Meeting with remarkable women in Vietnam.

Lisi Ha Vinh (Chan Dai Kieu)

To describe the situation of Buddhist women in today's Vietnam, one has to look back at the changes this country has been going through, and is still going through, as much in the very recent past, as in the past centuries.

Individual and collective destinies are interwoven in a very concrete way through historical events. Also, the destiny of women is very much linked to the political, cultural and social changes a society is going through.

Vietnam for sure has been in the heart of radical and brutal changes for quite some time.

Buddhist women confronted with these changes, brought about a very specific, socially engaged Vietnamese Buddhism.

Of course I can only share some of the complex situations and destinies these women had to face and also only some of the "streams of Buddhism" in this country that has a very wide spread cultural and religious history.

Buddhism came to Vietnam directly from India, from the first centuries of the. Christian era on. Indian merchant ships brought along with them, Buddhist monks, as much as to protect their perilous journey, as to dispel the new Buddhist doctrine to the countries they were travelling to.

Indian and Chinese influence are very present in Vietnamese Buddhism. This whole area has long time been called, Indochina because of these two big cultural streams that have come together in this part of Asia.

But of course Chinese influence has been very strong through 1000 years of Chinese domination. (from the IIIrd to the Xth century AC)

During this time 2 historical feminine figures, the Trung Sisters (4th AC) have greatly influenced Vietnamese women, as they had conquered the Chinese oppressors and had declared themselves queens and had established an independent country for two years.

Until now they are worshiped through festivals that take place every year. Every city of Vietnam has a street "Hai Ba Trung" (the two Trung sisters), or a monument in their memory.

Politically and socially engaged women certainly have in the two Trung sisters their ancestral models. Throughout Vietnamese history you can find politically engaged women or even women in the battlefields, in all different periods.

Since the XVIth century the European merchants came to Vietnam and in 1884 Vietnam became a French colony.

Christian influence became very strong during this period and until now the Christian community is representing 8% of the population. It is a very active community in which the religious identity plays an important role.

Many Christians have later fled the Communist North and have settled in the South. When crossing such "Christian villages" one is impressed to see every morning, before school or work time, the whole village gathering to go to the daily mass. The girls in their white dress, the boys with white shirts and dark trousers, men and women all together, a few hundred per village, in a fervent religious procession towards their often very big and impressive church.

It was also very much the Christian monastic Orders that introduced a certain kind of social work. It was the Catholic nuns who were active in the schools, orphanages, worked with the lepers, handicapped people and with the poor.

Until now the religious vocations are very much alive and many young Vietnamese women chose to become Christian nuns, even though it is not at all encouraged by the government.

The anti-colonial war against the French ended with the famous Dien Bien Phu battle in 1954 and was followed by the sadly well known "Vietnam War" with the US.

The war ended in 1975 with the entering of Saigon by the northern communist troops.

French Colonialism, Communism, War and now Economic Globalisation all these tremendous changes and challenges have influenced the lives of the Vietnamese people, of the Vietnamese women.

Women and children always are the first victims of War. Women are also those who maintain coherence, a social tissue, traditions, family bonds, in a time of destruction and deconstruction. While the men are on battlefields it is the women who maintain the social life of a society. Who is looking after the children, teaching them, who is looking after the old people, the sick and the wounded people? Who is maintaining the family and the religious traditions? Who is honouring the deceased? It is in great parts the women of a country in war.

During the Vietnam War, many young Buddhists felt the need for action and the need to relieve the suffering they were confronted with in such an extreme way.

Thich Nhat Hanh founded it in 1964, the school for youth and social service, where many young women and men travelled their country during the rages of war to come and help where ever help was needed without any political or religious discrimination. They proposed "the third way", neither communist, nor pro American. Many got killed, wounded or were persecuted and for those who survived not to hate or take sides became a real practice of every day.

Sister Chan Khong describes this very movingly in her book: Learning True Love (Parallax Press, Berkley, 1993)....

Thich Nhat Hanh had written a poem for the social workers going in the dangerous war zones where they risked their jives every day to help them to prepare themselves to die without hate.

Thich Nhat Hanh lives in exile since 1964.

The war is over since quite some time now. After some years of extreme isolation and poverty, Vietnam is recovering economically and opening politically.

My husband, who is partly of Vietnamese origin and myself, have started coming back to Vietnam since 1982. The country was still extremely poor and the wounds of war were visible everywhere.

We were very fortunate to meet some of the members of the School of Youth and Social Service that have maintained their social actions through all these terrible times.

For many the end of war did not mean the end of hardship as the communist government was keeping all religiously inspired action under strict control.

Now that the economic situation of the country is certainly improving, there is also. a certain political opening and more freedom of action is possible.

During all these years of our "humanitarian work" in Vietnam, I was extremely impressed and moved by the wonderful women, I had the chance to meet.

My first "meeting with a remarkable woman", which was also the meeting that started our commitment to our humanitarian work in Vietnam, was the meeting with a catholic sister in Hue, during an official presentation of the situation of the lepers in central Vietnam. This meeting took place in the town hall of the city of Hue in the presence of many "officials" who made long speeches, in Vietnamese, that I could not understand and that seemed endless to me. I started to look around and my eyes met with those of a catholic sister sitting opposite from me. We started smiling to each other. We smiled "back and forth' until my cheeks started hurting from so much smiling! At the end of the meeting we fell into each other's arms, knowing that we have found a sister of heart in each other.

This sister worked together with a Buddhist nun, with the very poor families of lepers. Through her our first "humanitarian" action was inspired, in helping these poor families and their children.

During all these years I met so many courageous women, who through all these years of terrible hardship continued their social work and kept their inner practice alive on the soil of the suffering of their land and people.

I once asked one of the Buddhiat nuns with whom we work in Vietnam, who has been ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh during the war period, why she never thought of marrying and having a family. She answered that having seen all the suffering her country was facing, she knew that she wanted to give her whole life to. the relief of suffering of her people. She also knew that a husband or mother in law, or if she had children, her children, would not make it possible for her, to walk from morning till night through the countryside bringing relief to the poor and wounded and devoting her life to meditation. She now, besides her enormous charity work, runs a school for mentally disabled children and youngsters. Her young novices are being trained next to their Buddhist training, in special education at the University.

Another Buddhist nun, who's monastery is located in a very often flooded area and who lately counted many dead in her district after a big flood, had risked her life rescuing many people. She described the undeterred conviction that her life would be consecrated to meditation, practice and social action. She now has a vocational training centre with 60 youngsters of poor families and a few disabled youngsters that receive training in sowing and embroidery. The nuns teach part time and look after the young people on a human level.

These nuns still now travel the poor country side, bringing food, caring' for the sick and disabled, listening to the suffering of the people, where ever their presence is needed.

Truly Quan Am (the Bodhisattva of Compassion) is present in them.

In the Vietnamese Mahayana tradition the nuns receive the full Bhiksuni ordination which gives them a very respected and fully acknowledged recognition in the Buddhist hierarchy. There are many very well known and respected nuns, throughout the country.

Vietnamese Buddhist Women have been confronted with such challenges that demanded choices that have nothing to do with "comfortable and secure" tradition. Being a nun or a practising Buddhist woman in today's Vietnam is still a courageous statement.

In the new society that is striving after money and western style success, doing social work or to devote one's life to inner practice is not regarded as very "modern". Also the government, who on one hand allows a. certain religious freedom, but on the other hand wants to keep all initiative .under control, brings about many restrictions and a lack of freedom of action.

But quietly and bravely these women follow Quan Am's footsteps, listening carefully to the suffering of the world and trying to bring comfort and healing through their presence and their practice.

Recommendation

Promise me,

Promise me this day,

Promise me now.

While the sun Is overhead

Exactly at the zenith,

Promise me

Even as they

Strike you down

With a mountain of hate and violence;

Even as They step on you and rush you

Like a warm.

Even as they dismember and disembowel you.

Remember, brother,

Man is not your enemy.

The only thing worthy at you is compassion-

Invincible, limitless; unconditional.

Hatred. will never let you face

The beast in man

One day, when you face the beast alone.

With your courage intact, your eyes kind.

Untroubled

(even as no one sees them),

Out of your smile

Will bloom a newer.

And those who love you

Will behold you

Across ten thousand worlds at birth and dying.

Alone again,

I will go on with bent head,

Knowing that love has become eternal.

On the long, rough road,

The sun and the moan

Will continue to shine.