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Lay Buddhist organization, founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Phat Giao Hoa Hao[lower-alpha 1] is a quasi-Buddhist religion[6][2] or sect,[7] founded by Huỳnh Phú Sổ in 1939. It is one of the major religious of Vietnam with at least over a million and as high as eight million adherents, mostly concentrated in the Mekong Delta.
Hòa Hảo was, along with another religious movement known as Cao Đài, one of the first to engage in military conflict with colonial powers, first the French and then the Japanese. The sect flourished significantly under the Japanese occupation of World War II, with its adherents largely being peasants, tenants, and agricultural workers. It also transformed into a militant and nationalist religion, setting up its own virtually autonomous government in the region. The Hòa Hảo remained an autonomous force in Vietnamese politics after the war, opposing both French colonialists and Ho Chi Minh's Việt Minh movement.[2][8]
Following the war, disagreements with other major factions made the Hòa Hảo an aggressive religio-political-military cult. Sổ was kidnapped and executed by the Việt Minh while on his way to a conference to resolve issues with the Communists. Many Hòa Hảo devotees hailed him as a Messianic figure who would arrive in a time of crisis.[7] After 1954, the Hòa Hảo initiated armed opposition to President Ngô Đình Diệm's American-backed government. They controlled various southern and western regions of South Vietnam at the time of Diệm's death in 1963.[2] They then led a campaign against Việt Cộng for the defence of their home provinces during the Vietnam War, becoming a major autonomous political force in South Vietnam until the Fall of Saigon in 1975. The Hòa Hảo struggled for rights following the war and in 1999 were officially recognized by the state, but the government imposes harsh controls on dissenting Hòa Hảo groups that do not follow the state-sanctioned branch.
The Hòa Hảo sought a significant underlying aim of the preserving their religious identity and independence.[9] They made temporary alliances with past enemies. Originally concerned only with religious autonomy, the Hòa Hảo struggle against the French, the Japanese, the Việt Minh, again the French, the newly independent South Vietnam, the Viet Cong, and latterly the North Vietnamese Army. They enjoyed political influence during post-Diệm regimes of Saigon.