No peace for Thich Khong TanhBULLDOZERS are idling outside the Lien Tri Pagoda, a complex of yellow buildings near the Saigon River. Officials plan to destroy it and fill this sparsely populated district of Ho Chi Minh City with skyscrapers. One property firm calls the area the “Pudong of Saigon”, referring to a glittering riverside district of Shanghai. But the pagoda’s chief monk, Thich Khong Tanh, is not so enthusiastic. He is fighting eviction.
Mr Tanh says the lure of profits is not the only reason the authorities would like his pagoda to vanish; it is not officially sanctioned by the Communist Party and is a sanctuary for political dissidents, former prisoners of conscience and disabled veterans who fought for the former South Vietnamese regime. Officials “want to isolate and control us,” he says. “But moving means isolation, so the monks here don’t want to move.”
About 24m of Vietnam’s 90m people identify with a religious faith; Buddhism and Catholicism are the most popular. But the party has always viewed religion warily, in part because three of its former foes—the French, the...Continue reading
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