Buddhism—Vietnam | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

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Buddhism in Vietnam Summary

Buddhism—Vietnam

Buddhism is the main religion in Vietnam, practiced by three-quarters of the population. Unlike its Southeast Asian neighbors, who are largely Theravada Buddhist, Vietnam embraces Mahayana Buddhism, including both Chan (Zen) and Pure Land traditions. (In southern Vietnam, a largely Khmer minority practices Theravada Buddhism.) Although Buddhism entered Vietnam from both India and China, the predominant political, cultural, and religious influences were Chinese. Over the centuries, however, the Vietnamese have created a form of Buddhist religiosity that is distinctively their own.

History

The first few centuries of the first millennium were marked by the expansion of Indian culture and religion into Southeast Asia. Archaeological evidence from Champa, in what is now central Vietnam, yields figures of buddhas and bodhisattvas and Sanskrit inscriptions dating from the second or third century CE. Inscriptions address Hindu gods predominantly, especially Siva, but there are also praises to the Buddha. Later archaeological finds from Dong Duong in central Vietnam indicate the presence of Buddhist temples and statues. Although most of this evidence is suggestive of Mahayana Buddhism, a Hinayana presence is mentioned by the seventh-century Chinese traveler Yi Jing. As for northern Vietnam, in the second and third centuries CE, the Giao Chi province was visited by such prominent figures as the Sogdian monk Kang Seng Hui and the Indian monks Kalyaoaruci and Marajavaka; they propagated the dharma, founded relic mounds (stupas) and temples, and translated Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Chinese.

Chinese Buddhist influence in Vietnam, however, was eventually far more substantial and enduring than Indian Buddhist influence. Vietnam was ruled by China for more than a millennium (111 BCE–939 CE), and Chinese political domination and culture exerted a more direct and profound impression on Vietnam than on any other Southeast Asian culture. The first recorded instance of a Chinese missionary in Vietnam is Mou Po, who propagated Buddhism in northern Vietnam in the second century CE. However, Mahayana Buddhism from China really became dominant and widespread beginning in the fifth century CE. Buddhism in Vietnam, as in China, existed throughout its long history alongside, and sometimes in competition with, Confucianism, Taoism, and ancestor worship.

The most prominent form of Buddhism to take hold in Vietnam was Thien (in Sanskrit, Dhyana; in Chinese, Chan; in Japanese, Zen). Traditional sources record the transmission of three major Thien sects from China, beginning with the arrival of the Indian master Vinataruci in 580 CE, who was trained in China in the lineage begun by Bodhidharma. He came to be regarded as the first Thien patriarch in Vietnam. The founder of the second Vietnamese Thien school was Vo Ngon Thong, a Chinese master who arrived in Vietnam in 820. The founding in the eleventh century of the third Thien tradition, the Thao Duong school, occurred after Vietnam's independence from China. Buddhism attained increasing importance as the state religion for several of the subsequent Vietnamese dynasties. The Thao Duong advocated a unified practice of Thien and Pure Land traditions. Chan meditation practice and Pure Land recitation came to be regarded as compatible methods for attaining enlightenment, and the unification of these two traditions was seen as politically expedient for seeking favor for Buddhism at court.

During the Tran dynasty (1225–1400) the Vietnamese people pressed southward and brought Champa under their rule. At this time an additional school of Buddhism, the Truc Lam, developed. It fused Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism in a spirit of national unity against foreign domination, especially against incursions by the Mongols. Truc Lam combined the otherworldly aspirations of Thien insight with the practical humanism of Confucianism. In time, however, the political elite increasingly supported Confucianism at the expense of Buddhism, though a resurgence of Buddhism occurred in the seventeenth century, stimulated by the arrival of Chinese monks of the Linji (in Vietnamese, Lam-Te; in Japanese, Rinzai) tradition. The Lam-Te became the foundation of most of Vietnam's present-day monastic institutions.

During the Nguyen dynasty (1802–1955), the political elite favored Confucianism exclusively, and Buddhist monks withdrew from political activity. Christianmissionaries started arriving in Vietnam beginning in the sixteenth century, and the increasing influence of Christianity under French colonial rule presented a further challenge to Buddhism.

The White Statue of Buddha on Thuy Son Mountain south of Danang in 1993. (STEVE RAYMER/CORBIS)

Buddhism experienced a revival in the twentieth century starting in the 1930s, when it was embraced as a central component in the various nationalist movements that sought independence from the French. Their efforts included an emphasis on the study of Buddhist texts, a new focus on projects of social welfare, and an attempt to abolish what were regarded as superstitious elements. One particularly influential Buddhist movement was the Hoa Hao sect, which taught a heterodox form of Buddhism propounded by its charismatic founder Huynh Phu So (1919–1947). In 1951 the All-Vietnam Buddhist Association was founded, uniting all the previous Buddhist organizations and sects of Buddhism and declaring Buddhism to be Vietnam's national religion. Buddhism was also prominent and visible in the protest movements in the years of war that followed independence. In the 1960s activist Buddhist monks contributed to the downfall of the Diem regime; in the decades following, they sought alternative systems of economic development and social progress to those provided by Western capitalist and Marxist ideologies.

Beliefs and Practices

Buddhism emphasizes the release of human beings from suffering. The schools most prominent in Vietnam incorporate dual aspects of Mahayana Buddhism, namely, wisdom and compassion, and regard them as compatible and skillful means for attaining liberation from suffering. Thien recommends insight, wisdom, and realization through meditation, while the Pure Land tradition emphasizes compassion, worship, and recitation of the name of the Buddha Amitabha. Adherents of Pure Land Buddhism seek rebirth in the Pure Land, or Western Paradise, through single-minded devotion to Amitabha rather than spiritual awakening through their own meditative achievements. In the Pure Land, enlightenment is easily attained.

The nonsectarian and unified nature of Vietnamese Buddhism is apparent in the temple practices of monks and laypeople. Buddhist temples in Vietnam include images of both Sakyamuni and Amitabha, as well as numerous bodhisattvas. Monastic temples incorporate a daily regimen of meditation, study, and sutra chanting, as well as name recitation. Laypeople practice Buddhism by name recitation, visiting temples to offer flowers, incense, and candles to the Buddha and the monastic community (monks traditionally have been revered not only for their ideals of personal salvation, but also for their supernatural powers and skills in healing and divination), and praying for deceased loved ones.

The popular religion has always been eclectic, and elements of Confucianism, Taoism, ancestor worship, and spirit cults continue to complement Buddhist practices. Veneration of sacred objects, including relics, sutra texts, and amulets, for their protective qualities, is also common. With its long history of change and adaptation, its eclectic syncretism, and tolerance by Vietnam's Marxist government, Buddhism in Vietnam seems likely to enjoy continued popularity in the twenty-first century.