2005
February – Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh returned to Vietnam with the government’s blessing, aged 80 after 39 years of exile. He had been banned from returning to Vietnam in 1966 after visiting the U.S. and Europe on a peace mission to call for an end the Vietnam war. That same year he was nominated for the Nobel peace prize by Martin Luther King. During his time in exile Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh became one of the most well-known Buddhist teachers in the West, and a best-selling author of over 80 books. He has been credited with bringing Buddhism to a new audience through his accessible teachings on mindfulness, his engaged Buddhism, eloquent writings and public retreats in the US, Europe and many countries in Asia. In 1982 he founded Plum Village, a practice center in South West France, as a haven for Vietnamese refugees, and base for his continued work to support political prisoners and hungry families in Vietnam. This has now grown to become one of the biggest and most active Buddhist meditation centers in the West.
His return visit to Vietnam, January -April 2005, raised hopes for a new era of religious freedom in the country. Thousands came to meet him on his arrival at the airport; thousands attended his dharma talks and retreats in the North, Centre and South. And during the visit a new wave of young people were inspired to become monastics and to practice meditation according to the Plum Village tradition.
During this trip Ven. Duc Nghi, before a crowd of thousands of people, offered his Bat Nha monastery in Lam Dong Province to Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh and his followers. At the time there were about 80 young aspirants wishing to ordain as monks and nuns in Nhat Hanh’s tradition.
Immediately 2005 large donations began to be made from Plum Village and foreign followers of Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh to fund the development of the Bat Nha site and the living expenses of the young monks, nuns and aspirants. It is estimated that their investment in Bat Nha monastery and its sangha between 2005-9 totalled approximately one million dollars. Money was invested in buying additional lands and constructing new residential and service buildings, including a large meditation hall (capacity 1,800).
These works were driven simply by the sheer numbers of young people flocking to Bat Nha. The new monastery attracted mainly young people, between 18-25, many of whom had university diplomas and successful careers before choosing a path of meditation and service. Many of them had to endure cramped and challenging living conditions in the years it took for the basic infastructure to be built around them.
2007
Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh meets President Minh Triet
Spring – Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh visited Vietnam for the second time, and met with the President of Vietnam.
During the meeting, Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh made some suggestions that he thought would help improve the relations of the country domestically and diplomatically. He prepared a ten-point proposal that included a suggestion to dissolve the religious police and the religious affairs bureau over a five or six years’ period.
During this visit the Plum Village Delegation organized three large requiem masses to be held in the North, Centre and South of Vietnam, to bring healing to the suffering of the war. And Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh presided over great ordination ceremonies for novices, bhiksus and bhiksunis, and Dharma Teachers.
Several months after his return to France, Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh published in the Plum Village newsletter the 10-point proposal he had made to the President in the Spring. This apparently upset the Vietnamese government [see internal memo: 1329 – Document F].
2008
March – The Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh and his delegation led a retreat in Italy. In an interview with the press, The Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh publicly stated his support for the Dalai Lama and Tibet. This caused a strong reaction from the Chinese government. They, in turn, pressured the Vietnamese government not to allow TNH to return to Vietnam.
May – Nevertheless, The Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh was invited to Vietnam for a third time, at the invitation of the organizers of the UNESCO Vesak conference held in Vietnam.
August - Claiming they represented the abbot Ven. Duc Nghi, local police issued a statement, that was not based on any kind of legal process, demanding all 379 monks and nuns living in Bat Nha leave. The monks and nuns refused, maintaining they were legally resident, and that the police had no right to demand they leave. They continued to practice and organize retreats, but police began to harass them. They visited frequently to check identification papers and demanded they sign a paper declaring that they were living there illegally. The monastics refused to sign the papers and maintained their calm.
From this time, the immigration service of Vietnam refused to grant visas to Vietnamese-born Plum Village Dharma Teachers of non-Vietnamese citizenship. These Dharma teachers were thus unable to return to teach the now-hundreds of monks and nuns ordained at Bat Nha Monastery since 2005. The visa service office at the Vietnamese Embassy in France even canceled the five-year visas previously given to two Plum Village sisters to visit Vietnam.
September -Venerable Duc Nghi, the abbot of Bat Nha, was recorded as saying, in the presence of many high monks during two separate formal meetings, that the authorities had pressured him to stop sponsoring the Plum Village monks and nuns.
September 22- three monastic disciples of Ven. Duc Nghi, the abbot of Bat Nha, led a group of 20 men to Bat Nha to ransack one of the five residences of monks and aspirant-monks and throw their belongings outside. The executive committee of the Lam Dong Province branch of the Buddhist Church of Viet Nam (BCVN) came to the scene and reprimanded the attackers.
October 13 - the Executive Committee of the Lam Dong Province BCVN met and agreed to sponsor and permit the 379 monastic and lay practitioners to stay and practice at the monastery [see 188BTS – Document H].
October 29 – the central government’s Religious Affairs Committee issued a document accusing Thich Nhat Hanh of distorting Vietnam’s religious policies, and stated that the monastic and lay practitioners at Bat Nha no longer had any legal rights to stay at Bat Nha and must leave. [see 1329-TGCP-PG - Document F]
Since then, the ‘religious police’ have used unpleasant tactics to harass the monastic and lay practitioners in order to pressure them to leave. For example: trying to persuade parents of monastics to call their sons and daughters back home; offering incentives for monks and nuns to go to practice at other temples; performing frequent searches at the monastery, treating the residents like “illegal residents”; accusing them of involvement in political activities; pressuring them to stop holding retreats or monthly public meditation days at the monastery; and trying to prevent members of the public from coming to the monastery.
2009
June 23 – Thich Dong Hanh, a disciple of Thich Duc Nghi, burned and destroyed several huts that belong to the nuns.
June 27 - all electricity, water, and telephone services to the residential buildings were cut. The monastics had to collect rain water for drinking and to use the water from the stream for bathing and washing clothes, etc. The polluted water gave many of them infections. Many people in local areas and adjacent cities brought in water and food supplies.
June 28 – 29 - First Attack: a mob of about 200 people attacked the monastery. Local police, both in uniform and in civilian clothes, were there but did not intervene; yet they video-taped the scene. The executive committee of the Buddhist Church of Lam Dong came to assess the situation and was also attacked. Ven. Thich Thai Thuan, official Buddhist representative of Bảo Lộc and a vice-director of the BCVN’s executive committee, had to be hospitalized. People were prohibited from coming to help – a delegation of 5 buses was stopped and attacked with rocks and the excrement of animals and humans.
July 5 - about 400 people arrived at the monastery, having been told that they were being brought to a retreat. Upon arrival they were presented with sickles and metal bars, and told to attack the resident monks and nuns. The monks and nuns, who had been warned of this attack, gathered in their respective meditation halls, began to practice sitting meditation and invoking the name of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara of Compassion and Deep Listening. In fact, only about 20 people did carry hostile banners, shout, and threaten the monastics. The others were shocked by the turn of events, bowed, cried, and refused to comply with the order.
August 13 - Mr. Le Dung, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, announced that the 379 monastics must leave Bat Nha Monastery by September 2, 2009.
September 7 – The Office of the People’s Committee in Bảo Lộc Province issued a memo ordering all police, officials, associations and co-operatves to act against the monks and nuns of Plum Village [see 789 UBND – Document D].
September 27 – Eviction: About 150 people armed with sticks and hammers descended on Bat Nha Monastery, breaking down doors and forcing entry. Plain-clothes police were known to be amongst the mob; uniformed police blocked all roads of access. The mob violently evicted the 379 monastics.
When the attack started, the brothers immediately sat down and started to chant, wearing their sanghatis (formal saffron robes) as a non violent response. They made no attempt to defend themselves. The mob attacked the monks, beating them up. Some women approached the monks, touching their genitals, forcing them to move to avoid the contact.
The mob singled out the two most senior monks, Phap Hoi and Phap Sy, dragging them in their sanghatis, across the concrete into the torrential rain outside. They were beaten and abducted. They were detained by police without proper charges, and their official documents confiscated. They are now under house arrest in Hanoi and Nha Trang respectively.
The mob violently forced all monks and aspirants from the building. Each was body-searched and all cameras and mobile phones confiscated – depriving them of the only means of contact with the world outside (phone lines to the monastery having been cut since June). The monks’ few possessions were flung from all three floors into the courtyard below. Some were marched up to 15 kilometers away from the monastery towards Bảo Lộc town, being subjected to kicks and blows if they fell.
The remaining 50 monks were forcefully herded into the back of a construction truck and 3 taxis. One young monk was throttled; another young aspirant was bleeding from blows inflicted. They were then dumped in various locations around the town of Bảo Lộc.
The violent mob then moved onto the sisters’quarters, smashing down the doors and violently evicting all residents from one of the buildings. These sisters were force-marched down hill out of the monastery; some slipped in the rain and were beaten where they fell. The mob was unable to enter the second sisters’ building; and at nightfall left, threatening to return the next day with greater force. The sisters all left early the next morning.
After being evicted and scattered around the locality, the brothers and sisters were offered sanctuary by the abbot of Chùa Phước Huệ in the town of Bảo Lộc, and reassembled there. This is where they are now.
September 28 – About a 100 police surrounded the temple and threatened Venerable Thai Thuan, abbot of Phước Huệ temple, claiming he had no right to offer sanctuary to the Bat Nha monks and nuns. They demanded he surrender them. The abbot resisted.
September 29 – Police presence increased to approx. 200 uniformed and plain-clothes officers. Threats against the abbot intensified. They attacked his reputation in thousands of flyers distributed throughout the town, and denounced him in looped broadcasted transmitted on local radio and throughout the loud-speakers on town-centre streets and in the schools. Officers even threatened to repeat at Chùa Phước Huệ temple the violence and destruction they inflicted at Bat Nha if they did not comply. This campaign of intimidation culminated in a demand that he surrender 15 monks and nuns. Under this extreme pressure, the abbot surrendered 15 monks and nuns. They were given into police custody at midnight, and were taken 200 kilometers away to Saigon.
September 30 – Under continued pressure from police, a further 10 monks and nuns were given into police custody
THE CURRENT SITUATION
The Bat Nha monks and nuns have become religious refugees within their own country. They continue to be crowded into the small town-centre temple, Phước Huệ. There they peacefully assert their fundamental human right to stay together as a community.
But the conditions there are unsustainable. Police persecution continues. Plainclothed police are swarming the temple, monitoring all movements of the monks, nuns and visitors. The 15 or so most senior monastics are being shadowed in every movement by one or even two informants. Police continue to harass and obstruct those bringing food and clothing to the temple. Anyone who stops in the vicinity of the temple is being stopped and questioned.
Living conditions in Phước Huệ are difficult to bear. Sanitary facilities are minimal (normally only 4 or 5 people reside at the temple); many are already sickening. These monks and nuns are subjected to unrelenting psychological pressure with the specific intention of breaking them down and thus disbanding them.
