Thich Tue Sy: Buddhist scholar

Thich Tue Si
Buddhist scholar

A scholar of Buddhism, Rev. Thich Tue Si studied under prominent Buddhist monks and was coeditor of the Encyclopedia of Vietnamese Buddhism (with Rev. Thich Tri Sieu).

In 1978, he was arrested for making peaceful calls for religious freedom and sent to a “re-education” camp for three years.

In April 1984, he was arrested with other Buddhist monks and followers at the Gia Lam Temple. He was detained for four years without trial. On September 30, 1988, Rev. Thich Tue Si, a member of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), was brought to trial for “plotting to overthrow the People's Government” and given a death sentence.

On November 15, 1988, following international protest, the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam commuted the sentence of Rev. Thich Tue Si to 20 years imprisonment.

On August 21, 1998, Rev. Thich Tue Si was summoned by prison authorities and told to write an appeal for clemency. He declined to do so and initiated a hunger strike. According to an human rights organization (the International Buddhist Information Bureau) he refused all food and water for ten days. His condition became so alarming that the prison authorities had him intravenously fed.

On September 1, 1998, he was released from prison and put unaccompanied on a train. Rev. Thich Tue Si recalled what had happened: “I told the prison authorities: I will not accept your clemency and I will not ask for an amnesty. You had no right to arbitrarily arrest and imprison me, so you have no right to grant me an amnesty today. Then I went on hunger strike, even though I knew that I was completely alone, with no-one to support me, no journalist to write about my act, and no-one on the outside knowing what I had decided to do. I carried out my solitary struggle, in spite of my loneliness and despair. It was the only way I had to affirm my dignity as a human being.”

Rev. Thich Tue Si is currently under virtual house arrest at the Gia Lam Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City and is closely watched by security officials.