Thích Quảng Độ

Thích Quảng Độ (born 27 November 1928) is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and patriarch of the Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam, a currently banned religious body in Vietnam. In 2002, he was awarded the Homo Homini Award for human rights activism by the Czech group People In Need, which he shared with Thích Huyền Quang and Thadeus Nguyễn Văn Lý.

Thích Quảng Độ was born in the Thái Bình Province of North Vietnam, at 14 he became a monk. At age 17 he witnessed his religious master executed by the revolutionary People’s Tribunal.

While a member of the leadership of the UBCV, Thích Quảng Độ became an activist, fighting against the anti-Buddhist policies of Ngo Dinh Diem. After a police raid of Buddhist monasteries in Hue and Saigon, Quảng Độ was arrested on August 20, 1963. He and thousands of other Buddhists endured torture and persecution while imprisoned by the Diem government. As a result of imprisonment, Độ struggled with tuberculosis before having a lung operation.

In 1975 Vietnam was under communist control, and the UBCV was once again unwelcome in Vietnam. As a result, the UBCV facilities were seized, and documents burned. Quảng Độ was active in protesting the governments actions, and after attempting to gather Buddhists from other regions in non-violent opposition, he was arrested on charges of anti-revolutionary activities and undermining national solidarity. He spent 20 months at the Phan Dang Luu Prison in solitary confinement, before he was trialed and released in December, 1978. Later that year he was nominated by Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1982 the Vietnamese Government created a Buddhist alternative, called the Vietnam Buddhist Church, which was state sponsored and controlled by the Vietnam Fatherland Front. Because of Quảng Độ's opposition to the new church, he was again jailed. Quảng Độ would spend the next 10 years in exile in the village of Vu Doai.

...
Wikipedia