Venerable Thich Quang Do: A Lifetime Of Struggle

Thich Quang Do

Thich Quang Do’s birth name is Dang Phuc Tue. He was born in Thanh Chau Commune, Tien Hai Suburban District, Thai Binh Province, on November 27, 1928, into a family with three other siblings.

He left his home in 1942 at 14 years of age to become a monk at Thanh Lam Village Pagoda in Ha Dong Province, which is today a part of Hanoi.

He passed away on the night of February 22, 2020, at Tu Hieu Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City.

In the beginning months of 1945, famine swept across the northern part of Vietnam, killing two million people. At the time, 18-year-old Thich Quang Do was in training in Ha Dong Province, as a disciple of the Venerable Thich Duc Hai.

Much later, in 1992, he would recall his early days of entering the monkhood in his memoir:

“In the year of the rooster (1945), the people were very hungry, especially in the two provinces of Thai Binh and Nam Dinh. Those who had starved to death littered the streets. […] At the time, my master at Thanh Lam Village Pagoda […] heard from people heartbreaking stories, so he travelled out to Ha Dong Township and established a relief group to help the hungry. That was March 1945. My master opened up a food camp to help sustain the hungry. He relied on Ho Dac Diem, who was the Ha Dong Province chief, to intervene with the Japanese and request some rice to rescue the starving. The group was able to carry many people through the famine.” [2]

Right after that disaster, the August Revolution broke out, and seeing that the people were still incensed at the famine caused by foreign countries, the Viet Minh hunted down Vietnamese traitors and those who worked for the Japanese or the French, executing them. The executions were seen – by some – as a way for the Viet Minh to flaunt their prestige. Thich Quang Do’s master was allegedly a Vietnamese traitor.

He recalled in an open letter sent to the general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Do Muoi, in 1994:

”At 10 AM, on the morning of August 18, 1945 […] as I looked at my master, his two hands bound behind his back by zinc wire, on his neck hung two signs scrawled with the words ‘Vietnamese traitor, national sellout’ […] On both sides, a group of people holding sticks, spears, and scythes, stood guard. A group calling themselves the magistrates of the People’s Tribunal stood on a platform […] forcing my master to kneel down in the courtyard and listen to the court convicted him. They immediately sentenced him to death, carrying him out to the field of grass in front of the courtyard, blood continuing to flow from his mouth [as he had been punched]. Upon reaching the field of grass, they wrestled him down onto his side, shooting him through the ears three times with a pistol. Another stream of bright red blood sprayed straight up, and my master died instantly.” [3]

Spurred by the exceedingly painful image of his master being executed, Thich Quang Do wrote: “I swore to fight fanaticism and mercilessness, and to devote my entire life to pursuing justice through Buddhism’s teachings on non-violence, tolerance, and mercy”. [4]

In 1947, Thich Quang Do was ordained as a monk while studying at the Quan Su Buddhist Institute in Hanoi. During this time, he wrote for the magazine Phuong Tien [Means], where Venerable Thich To Lien was editor-in-chief. In 1951, Venerable To Lien dispatched Do to study abroad in Sri Lanka [5]. In that same year, Buddhist temples throughout the country were unified under the leadership of the Vietnamese Buddhist Federation, headquartered at Tu Dam Pagoda in Hue. [6]

After Sri Lanka, Thich Quang Do travelled to India in 1953 to continue his studies. The year after, Vietnam was divided in two, and the Vietnamese Buddhist Federation splintered. Buddhist sects and associations continued to operate independently, and a number of northern Buddhist temples moved south.

In 1958, Thich Quang Do, 30 and fluent in English and Chinese, returned to Saigon to teach and translate scriptures. [7] During this time, the Vietnamese Buddhist Federation moved its headquarters to An Quang Pagoda in Saigon, and Buddhist sects and associations continued to operate independently. [8]

At the end of 1961, Buddhists and monks were increasingly subjected to excessive religious persecution by the Saigon government. There were reports that many areas banned Buddhists from practising and forced them to give up their religion. By April 1963, as Vesak Day (Buddha Day) approached, monks in Hue were no longer able to tolerate the repression, declaring that they were at odds with the government and commencing a period of impassioned struggle for Buddhism. [9]

To weather the religious crisis, the Inter-sectarian Committee to Protect Buddhism was established in May 1963. It comprised 11 sects and associations and was headquartered at Xa Loi Pagoda in Saigon. The committee included 19 individuals, of whom Venerable Thich Tinh Khiet was the highest leader and Thich Quang Do was an assistant to the diplomatic corps. [10]

The committee organized large-scale protests and hunger strikes. Thich Quang Do hit the streets with thousands of monks, nuns, and Buddhists to fight for the religion. The government cracked down. Many monks self-immolated to demand a resolution to Buddhism’s five aspirations. Dozens of people lost their lives in clashes with police. The tumult lasted for many months, stirring world opinion.

On August 20, 1963, the government arrested Thich Quang Do in its “floodwater campaign,” in which pagodas were raided simultaneously to capture Buddhist leaders. He was tortured in prison. While behind bars, he secretly received English articles, translating them into Vietnamese and then sending them out, where they were reprinted in Buddhist newspapers to encourage the fighting spirit of monks, nuns, and Buddhists. [11]

The conflict between Buddhists and the government led the United Nations to send a fact-finding mission to Vietnam on October 24, 1963. A week later, President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated, and Buddhism was able to gain the upper hand. Thich Quang Do was released but remained seriously ill due to the torture he suffered while in prison. [12]

Immediately after the 1963 Buddhist crisis and with the flames of solidarity burning bright in the hearts of monks and nuns, a number of well-respected monks reiterated calls to unify Buddhism.

At the beginning of 1964, the Buddhist Unity Congress concluded. Eleven sects and associations were merged into a single Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCVN), headquartered at the National Pagoda of Vietnam (which was just starting construction). The UBCVN ratified a charter edited by Thich Tri Quang [13] and sat under the supervision of the Supreme Patriarch Institute and the Hoa Dao Institute.

In 1966, a little over two years after unification, the church began to fracture under pressure. A conflict arose between two groups. On one side was the An Quang bloc, led by Thich Tri Quang, which advocated a fierce struggle to interfere in politics, with its overwhelming force and superior organizational ability. On the other side were the moderated at the National Pagoda of Vietnam, led by Thich Tam Chau, who only fought for religious freedom.

In October 1966, the An Quang bloc established its own and separate Hoa Dao Institute with three sects and associations. [14]

By 1967, the National Pagoda of Vietnam bloc convened a congress with eight sects and associations to amend its charter, asserting that the 1964 charter sought to eliminate the autonomy of sects and associations. From here, the conflict deepened when the government recognized the National Pagoda of Vietnam bloc’s amendments.

Also in 1967, the An Quang bloc organized a series of large-scale protests, carrying the Buddhist altars down to the streets to oppose both the government and the National Pagoda bloc. The government accused the An Quang bloc of “sowing chaos” and accordingly cracked down against them. The government later broadly apologized to all Vietnamese Buddhists and monks that it had to maintain social order and there were no other methods except for cracking down against the monks of the An Quang bloc.

According to the Sangha of the United Southern Buddhist Church, Thich Quang Do served both as the spokesperson for and inspector of the UBCVN’s Hoa Dao Institute in 1972; two years later, he was appointed general secretary.

The conflict between the An Quang and National Pagoda of Vietnam blocs, with their different approaches, continued until April 30, 1975.

From when he returned to Saigon until 1975, Thich Quang Do taught at Van Hanh University, the Saigon University of Literature, Hoa Hao University (An Giang), even the Pontifical Academy of Pius X (Da Lat), and other Buddhist academies. [15] He also edited numerous scriptures and books on Buddhism.

After taking control of the south, the victors immediately cracked down on all religions, sending dignitaries to re-education camps, destroying Buddhist statues, and confiscating the property of sects and associations.

Thich Quang Do witnessed what the victors did to Buddhism. He recounts in an interview with Radio Free Asia in 2015:

“On April 30, 1975, the Communists forcibly conquered South Vietnam. All the Vietnamese people were enslaved to an inhumane, cruel, hateful policy that was unmerciful towards religion. Our Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam was also stripped of its more than 2000 years of legal status, Buddhist leaders were fiercely repressed, and 12 monks and nuns of Duoc Su Pagoda self-immolated.” [16]

“During the investigation in Can Tho Province into the 12 self-immolations against repressive communist policies [one individual was only 14 years of age], the Communist authorities accused Venerable Thich Hau Hien of being an informant for the Americans and South Vietnamese, committing lewdness against other nuns in their attempt to invalidate 12 immolations. That plot, however, failed because I didn’t sign the final forms legitimizing their scheme.

[…] Things hit a fever pitch on March 3, 1977, when the Communists came to appropriate the Quang Thi Trang convent […], tearing down the “UBCVN” sign and tossing it to the ground. At exactly 11 AM that day, as general secretary of the Hoa Dao Institute, I signed circular urging monks and nuns to prepare to sacrifice to protect the religion and the honor of the Church.”

On April 6, 1977, Venerable Master Huyen Quang and I, along with a number of others, were imprisoned in Phan Dang Luu Prison in Ba Chieu, Gia Dinh. Later, I would find out that former Venerable Master Thich Thien Minh was also captured and had died of unknown causes at the Saigon police headquarters.” [17]

According to Amnesty International, Venerable Thich Thien Minh had died in a temporary detention camp in October 1978. [18] To this day, the Vietnamese state has yet to make an announcement about his death in Detention Camp #4 on Phan Dang Luu Rd., Ho Chi Minh City.

Seven members of the An Quang bloc and Thich Quang Do were eventually tried in December 1978. [19]

The seven were accused of numerous crimes: taking advantage of religion to disrupt national security, disrupting national unity, and acting to oppose the revolution. Under international pressure, Venerable Thich Quang Do and Venerable Thich Thanh The were acquitted. [20] In that same year, Thich Quang Do and Venerable Thich Huyen Quang were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. [21]

From 1980 – 1981, Do, Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, Thich Duc Nhuan, and a number of others disagreed with the remaining An Quang bloc members, who advocated cooperating with the state to establish the Buddhist Church of Vietnam, which would allow the Communist Party to tightly control church activities.

With the establishment of the Buddhist Church of Vietnam, the UBCVN, with its history since 1951, became illegal and remains so to this day. Venerable Thich Quang Do recalls:

“From the day former Venerable Master Tri Thu was elected head of the state church [that is, today’s Buddhist Church of Vietnam], the UBCVN no longer had a director leading the Hoa Dao Institute. Without a director, the vice-director stepped up until another congress could be convened to elect officials […]. Because of that, Venerable Master Huyen Quang was the first vice-director to become institute director, and we continued to conduct business with the church [UBCVN] as usual”.

“At four in the afternoon on February 24, 1982, I received a letter from the municipal police headquarters, with the word ‘express’ written on it. When I opened it, I saw that I had been ‘invited’ down to their office.

At exactly 8 AM [the next day], I arrived at police headquarters and was led to a waiting room, where two uniformed officers stood guard with pistols. After approximately an hour, I guess when they figured that was enough psychological torture, I was taken in to see Quang Minh. He said: ‘You’re being involved in religion also means you’re involved in politics (!), we’re going to have to handle you accordingly.’ After about five minutes, Quang stood up and read out the decision, […] expelling me from the city.” [22]

In the ten years after, Thich Quang Do lived alone under the watchful eyes of Thai Binh police: “The Communists […] exiled me to Vu Doai Commune, Vu Thu Suburban District, Thai Binh Province from February 25, 1982, for the crime of ‘being involved in religion and thus being involved in politics.” [23]

In the late 1980s, Vietnam entered the era of Doi Moi when the country’s economy changed into the market economy of capitalism. At that time, some monks saw that as the opportunity to fight for religious freedom.

At the end of 1991, Venerable Thich Don Hau, nearing death, left in his will a call to restore the UBCVN and reactivate the 1964 church charter, amended in 1973. [24] He reminded the dignitaries, among them Venerable Thich Huyen Quang and Thich Quang Do, that they respectively held the positions of director and general secretary of the Hoa Dao Institute.

Religious repression continued to intensify in 1992 and 1993, and the self-immolation of monks in the Mekong River Delta demanding religious freedom led to enormous protests in Hue, which the authorities cracked down upon and suppressed information about. [25]

After living in exile in Thai Binh for 10 years, in 1992, Thich Quang Do decided to return to the south a month after notifying the authorities of his plans:

“On February 10, 1982, the Communists also inexplicably exiled my mother to Vu Doai Commune with me, where she died a tragic death […] in January of 1985 from cold and deprivation.  Left all on my own, I decided that I could no longer allow myself to be hemmed in so senselessly, interminably, and unscrupulously. On March 22, 1992 (after 10 years and 27 days of exile), I returned to Saigon after letting Hanoi police know, arriving on March 25, 1992. [26]

I returned to the south in 1992 and continued to work on the [Phat Quang] dictionary series; in 1994, I sent to Do Muoi [a former senior leader] a series of assessments regarding the Vietnamese Communist Party’s mistakes towards the nation and Vietnamese Buddhism. After that, I went out into the community to provide aid.” [27]

In November 1994, the Mekong River Delta suffered an unexpected flood, killing approximately 400 people. Representing the UBCVN, Venerable Thich Quang Do, along with a number of monks and retired scholars, went out to render aid to their compatriots, only to be arrested afterwards.

“On January 4, 1995, they arrested me and imprisoned me at the temporary detention center on Nguyen Van Cu St. in the middle of Saigon. Venerable Khong Tanh and I each received five years in prison and five years probation”. [28]

“My time in jail wasn’t too bad; it was fairly leisurely […]. You eat and you go about your work, just like anywhere else […]. Before I was imprisoned, I had requested […] that they give me the Phat Quang dictionary set that I was working on.

I completed [the dictionary series] while in prison; when I received special amnesty and was released on September 2, 1998, they refused to return the nearly 100 volumes that I had already translated […]. They required I fill out a request form.

Unreasonable! This having-to-request business. If it’s going to be that way, then I’m not going to request anything. They can just keep it and use it however they like; I’ll just redo everything again at home. So I did, and it took me two years. I redid everything, without having to make a request of anyone. Please be reasonable. Let’s think about this. For example, if you’re hungry, then you go and ask people for food. When people give it to you, you thank them. But in this situation, the government simply kept my work, I didn’t give it to them”. [29]

At the beginning of 1999, Thich Quang Do went out to Quang Ngai to visit Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, who had just been exiled three days before. Also in the same year, Do became the director of the UBCVN’s Hoa Dao Institute.

After his trip to Quang Ngai, he was interrogated by police. In February 2001, he was formally put under house arrest for violating the terms of his probation. [30]

After that trip, Thich Quang Do stated to the press that: “I will continue to speak loudly, strongly, and firmly for freedom, democracy, human rights, and freedom of religion, so that those in and outside the country hear the church’s calls and its support for human rights and democracy.” [31]

In 2001, Thich Quang Do issued a call for democracy in Vietnam to his domestic and overseas compatriots, as well as to the Vietnamese government:

“But today, as other countries around the world develop, growing more prosperous, free, and democratic by the day, our country is becoming increasingly paralyzed and impoverished, our people oppressed and trampled on. […]

This catastrophe persists, nurtured by three factors: the government thinks too highly of itself and refuses to accept the opinions of others, resulting in a single-party dictatorship; the government has broken away from the people and refuses the most basic calls for human rights and citizens’ rights, resulting in an abominable authoritarian regime; the government is too dependent on foreign countries, from ideology to the structure of the state apparatus, causing social and civilizational upheaval [,..] moral decay and national stagnation.” [32]

In October 2003, after the state lifted its probation order, Quang Do risked his life to bring Thich Huyen Quang from Binh Dinh to HCMC for medical treatment. While on the road, the two were stopped by police and held on National Highway 1A, accused of keeping some state secrets with them [33], resulting in approximately 200 monks and nuns, and more than 1,000 Buddhists from nearby pagodas protesting to protect the two. [34]

In 2006, Thich Quang Do received two awards for his human rights work, Norway’s Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize and the World Movement for Democracy’s Democracy Courage Tribute. However, the Vietnamese government prevented Do from travelling overseas to accept the awards.

In 2007, the UBCVN began mutually supporting disenfranchised citizens through the Disenfranchised Relief Fund, helping those who had long petitioned the government on land issues.

And in order to eradicate what it does not approve of, the government began a well-worn campaign of using the press to cast aspersions on Do and the UBCVN.

Newspapers from Nhan Dan [The People] to Tuoi Tre [Youth] called Do “a religious exploiter” accusing him of “political opportunism,” “inciting the people,” being “on a mission of vengeance,”  and behaving like “an old dog who can’t learn new tricks.”

In the same year, during which he was banned from talking to the press, Thich Quang Do responded to Al-Jazeera through video: [35]

“We are prisoners in our own homeland, where the government decides who has the right to speak and who has to keep their mouths shut. Even at this very moment, I’m being held at the Thanh Minh Monastery in Saigon. Secret police tail me day and night, preventing me from moving freely.

I’ve been continuously repressed by the Communist regime since 1975. But I myself am not afraid of anything because I am fighting for what is right.

Today, we lack an opposition party and freedom of the press, independent religions are being cracked down upon, and anyone demanding political reform, democracy, or human rights could be subject to immediate arrest.

We must have political pluralism, the right to free elections, and the right to decide our political system […]. In sum, we must have the right to determine our future and our fate.”

In 2012, while he was meeting with the Australian ambassador in Vietnam, Thich Quang Do had expressed his views regarding the East Sea [South China Sea] problem:

“Vietnam has already lost a portion, an island in Hoang Sa [the Paracels], eight islands in Truong Sa [the Spratleys]. China just established the Tam Sa [Sansha] district center, setting up administrative and military bodies to control that region. […] For now, I only wish for Vietnam to democratize and then ally itself with the world’s democratic nations. […] As it stands right now, I don’t have any hope for Vietnam.” [36]

In 2011, Thich Quang Do became the fifth patriarch of the UBCVN but met with many difficulties in developing the UBCVN due to his house arrest at Thanh Minh Monastery:

“They [the government] have yet to cease discrimination and repression of the UBCVN. Thus, the church has struggled to conduct activities over the past 30 years. We can’t preach, we can’t open schools to teach. […] If they had an opportunity to completely do away with the church, they absolutely would.

For several decades, [I have been restricted to] a single room upstairs that I inhabit. […] Every two months, I go to the hospital, and that’s it. No one is allowed to come and go, and I can’t move freely either. When I go to the hospital, they [the police] follow.”

“As of now, I eat only one meal a day, which is brought up to me in the morning. There’s a chair outside my door that I leave my plates on after I finish eating. The kitchen will come up to take them away, and then they lock the metal gate. The stairs up to my room have a metal gate, just like a prison cell. It’s been like this for more than 20 years since I returned from the north.

I owe my residence here to Venerable Thich Thanh Minh’s pagoda […]. Since I left to join the monkhood some sixty years ago, I have lived thanks to the generosity of others. […] As of now, I only recite Buddhist scriptures to myself. I’m not allowed to pray for or preach to others; I can only recite to myself. They have stipulated this very clearly.” [37]

In mid-September 2018, exactly three months after American Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink came to visit him, Thich Quang Do was evicted from Thien Minh Monastery, staying at a number of pagodas before heading home to Thai Binh at 90 years of age:

“I returned to my hometown as an ostensible retreat, but if there were any small pagodas, I would recite Buddhist scriptures there. No matter what happens to the church, even if I die, I could never give it up.”

Not long after, Venerable Thich Quang Do, the fifth patriarch of the UBCVN, returned to HCMC at age 90 to continue his obstacle-plagued work of the church.

Two years later, at 9:30 PM on February 22, 2020, Venerable Thich Quang Do, the fifth patriarch of the UBCVN, took his last breath at Tu Hieu Pagoda; his painful endeavor for the Vietnamese homeland finally came to an end.

This article was written in Vietnamese by Tran Phuong and was previously published in Luat Khoa Magazine on March 1, 2020. The English translation was done by Will Nguyen.

*** In our previous version of this article, we have cited the 1979 report of Amnesty International on the death of Venerable Thich Thien Minh. However, upon our recent re-checking of the cited link, it is unfortunate that the link is no longer accessible. Therefore, we have changed the link to the copy of Amnesty International’s January 1979 newsletter. We apologize for this inconvenience.***

References:

[1] Thich Quang Do, Defiant Rights Champion in Vietnam.
[2] Assessments regarding the Vietnamese Communist Party’s mistakes towards the Nation and Vietnamese Buddhism, Thich Quang Do, written in 1992.
[3] Letter written to Do Muoi, Thich Quang Do, written in 1994.
[4] Thich Quang Do is appointed the new leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam.
[5] Brief biography of Elder Venerable Thich Quang Do (1928 – 2020), Sangha of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam.
[6] Vietnamese Buddhism Monthly Review #1, published by the Vietnamese Buddhist Federation.

[7] Brief biography of Elder Venerable Thich Quang Do (1928 – 2020), cited material.
[8] Vietnamese Buddhism Monthly Review #27 and #28, published by the Vietnamese Buddhist Federation.
[9] Vietnamese Buddhism’s Historic Struggle, Nam Thanh, published by the UBCVN Hoa Dao Institute in 1964. [10] Vietnamese Buddhism’s Historic Struggle cited material.
[11] Thich Quang Do is appointed the new leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, cited material.
[12] Brief biography of Elder Venerable Thich Quang Do (1928 – 2020), cited material.
[13] White paper on the divide between An Quang and the National Pagoda of Vietnam, written by Thich Tam Chau in 1993.
[14] White paper on the divide between An Quang and the National Pagoda of Vietnam cited material.
[15] Brief biography of Elder Venerable Thich Quang Do (1928 – 2020), cited material.
[16] Interview of Elder Venerable Thich Quang Do regarding the UBCVN over the past 40 years.
[17] Assessments regarding the Vietnamese Communist Party’s mistakes towards the Nation and Vietnamese Buddhism, Thich Quang Do, written in 1992.
[18] Amnesty International Newsletter January 1979. (1979, January 1). Amnesty International. https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/nws210011979en.pdf.
[19] Thich Quang Do is appointed the new leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, cited material.
[20] Amnesty International Report 1979, p.117, cited material.
[21] Thich Quang Do is appointed the new leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, cited material.
[22] Assessments regarding the Vietnamese Communist Party’s mistakes towards the Nation and Vietnamese Buddhism, Thich Quang Do, written in 1992.
[23] Letter written to Do Muoi, Thich Quang Do, written in 1994.
[24] Venerable Thich Don Hau’s will.
[25] In Vietnam, Monks Lead Protest to Repression.
[26] Letter written to Do Muoi, Thich Quang Do, written in 1994.

[27] Letter of truth Venerable Thich Quang Do sent to HCMC police.
[28] RFA interviews Venerable Thich Quang Do.
[29] Letter of truth Venerable Thich Quang Do sent to HCMC police.
[30] In the News Summer 2001, Tricycle.
[31] Venerable Thich Quang Do publicizes his call for democracy.
[32] Venerable Thich Quang Do’s call for democracy in Vietnam.
[33] Vietnam denounces Venerable Thich Huyen Quang.
[34] Vietnam backs down over monks.
[35] In My Review: Vietnam’s Buddhist Monk.
[36, 37] Australian ambassador visits Venerable Thich Quang Do.