第三届世界居士佛教论坛

Characteristics of Buddism in Hochiminh City

                                                     PGS.TS Trương Văn Chung
                                                    Trung tâm nghiên cứu tôn giáo
                                                   ĐHKHXH&NV. ĐHQG - HCM

Abstract

Being the settling place of Vietnam’s different ethnic groups, Ho Chi Minh City not only manifests diversity and typical character of Vietnam southern religion, but also possesses its own religious particularity. The specific trait of many religious forms in Ho Chi Minh City has been created from history, cultural tradition, ethnic people and so forth of this region. As a result, in studying current Buddhism of Ho Chi Minh City, it is very necessary in both argument and reality to discover the features of Buddhism here in order to have a correct understanding and to share with Ho Chi Minh Buddhists about their spirit demands.
Ho Chi Minh City’s Buddhism is a component part of southern culture, which holds both common traits of the south and unique features of its. Therefore, studying Ho Chi Minh City’s Buddhism must be put in the cultural and religious interrelationship between Ho Chi Minh City’s ancients and today citizens. This paper aims to study the characteristics of Ho Chi Minh City’s Buddhism nowadays in cultural aspect as a first step to understand the Buddhism in the city in particular.