. Yet again in 1995, while attempting to send a fax to overseas Buddhists to expose government abuse of the UBCV by obstructing UBCV flood relief effors, he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison and a further five years of probation on the grounds of 'undermining the policy of unity and exploiting the rights of freedom to impede the interests of the state'. This led to condemnation by the likes of Nobel laureates the
14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...
, Jose Ramos Horta, Mairead Maguire and Francois Jacob, and the US Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright (born Marie Jana Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic ...
. He was released in September 1998 in response to international pressure on the communist government, and returned to Thanh Minh Monastery. In October 2000 he led a delegation of monks to provide relief in
An Giang Province An Giang () is a province of Vietnam. It is located in the Mekong Delta, in the southwestern part of the country. Geography An Giang occupies a position in the upper reaches of the Mekong Delta. The Hậu Giang and Tiền Giang branches of ...
in the
Mekong Delta The Mekong Delta ( vi, Đồng bằng Sông Cửu Long, lit=Nine Dragon River Delta or simply vi, Đồng Bằng Sông Mê Kông, lit=Mekong River Delta, label=none), also known as the Western Region ( vi, Miền Tây, links=no) or South-weste ...
but they were detained by communist police before being forced to return to Saigon after being accused of threatening national security. Thích Quảng Độ became the President of the UBCV's Institute for the Dissemination of the Dharma in 1999, meaning that he was the second-ranking UBCV dignitary after patriarch
Thich Huyen Quang Thích is a name that Vietnamese monks and nuns take as their Buddhist surname to show affinity with the Buddha. Notable Vietnamese monks with the name include: *Thích Huyền Quang (1919–2008), dissident and activist *Thích Quảng Độ (192 ...
. In February 2001, just before the 9th Congress of the
Vietnamese Communist Party The Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), also known as the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP), is the founding and sole legal party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Founded in 1930 by Hồ Chí Minh, the CPV became the ruling party of North ...
, Thích Quảng Độ started a pro-democracy campaign as part of an eight-point program, including free elections as part of a multi-party democracy, trade union membership and 'the abolition of all degrading forms of imported culture and ideologies that pervert Vietnamese spiritual and moral values'. The communist government responded by detaining him, before releasing him in June 2003. In February he published an open letter advocating multi-party democracy and civil rights. He further stated that they were “more important than economic development” and without them “we cannot make any progress in the real sense.” In a 2003 interview, he stated "People are very afraid of the government ... Only I dare to say what I want to say. That is why they are afraid of me". However, he was again detained in October 2003 after an unauthorised UBCV meeting.Taylor, p. 311. He was officially released in 2005, but a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention reported that he was still effectively under detention. In 2008, as one of his last wishes Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang named Thích Quảng Độ as the new patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, a position he would occupy until his death. Upon succeeding Thich Huyen Quang, Thích Quảng Độ stated that 'The best way to honour our late Patriarch is by putting his words into practice in our daily lives. The Supreme Bicameral Council pledges to do its utmost to re-establish the legal status of the UBCV and maintain its historic tradition of independence'. After 20 years at Thanh Minh, where he remained under continuous surveillance, he returned north to Thai Binh, before returning to Saigon to stay at Tu Hieu Temple in November 2018. The communist authorities continued to send police to the temple to harass Thích Quảng Độ and the abbot Thích Nguyên Lý about the residency status of the former, and tried to restrict access by his disciples.


Death

Thích Quảng Độ died on 22 February 2020 at age 91 at Từ Hiếu Temple in
District 8, Ho Chi Minh City District 8 ( vi, Quận 8) is an urban district (''quận'') of Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam. As of 2010, the district had a population of 418,961 and an area of . It is divided into 16 small subsets called wards ''(phường)'' ...
. In his later years, he had been afflicted by diabetes, high blood pressure and a heart condition, the last of which required an operation in 2003. Thích Quảng Độ asked for his ashes to be scattered at sea. The exiled Vietnamese dissident blogger Điếu Cày stated that his death was 'a great loss for the UBCV as well as the movement for freedom and democracy in Vietnam. The Most Venerable Thích Quảng Độ dedicated his entire life to struggling for religious freedom for Vietnam'. Điếu Cày described him as 'one of the main pillars of the UBCV, withstanding many oppressions and persecutions from the communist authorities but nevertheless remaining steadfast in maintaining the independence of the UBCV and not accepting the administration of the communist regime'. Thích Quảng Ba, the Vice Chairman of the UBCV in Australia and New Zealand, stated that Thích Quảng Độ's contributions extended beyond his work as a scholar and translator, and that his greatest legacy was his 'indomitable spirit', which made him the 'conscience' of the Vietnam people and 'shown the path to our generation'. The
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a U.S. federal government commission created by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and the lead ...
called his death 'an incredible loss for the people of Vietnam' and said that 'With his quiet strength and grace, he fought for decades to preserve and promote religious freedom in Vietnam'.


Awards

In 2001, Thích Quảng Độ received the Hellman-Hammet Award from
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
for persecuted writers. In 2003, Thích Quảng Độ was honored with the
Homo Homini Award The Homo Homini Award (Latin: "A human to another human") is given annually by the Czech human rights organization People in Need to "an individual in recognition of a dedication to the promotion of human rights, democracy and non-violent solutions ...
for human rights activism by the Czech group People in Need, which he shared with Thích Huyền Quảng and Father Nguyễn Văn Lý. In 2006, Thích Quảng Độ was awarded the
Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize The Professor Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize (''Raftoprisen'') is a human rights award established in the memory of the Norwegian human rights activist, Thorolf Rafto. Organization The prize is awarded annually by the Rafto Foundation for Human Righ ...
, in recognition of "personal courage and perseverance through three decades of peaceful opposition against the communist regime in Vietnam, and as a symbol for the growing democracy movement". Thích Quảng Độ was unable to the receive the award, as the government prevented him from attending the ceremony.The Rafto Foundation
2006 Laureate Thích Quảng Độ
/ref> In 2006, Thích Quảng Độ was also awarded the Democracy Courage Tribute by the World Movement for Democracy.


References


Further reading

* Taylor, Philip, ed. (2007).
Modernity and re-enchantment: religion in post-revolutionary Vietnam
'. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. pp. 310–312.


External links


Video: interview of Thích Quảng Độ under house arrest (Oslo Freedom Forum, 2010)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thich, Quang Do 1928 births 2020 deaths Buddhist writers Civil rights activists Humanitarians Unified Buddhist Church Buddhists Vietnamese Buddhist monks Vietnamese democracy activists Vietnamese dissidents Vietnamese human rights activists Vietnamese prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Vietnam Vietnamese Buddhist missionaries Vietnamese anti-communists People from Thái Bình province