Đạo Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương (, , "Way of the Strange Fragrance from the Precious Mountain") refers to a religious tradition originally practiced by the mystic Đoàn Minh Huyên (1807–1856) and continued by Huỳnh Phú Sổ, founder of the

Hòa Hảo Hòa Hảo is a Vietnamese new religious movement. It is described either as a Syncretism, syncretistic Vietnamese folk religion, folk religion or as a sect of Buddhism. It was founded in French Cochinchina, Cochinchina in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú S ...

sect. The phrase itself refers to the Thất Sơn range on the Vietnamese-

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

n border, where Huyên, claiming to be a living

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

sent into the world to rescue humankind, and accepted as such by followers of Hòa Hảo, is said to have made his first appearance in 1849.

History

Đoàn Minh Huyên, a native of

Sa Đéc Sa Đéc is a Provincial city (Vietnam), Provincial city in Đồng Tháp Province in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam. It is a river port and agricultural and industrial trading center. The Sa Đéc economic zone consists of Châu Thành D ...

(now Đồng Tháp) province in the

Mekong Delta The Mekong Delta ( or simply ), also known as the Western Region () or South-western region (), is the list of regions of Vietnam, region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong, Mekong River River delta, approaches and empties into the sea th ...

region of Vietnam, came to be known as the "Buddha Master of Western Peace" (''Phật Thầy Tây An'') during the

cholera Cholera () is an infection of the small intestine by some Strain (biology), strains of the Bacteria, bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea last ...

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infection ...

in 1849, which killed over a million people. Huyên was reputed to have supernatural abilities to cure the sick and the insane. His followers wore amulets bearing the Chinese characters for ''Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương'', a phrase that became identified, retrospectively, with the religion practiced by Huyên, and the

millenarian Millenarianism or millenarism () is the belief by a religious organization, religious, social, or political party, political group or Social movement, movement in a coming fundamental Social transformation, transformation of society, after which ...

movement associated with the latter. Huyên, along with Huỳnh Phú Sổ, are regarded by Hòa Hảo followers as living Buddha destined to save mankind from suffering and to protect the Vietnamese nation. Historian Hue-Tam Ho Tai suggests that the phrase ''Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương'' may have been coined by writers belonging to

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buu Son Ky Huong Religion in Vietnam Vietnamese folk religion 1849 establishments in Vietnam Yiguandao Thiền