THE NGUYEN DYNASTY’S POLICY TOWARDS BUDDHISM - ORIGIN OF THE BUDDHIST REVIVAL MOVEMENT IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract

Early in the twentieth century, along with many political, social and cultural happenings in the religious life of Viet Nam, there appeared the Buddhist revival movement, which originated in the South but quickly became a widespread, intensive and powerful trend on a nationwide scale. This movement grew into a driving force and a lever for the development of Buddhism in Viet Nam. There were many grounds for the birth of this movement, of which the Nguyen Dynasty’s policy towards Buddhism was always regarded as the deepest roots. Hence this paper is to focus on clarifying the contents, the impact of the state on Buddhism itself as well as on the contemporary society, thereby elucidating the origin of this significant movement