Evading Vietnam Police, Monks Head Underground

December 31, 2009

Author: Ben Stocking

Source: Taiwan News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1145107&lang=eng_news

Followers of a famous Buddhist monk have abandoned the temple in southern Vietnam where they had sought sanctuary and are on the run from police, who have been pressuring them for months to break up their monastic community and return to their home villages.

The students of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who helped popularized Buddhism in the West and sold millions of books worldwide, slipped away from the Phuoc Hue temple under cover of darkness earlier this week, a spokeswoman for the monks and nuns said by telephone Thursday.

"There's no one left there," said Sister Natasha, speaking from the Plum Village monastery in southern France, where Nhat Hanh is based. "They've gone into hiding."

They departed just days before a Dec. 31 deadline set by Vietnam's communist government to vacate Phuoc Hue and return to their home provinces.