Vietnam's top dissident Buddhist monk Thich Huyen Quang dies

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

HANOI (AFP) — Thich Huyen Quang, the head of the Vietnamese Buddhist movement that has refused to come under communist government control, died on Saturday aged 87, his supporters said in a statement from Paris.

"Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, 4th Supreme Patriarch of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), passed away today at the Nguyen Thieu monastery," said the International Buddhist Information Bureau.

He died peacefully at his monastery in central Binh Dinh province, where he had returned from hospital Friday at his own request after spending more than a month in intensive care for heart, lung and kidney ailments, the bureau said.

His death was announced by the UBCV's deputy leader Thich Quang Do, the presumed successor, who has like...