Hòa Hảo
Hòa Hảo is a Vietnamese new religious movement.[1] It is described either as a syncretistic folk religion or as a sect of Buddhism. It was founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ (1920–1947), who is regarded as a saint by its devotees.[2] It is one of the major religions of Vietnam with between one million and eight million adherents, mostly in the Mekong Delta.
The religious philosophy of Hòa Hảo, which rose from the Miền Tây region of the Mekong Delta, is essentially Buddhist. It reforms[3][4] and revises the older Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương tradition of the region,[5] and possesses quasi-millenarian elements.[6] Hòa Hảo is an amalgam of Buddhism, ancestor worship, animistic rites, elements of Confucian doctrine, and the White Lotus religion, transformed and adapted to the mores and customs of the peasants of the region. Coming from the remote edges of Southern Vietnam, it opposes urban life and prefers a communitarian lifestyle. Unlike orthodox Buddhism, Hòa Hảo eschews elaborate rituals and temples, maintains no monastic order, and teaches home practice. It also advocates that each devotee can have direct communion with the Buddha, and that inner faith is more important than external rites. Regular Hòa Hảo rites are limited to four prayers a day, while the devotees are to maintain the Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues.
The influence of colonial overlords, the growing intensity of war from the late 1930s to the mid-1970s, and the attendant ideological conflicts all shaped the inception and later development of Hòa Hảo.[7] It was, along with Hồ Chí Minh's Việt Minh and another religious movement known as Cao Đài, one of the first groups to engage in military conflict with colonial powers, first the French and then the Japanese. Hòa Hảo flourished under the Japanese occupation of World War II, with its adherents largely being peasants, tenants, and agricultural workers. It transformed into a militant and nationalist religion, and rapidly developed into a private army that operated mainly for the benefit of its leaders, while setting up its own virtually autonomous government in the region. The Hòa Hảo remained an autonomous force in Vietnamese politics after the war, opposing both French colonialists and the Việt Minh movement.[1][8][9]
During the First Indochina War, disagreements with other major factions made the Hòa Hảo an aggressive religio-political-military cult. Sổ was kidnapped and executed by the Việt Minh while coming back from an unsuccessful conference to resolve issues with the Communists. Many Hoahaoists hailed him as a Messianic figure who would arrive in a time of crisis.[10] Sổ's death led to factionalism, parochialism, and outside organizational influence.[11] The Hòa Hảo led a war against the Communists, being labelled as the "strongest anti-Việt Minh element in the country".[12] Nevertheless, the Hòa Hảo, along with other religio-political organizations, dominated the political and social scene of Southern Vietnam by the 1950s, claiming a stake in the formation of a non-communist South Vietnam.[13] After 1954, the Hòa Hảo initiated armed opposition to President Ngô Đình Diệm's American-backed government. They controlled various southern and western regions of South Vietnam at the time of Diệm's death in 1963.[1] They then led a campaign against Việt Cộng for the defense of their home provinces during the Vietnam War, becoming a major autonomous political force in South Vietnam until the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Disbanded by the new government, the Hòa Hảo were oppressed and struggled for rights following the war. Only in 1999 were they officially recognized by the state, but the government imposes harsh controls on dissenting Hòa Hảo groups that do not follow the state-sanctioned branch.
The Hòa Hảo sought to preserve their religious identity and independence.[14] They made temporary alliances with past enemies. Originally concerned only with religious autonomy, the Hòa Hảo struggled against the French, the Japanese, the Việt Minh, again the French, the newly independent South Vietnam, the Việt Cộng, and the North Vietnamese Army. They enjoyed political influence during post-Diệm regimes of Saigon.
Designation[edit]
Name[edit]
Hòa Hảo is a new religious movement[1] and it was named after the founder Huỳnh Phú Sổ's native village of Hoa Hao[1] (Hòa Hảo;[2] Vietnamese: [ɗâːwˀ hwàː hâːw] ; Chữ Hán: 道和好; literally "peace and plenty"),[15] in what is now Thốt Nốt District of An Giang Province, Vietnam.[16] The name is also spelled as Hoa-Hao.[17] Another label, Hoahaoism,[18] is also rendered as Hoa Haoism.[19][20] It has also been called Hoa Hao Buddhism[2][21] (Phật Giáo Hòa Hảo).[22] The village of Hoa Hao was renamed Phú Mỹ by the contemporary Communist government.[23]
Initially, the followers of the movement were called Dao Xen, literally meaning the "Followers of Xen", in reference to Sổ's childhood nickname.[24]
Classification[edit]
The religious group[25] has been traditionally classified as a Buddhist[26][27] sect.[10][28][29][30] General Joseph Lawton Collins, who served as a U.S. Special Representative in Vietnam, described Hòa Hảo as a "pseudo-religious sect", adding that it "appealed to the peasants with a veneer of Buddhism and a protective paternalism".[12] Indeed, the American press of the 1950s labelled Hòa Hảo as "a pseudo-religious sect which follows a perverted form of Buddhism", and as "a rowdy sect of dissident Buddhists" whose founder "was sent to a lunatic asylum".[31]
Despite this, other sources refer to it as a distinct[32] syncretistic folk[33] religion.[1][34][35][36]
