FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Viet American Business Group (VABG) coordinates with VAC/NORCAL brings its FIRST annual free HOI TET TRUNG THU also known as Children Moon Festival to the Bay Area public. San Jose, CA, June 17, 2008 -- Viet-American Business group (VABG) and Vietnamese American Community of Northern California are pleased to announce the first annual HOI TET TRUNG THU also known as Children Moon Festival with the collaboration of VOVINAM, VIETNAMESE AMERISIAN, VIETNAMESE WOMEN OVERSEAS OF NORTHERN CA., BOYSCOUT, ROTC .. This free event will take place on Saturday September 13, 2008, from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm, at Cesar Chavez Park in downtown San Jose. Over 10,000 people are expected to attend this year. The Festival aims to share the rich cultural facets of the Vietnamese tradition with the greater Bay Area community. It also serves as an enrichment opportunity for our youth and their families. We have a full program, featuring ethnic dances, talent and karaoke contests, lion dances, martial arts demonstrations, traditional arts & crafts, and bilingual story time, culminating in a night time lantern procession. On stage entertainment including magic show. For the younger set, we offer face painting, balloon animal, and many different contests. This event has made possible in the past by the generous support of the following: Wells Fargo Bank, First 5 Santa Clara, Telepacket, State Farm Insurance, Bank of America, Children Discovery Museum, Tech Museum. What: 2008 Children Moon Festival Where: Cesar Chavez Park, downtown San Jose, CA When: Saturday, September 13, 2008, 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm Raffle tickets: Prizes include 2 round trip tickets to Hawaìi and many more. FREE ADMISSION About VAC/NORCAL VAC/NORCAL is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in San Jose, CA. Its goals are to preserve and promote Vietnamese culture, and to cultivate the next generation of leaders. Contact: Van Le – Coordinator (408) 489-5249.   more »

Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger asking for veto of SB1322, which eliminates the provision permitting a school employee to be dismissed if he or she is a knowing member of the Communist Party. Letter from the Vietnamese Community of Southern California follows, asking the Governor for veto. Notice of meeting in Westminster on issue (Vietnamese). Letter asking for veto from the Association of Former Vietnamese Political Prisoners of Southern California.    more »

HOUSTON, 17th August 2008 (IBIB) – At a ceremony marking the 49th day of the death of Supreme Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam held in Houston, Texas today, leaders of the Overseas UBCV made public the late Patriarch’s last will and testament in which he appoints the Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, currently UBCV Deputy leader, as the new Head of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. The ceremony should have been held at Nguyen Thieu Monastery in Binh Dinh where the late Patriarch is buried, but pressures and travel restrictions on the UBCV leadership made this impossible. The UBCV then planned to hold it in Saigon. However, over the past few days, Security Police have surrounded all key UBCV Pagodas including the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery where Thich Quang Do resides, the UBCV Secretariat at Giac Hoa Pagoda etc. Unable to hold the ceremony in Vietnam, UBCV leaders finally decided to smuggle a copy of the testament to Houston, Texas, where a parallel memorial ceremony is being held by the Overseas UBCV at the Phap Luan Pagoda. The testament was made public today before a gathering of Buddhist monks, nuns and lay-Buddhists from all over the USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. In his will, written on 17.1.2005 after a long period of illness and hospitalisation, Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang wrote: “During my long decades in detention and house arrest, I have experienced loneliness and isolation. But l have faced them with serenity, and never felt discouraged... Long years without medical care have left my body weak, and I now suffer from so many illnesses. But this is the law of impermanence, and as a monk, it does not worry me. What pains me most is that I will not live to see my life-long wish fulfilled – the re-establishment of the right to existence of the UBCV”.” Feeling his health failing, “like a candle in the wind”, Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang left his last wishes to members of the Supreme Bicameral Council (the Institute of the Sangha and the Institute for the Dissemination of the Dharma (Vien Hoa Dao), the UBCV’s Executive Institute), exhorting them to complete the following tasks after his death : (a) “By all possible ways and means, you must re-establish the legitimate status of the independent, traditional Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, and achieve the unification of Buddhist schools and sects from all over Vietnam, just as our forefathers did under the Dinh dynasty. Buddhist unification must be undertaken by Buddhist clergy and lay-followers alone – no one can do it in their place: (b) I confer upon Most Venerable Thich Quang Do, currently Head of the Institute for the Dissemination of the Dharma, the title of Supreme Patriarch, with full powers to manage and direct the UBCV’s affairs ; (c) The Overseas Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam [based in California, with sections all over the world] “should develop the role of Vietnamese Buddhism in the collective effort to build a peaceful world in face of global terrorism”. Also, “the International Buddhist Information Bureau [the UBCV’s information arm] should maintain and expand its efforts to inform the international community and mobilise support” for the repressed UBCV. Mr. Vo Van Ai, the UBCV International spokesman declared: “The appointment of Most Venerable Thich Quang Do as UBCV leader marks the beginning of a new phase in relations between the government and the UBCV. The death of Patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and the conflict over his funeral underscore the strong international support enjoyed by the UBCV, as well as its capacity, leadership and determination to engage non-violent resistance against government repression”, he said. “The UBCV is Vietnam’s largest civil society movement, and it could play a positive role in the country’s spiritual, social, cultural and economic development. Hanoi should cease treating the UBCV as its enemy, and seize this occasion to recognize the leadership of Thich Quang Do and re-establish the legitimate status of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam. At a time when Vietnam’s sovereignty is threatened from the outside, and its economy is in crisis within, this is an opportunity for Vietnam to rally the energies and talents of all its citizens to build a prosperous and democratic Vietnam”. A complete life history and bibliographic citations of the new UBCV leader the Venerable Thich Quang Do is included which describes his struggle to maintain the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam while under continuous surveillance and restricted movements from his Pagoda since 1975, when the Communist country North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and established control by force. Thich Quang Do has been nominated 9 times for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2008, he was proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize by 60 Members of the European Parliament, 67 Italian MPs, members of the US Congress and academics. In 2003, Thich Quang Do was honoured by the Czech “People in Need Foundation” under the auspices of former President Vaclav Havel with the Homo Homini Award in recognition of his “outstanding merits in promoting human rights, democracy, and the non-violent resolution of political conflicts”. In 2001 and 2008, he received the Hellman-Hammet Award for persecuted writers. Thich Quang Do is adopted by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, and is an honorary member of PEN Clubs in Germany, France and Sweden. He was declared a victim of arbitrary detention by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Opinion 21, 2.12.1997 and Opinion 18/2005). The Vietnamese announcement is attached in pdf.   more »

Kính thưa liệt quý Vị, Thời gian qua, Phòng Thông tin Phật giáo Quốc tế có chuyển về Viện chúng tôi những Thư Phân ưu mà quý vị Nhân sĩ, Lãnh đạo Tôn giáo, Đại diện các Đoàn thể và Đồng bào các giới ngỏ lời chia buồn Giáo hội chúng tôi sau khi Đức cố Đệ tứ Tăng thống Thích Huyền Quang viên tịch. Chúng tôi chân thành tri ân liệt quý Vị quan tâm nhớ tưởng. Chúng tôi hiểu rằng ngoài sự chia buồn trước mất mát lớn của Giáo hội chúng tôi, liệt quý Vị còn muốn chia sẻ mối quan tâm đối với ước vọng của Đức cố Tăng thống Thích Huyền Quang trước hiện tình đất nước, con người Việt và đời sống tâm linh của dân tộc đang bị uy hiếp. Một ước vọng đã biến thành hành động qua suốt cuộc đời Ngài, rõ nhất là 33 năm qua, mà giờ đây Giáo hội chúng tôi có bổn phận kế thừa thực hiện để báo đền công đức của Ngài. Nhân danh Ban Chỉ đạo Viện Hóa Đạo và Hội đồng Lưỡng Viện Giáo hội Phật giáo Việt Nam Thống nhất, tôi xin gửi lời cảm tạ đến quý liệt vị đã có lời phân ưu. Lẽ ra thư cảm tạ phải gửi sớm hơn. Nhưng vì tôi vừa về lại Saigon sau mấy tuần lễ lo tang lễ cùng Phật sự của Giáo hội. Kính mong quý vị thông cảm. Thanh Minh Thiền viện, Saigon ngày 6.8.2008 TM. Hội đồng Lưỡing Viện GHPGVNTN Viện trưởng Viện Hóa Đạo, (ấn ký) Sa môn Thích Quảng Độ   more »