Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s second trip to Viet Nam in recent months is evidence that the country is a place of free and diverse religions.

Nguyen The Doanh, leader of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs said in an exclusive interview with Viet Nam News Agency.

“It is also proof of warm feeling among peers and compatriots, both at home and abroad,” he added.

“Wherever the foreign monks and nuns who travelled with Hanh went they were warmly welcomed by locals who shared with them everything, especially information about socio-economic development at home,” Doanh said.

This sends a message that the Vietnamese people encourage friendship, solidarity and peace from friends across the world, he emphasised.
Zen Master Hanh was accompanied by 50 Buddhist monks and nuns and 100 followers from different countries, who frequent the pagoda in Lang Mai, a Vietnamese village Monk Hanh has set up in France.

Doanh said although the delegation was such large and had an itinery that required time to travel around the country, they have always received strong support from local authorities to work with local clerics in practising their beliefs in line with the law and the Vietnamese Buddhist tradition.

They were provided with the best available conditions to visit whatever sites they were interested in, he confirmed.

He said the ease in which he was able to carry out his visit was proof of an open policy on religion.

“The Government policy on freedom of religion has been well promulgated not only among the religious population but also in the entire society to make it highly respected and strictly observed,” Doanh said.

He added that the strong enforcement of the Government policy in favour of religious freedom has been widely recognised by both domestic religious sects and the public at large.

But the Government official expressed regret that part of the overseas Vietnamese community was still lacking information about religious freedom inside the country.

It is our duty to broadcast further this information abroad, he stressed.

Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and his delegation have been in Viet Nam from Feb. 20 and will remain until May 9 at the invitation of the International Buddhist Department under the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha.

Their agenda includes a Mai village-styled Zen training course, workshops on Buddhism and Buddhist culture and tours of beauty spots and famous sites of religious and cultural interests in all parts of the country.

The delegation and the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha are expected to organise a Phuong Boi ceremony at the Bat Nha Buddhist seminary in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. They will also co-sponsor prayers for atonement in all the three regions, at the Vinh Nghiem Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh city, Dieu De Pagoda in the central coastal town of Hue and the Non Pagoda and the Viet Nam Buddhist Insititute in Ha Noi.

The delegation is scheduled to arrive in Ha Noi on April 16, making the northern stage of their tour.--

VNA