VOICES OF CONSCIENCE The Most Ven. Thich Huyen Quang HIGHEST-RANKING LEADER UNIFIED BUDDHIST CHURCH OF VIETNAM Penalty : House arrest, internal exile Location : Chua Phuoc Quang, Nghia Hanh, Quang Ngai, Viet Nam (Phuoc Quang Temple, Nghia Hanh District, Quang Ngai province, Vietnam)

 Born Le Dinh Nhan on September 19, 1919, in Binh Dinh Province, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang went into the monk hood at the age of 13.

In March 1977, two years after Vietnam came under communist rule, Ven. Thich Huyen Quang, as the second highest leader in the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), wrote a letter to Prime Minister Pham Van Dong detailing 85 instances of government repression of the UBCV. For this letter of protest, Ven. Thich Huyen Quang was arrested on June 9, 1977 together with five other prominent church leaders and charged with opposition to government policy.

Brought to trial on December 8, 1978, he was given a two-year suspended sentence for "agitating against the military service law and other social duties." Because of his continued opposition to the planned incorporation of the UBCV into a church more pliable to government wishes, he was arrested for 24 hours in October 1981, then for a third time on February 15, 1982 and sent into exile at Hoi Phuoc Pagoda in Quang Ngai province and put under constant surveillance. His name became internationally known when two Nobel Laureates nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize that year.

Since 1982, from his place of internal exile he has sent out a series of pronouncements admonishing the Vietnamese government to reform its ways. These statement have put him in deeper trouble still with the authorities.

Venerable Thich Huyen Quang's letters have amounted to a sweeping restatement of the role of Buddhism in Vietnamese culture, of the UBCV as the legitimate Buddhist church of Vietnam, and a rejection of communism as the means of repression against the Vietnamese people. He has spoken with the authority of the Church's highest leader. On his death bed, the late Most Venerable Thich Don Hau selected Venerable Thich Huyen Quang as his successor at the head of the UBCV Institute for the Propagation of the Dharma, a mantle which Venerable Thich Huyen Quang took in April 1992 at the funeral of Venerable Thich Don Hau.

On December 29, 1994, Public Security forces went into the Hoi Phuoc Pagoda, confiscated all official papers and the seal of the UBCV, and transferred Venerable Thich Huyen Quang to a new location, keeping him in total isolation. He suffers from high blood pressure, requires immediate medical care, and is currently denied visitation.