Thích Quảng Độ

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Thích Quảng Độ , also Thich Quang Do , (born November 27, 1928 in Thái Bình province ; † February 22, 2020 in Ho Chi Minh City ) was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and human rights activist .

Life

Thich Quang Do was born in 1928 in the Thái Bình province in North Vietnam . At the age of 14 he became a monk. Three years later, he witnessed his religious master being beheaded by the popular revolutionary tribunal .

Political opposition

During his time in the leadership of the Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam (UBCV), Do became an activist who fought against the anti-Buddhist goals of Ngô hình Diệm . He was arrested and detained by the police on August 20, 1963, but was later released.

After Vietnam came under communist control in 1975, Dos UBCV was again undesirable. He was arrested again in April 1977 and sent to Phan Dang Luu Prison for protests against the government's actions. After 20 months in detention, he was released in December 1978.

In the same year he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Betty Williams and Mairead Maguire . When the government founded the Vietnamese Buddhist Church in 1982, which was also financially supported by the state and controlled by the Vietnamese Fatherland Front , Thich Quang Do protested again. He was then arrested again and taken to Vu Doai Village, where he lived in exile until 1992.

Since 2003 he has been living under house arrest in a monastery in Ho Chi Minh City.

Awards

In 2001 he received the Hellmann Hammet Prize for Persecuted Authors. In 2002, together with Thích Huyền Quảng and Nguyễn Văn Lý, he received the Homo-Homini Prize from the Czech organization People in Need , and in 2006 the Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize .

Among other things, he was nominated nine times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Individual evidence

  1. a b Human rights Thich Quang Do is dead. In: orf.at . February 23, 2020, accessed February 23, 2020.
  2. Press release from Radio Prague
  3. Winner of the Rafto Prize , on the Rafto Foundation website, accessed on April 22, 2018.