Vietnam’s dispute with Zen master turns violent
By BEN STOCKING (AP)

HANOI, Vietnam — Communist Vietnam’s sometimes edgy relationship with religious freedom is being tested in a dispute over a monastery inhabited by disciples of Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the world’s most famous Zen masters.

For four years, the Buddhist monks and nuns at Bat Nha monastery in central Vietnam have been quietly meditating and studying the teachings of the 82-year-old Vietnamese sage who is perhaps the world’s best-known living Buddhist after Tibet’s Dalai Lama.

But lately, they are in a standoff that could test the patience of even the most enlightened.

First, local authorities cut off their power, water and telephones.

Then, a mob descended on their compound with sledgehammers, smashing windows, damaging buildings and threatening occupants.

Communist authorities have ordered the 379 Vietnamese monks to leave the monastery in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. They say the standoff stems from disagreements between two Buddhist factions at the monastery.

But Hanh’s followers believe they are being punished because of Hanh’s praise for the Dalai Lama and his call to broaden religious freedom in Vietnam.

The affair represents a remarkable turnaround from four years ago, when France-based Hanh returned to his native land after 39 years of exile during which he developed a philosophy called “Engaged Buddhism” and sold more than a million books in the West.

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