Buddhist students go to Non Nuoc Pagoda to officiate in rite.

The construction and development of Buddhist Institutes in Vietnam is not only aimed to meet the increasing demand for Buddhist study throughout the country but also to provide places for the Vietnam Buddhist Shangha to educate and select those who have the qualifications and virtue to undertake the work of Buddhism.

From the Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in the North

Situated in the forest of verdant pine trees on Soc Son Mountain in Phu Linh Commune, Soc Son District in Hanoi, the Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in Hanoi has a fresh and airy clean space, far from the noisy town, very suitable to the study and practices of Buddhist students.

Venerable Thich Minh Tien, assistant to the Director and secretary of the Management Board of the Institute said: “The Institute is reserved for Buddhist followers so the training programmes not only provide knowledge but also improve the personality of people who will become monks or nuns. That’s why the training at the Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in Hanoi must be strict, but at the same time benevolent and sympathetic”.

At the Institute, everything must be in the framework of commandments. All activities of the students, from contacts, accommodation, study and practices are supervised by the Institute’s management board. At 4 o’clock, the students wake up and recite Buddhist scriptures and pray to Buddha. In the afternoon, they go to the lecture hall to listen to the lectures given by teachers. Late in the afternoon, they go to the pagoda to worship Buddha and in the evening they study at their monastery. They are given three vegetarian meals a day. Everyday, the monks must learn and admonish themselves of 250 commandments while the nuns learn and admonish themselves of 348 commandments to educate themselves. The Institute’s disciplines are strict and clear, which all students abide by well.

While students at normal schools learn 6-9 subjects, students at the Buddhist institute learn 17-19 subjects. Apart from learning the subjects of Buddhist tenets which number up to thousands, the students must learn normal school subjects, such as economics, sociology, philosophy, logic, foreign languages and information technology. Virtually all students at the Institute are familiar with modern equipment, such as laptops, radio and compact disks which help facilitate their study. They also establish calligraphy clubs, cultural and artistic clubs and martial arts clubs that serve as useful playgrounds, helping improve their morals and physical and mental strength.

It may be said that the Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in Hanoi is worthy of being a school that trains Buddhist talents capable of shouldering great responsibilities of Buddhism and society in the future.

The Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in Ho Chi Minh City is also a large Buddhist research and training centre in Vietnam . Most Venerable Thich Minh Chau, PhD., Director of the Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in Ho Chi Minh City said: “The content of the Buddhist BA programmes at the institute does not train in how to lead a religious life but provides knowledge of Buddhism and national culture and some relevant ologies in accordance with university standards”.

With this goal, the Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in Ho Chi Minh City has built up a contingent of lecturers with high professional skills who have graduated from renowned institutes at home and abroad. Now the Institute has over 60 lecturers, of them 50 have a PhD degree and nearly 10 have a MA degree and lecturers who are professors coming from domestic and world institutes.

Talking about the achievements of the Institute, Venerable Thich Tam Duc, PhD., Head of the Training Office of the Institute said: “Since 1985, the Institute has organized five Buddhist BA training courses and over 1,000 students have graduated. The enrolments for the current 6^th and 7^th training courses increased considerably. In the 1^st training course, there were 60 students and the number increased to 1,017 in the 7^th course. In particular, the BA certificate granted by the Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in Ho Chi Minh City has been recognized worldwide. So hundreds of graduates can participate in the MA and PhD training programmes at international universities, such as University of Dehli and University of Pune (India), National Taiwan University, Peking University and Shanghai University (China), University of Tokyo (Japan), Berkeley University (US), etc… In the future, the Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in Ho Chi Minh City will organize Buddhist MA and PhD training courses in the country.

With a motto “Vietnamese Buddhism studies can not be separated from Vietnamese cultural studies”, the Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in Ho Chi Minh City has affirmed its role and position in the advanced Buddhist education system of the country. At the Institute, traditional and modern values are always emphasised, helping build Vietnamese Buddhism in the spirit of entering into life.

And the Institute of the Cuu Long River Area

The Khmer Hinayana Buddhist Studies Institute is the youngest Buddhist institute among the four Buddhist institutes in Vietnam. It is a high-grade Buddhist institute of the Khmer Buddhist followers in the Cuu Long River area, built with funds from the Government and the Vietnam Buddhist Shangha. Although the institute was established not long ago (February 6, 2006), its temporary head office in Phothisomron Pagoda in O Mon District, Can Tho City officially started operation with the enrolment of nearly 70 Buddhist followers for the 1^st training course at university level.

Khmer Hinayana Buddhism is a sect with its own way of leading a religious life and a treasure of ancient prayer-books that are popularized in the Pali language. That’s why the study of Khmer Hinayana Buddhist students has many differences compared with that of Mahayana Buddhist students, particularly learning the Pali scripts to translate and read prayer-books.

Before the Khmer Hinayana Buddhist Studies Institute was established, Khmer Hinayana Buddhists participated in primary and intermediate training courses on Vini and Pali organized by the Buddhist Shangha. They also learned other subjects, such as English language and information technology. Thousands of students were taught the Pali language and Hinayana Buddhism. Most Khmer Hinayana pagodas organized classes to teach ethnic languages to ethnic children from 8 to 15 years old. At present, the Khmer ethnic people still have a custom of sending boys to the pagodas to study for 2-3 years to make them familiar with the religious life and prayer books. However, in the future, these classes will not be able to meet the demand for Buddhist studies, especially advanced studies in the new era.

Therefore, the establishment of the Khmer Hinayana Buddhist Studies Institute is a comprehensive strategic development of the Vietnam Buddhist Shangha, including the Khmer Hinayana Buddhism, meeting the aspiration of a great number of Khmer Buddhists in the Cuu Long River delta, the eastern area of Southern Vietnam as well as the whole of Hinayana Buddhism in Asia.

Due to being newly established, the Institute is still in the phase of building and completing the classes as well as training programmes. Now the Institute has seven lecturers with BA, MA and PhD degrees and two lecturers coming from the Vietnam Buddhist Studies Institute in Ho Chi Minh City . It is expected that in 3 years’ time, the Institute will officially start operation at a new establishment on an area of 11.3ha in O Mon District, Can Tho City.

Hopefully, in the near future, the Khmer Hinayana Buddhist Studies Institute will become a large Buddhist training centre, contributing to completing the Vietnam Buddhist Shangha’s programmes on educating and training Buddhist talents in the new period.