Trúc Lâm Buddhism in Vietnam

Download or read book Trúc Lâm Buddhism in Vietnam written by Laura Thuy-Loan Nguyen and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-13 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the thirteenth century, King-Monk Trần Nhân Tông founded the Trúc Lâm Thiền (Chan/Zen) sect. During the Golden Age in Vietnamese Buddhist history, the sect flourished under three patriarchs with renowned Thiền masters. Unfortunately, the Trúc Lâm sect faded over the following centuries, and Thiền Buddhism in Vietnam, for the most part, disappeared. In the late twentieth century, a growing new religious movement led by Thích Thanh Từ, a Pure Land monk, called for a restoration of Trúc Lâm Thiền Buddhism. Who is Thích Thanh Từ? How and why did he choose to revive this particular sect and its emancipation practices? Trúc Lâm currently boasts hundreds of monasteries and thousands of monks and nuns in Vietnam and beyond, but how have the forces of modernity influenced its original traditions? Through existing literature and extensive onsite fieldwork, this book analyzes the history and revival of a forgotten Buddhist sect and examines the movement’s reform.