Constructing a Buddhist Infrastructure: Nationalist Politics and the Transformation of Buddhism in Contemporary Vietnam

Abstract

Since the late 2000s, anti-China sentiments have increased across Vietnam, with large public protests against China’s encroachment in the ‘South China Sea’ or the ‘East Sea’. Such sentiments have raised important questions about Vietnamese sovereignty and cultural identity . Among Buddhists, the ‘China’ question has motivated endeavours to construct a ‘Vietnamese’ Buddhism that maintains a critical distance from ‘Chinese’ religious influences. Based on extensive fieldwork in Vietnam, this paper examines Vietnamese Buddhism as a form of soft power, particularly its ability to shape public understanding of Vietnamese identity and geopolitics. In analysing a few initiatives linked to a prominent Buddhist temple in Ho Chi Minh City, including a Buddhist public health campaign to promote organ donations and the organisation of the United Nations Day of Vesak, I explicate the intense efforts by Buddhists to create a religious infrastructure aimed at broadening the scope of Buddhist influence on Vietnam’s public life and international diplomatic relationships. I argue that this emerging Buddhist infrastructure signals transformations within Vietnamese Buddhism as it becomes increasingly entangled with local and transnational socio-political concerns.