Joy and Words of Caution Mix on Buddha’s Birthday

As a giant drum beat, golden-robed monks from around the world lifted carriages containing figures of Buddha and sacred relics, including a piece of Buddha’s bone, to their shoulders. Other monks, more than 200, carried saffron-colored umbrellas or bowed shaven heads in prayer in a stately procession to celebrate the 2,543rd birthday of Buddha.

An estimated 25,000 Vietnamese Americans gathered at Santa Ana College on Sunday to join the celebration, watching traditional dances, listening to songs and paying homage to the figure who embraced compassion and wisdom as keys to life.

But this year, event organizers, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam Overseas, seized the chance to tell those gathered about restrictions on religious freedom in Vietnam.

Interspersed among performances, monks updated the crowd about the Vietnamese government’s increasingly tight clamp on religious rights.

Slowly, said the Venerable Thich Minh Dung, a monk who fled Vietnam in 1985, the government has been enacting more laws and taking more religious freedom away from the people.

Dung and other speakers told the crowd about progress made over the weekend in North Hills in San Fernando Valley, where 209 Buddhist monks met to coordinate and reorganize the church’s campaign. It was the first time church leaders from around the world

had met in 22 years.

At the meeting, plans were made to launch an underground Buddhist newspaper in Vietnam and organize a network between the different offices of the group, which have been relatively autonomous so far, organizers said.

“This is the beginning of a new turning point for religious freedom in Vietnam and the restoration of the Unified Buddhist Church in Vietnam,” said Penelope Faulkner, vice president of Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, one of the organizing groups for the event.

Faulkner and other organizers said they want to make the fight for religious freedom in Vietnam as well-known as the Dalai Lama’s campaign to free Tibet. If the Buddhist group can gain international support, they said, it will pressure Vietnamese leaders to allow more religious freedom.

Sunday, some of those gathered said the group has made a good start.

Though many people shared in the festive atmosphere, taking pictures around a huge, colorfully painted Buddha figure and browsing through Buddhist CDs at booths, they also took note of the news from Vietnam.

“Everyone is aware something is going on, but their knowledge is vague,” said Danny Tran, a Santa Ana engineer and member of the Vietnamese Youth Buddhist Assn. “Here, the emphasis is on celebration, but now people can also find out the conditions there and possibly help.”

But to some the troubles in Vietnam seemed far off on a day that for many symbolizes hope and new beginnings.

“It’s like Christmas for Christians,” said Eddie Nguyen, 15, of Santa Ana. “It’s a happy day.”

As part of tradition, Nguyen said, he would forgo eating meat Sunday to show respect for living creatures, as Buddha did.

Added his friend, 16-year-old Anthony Nguyen: “To me it’s a very important day. I will meditate a lot so spiritually I will be able to sense what [Buddha] is feeling inside.”