IOverview
This is not an organization. It is the way many families in the Mekong Delta keep their faith: a brown-cloth altar, a sky altar in the yard, prayers twice a day, and no membership of any board.
The faith's own teaching makes this possible. Hoa Hao Buddhism is practised at home, with no ordination, no large temples and no clergy. All basic worship can be done in a house. A person can keep the Eight Prohibitions in full, read the Oracles and do good works without any organization to vouch for them.
English Wikipedia calls this group the neutral faction and notes that all groups within the faith share the same practices.
IIHistory
Home-based practice goes back to the beginning. Huynh Phu So founded the faith in 1939 and taught in Vietnamese verse so that farmers could remember it after one hearing. The sixth volume of the Sấm Giảng Thi Văn Giáo Lý, written in prose, sets out how to worship and pray at home. Keeping the faith therefore never depended on whether a local organization existed.
The faith's organization has gone through many changes. The present one was recognized by the state in 1999. Through all of it, many families have kept the faith as a household custom without attachment to any board.
IIITeachings and Distinctive Features
Their teaching is that of the whole faith: Learning Buddhism and Cultivating Humanity, repaying the Four Debts, and keeping the Eight Prohibitions. The faith teaches that the Buddha is the mind and the mind is the Buddha, so practice means refining one's heart and character, not outward forms.
There is no doctrinal difference. The only difference is not belonging to an organization. These followers do not call themselves a faction and have no name of their own. The label neutral faction comes from outside writers.
Not belonging to an organization does not mean a looser practice. In a faith that makes the home its place of practice, someone outside the boards can keep the full altars, both daily prayers and all the precepts.
IVPractice, Ritual and Daily Life
A follower's home has three places of worship:
- The Three Jewels altar indoors, hung with the brown Trần Dà cloth, with no statue or picture.
- The ancestor altar, set lower than the Three Jewels altar.
- The Thông Thiên, a small open-air altar in the yard.
Followers pray twice a day, morning and evening, offering clean water, fresh flowers and incense. The usual fast is four days a lunar month. Many still travel to An Hoa Pagoda for the two great festivals and give money and labour to local house-building teams, bridge crews and charity kitchens, most of which neighbours set up themselves.
VOrganization and Distribution
This group has no organization, no representatives and no membership list. Its members live across the Mekong Delta, most densely where the faith has deep roots, such as An Giang, Dong Thap and Can Tho.
There is no reliable count. It is also unclear how far the figure of over 1.5 million in the 2023 White Paper of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs includes these families, since the source does not explain how it counts.
VIToday
Today, in many Mekong Delta villages, the brown-cloth altar and the sky altar remain the clearest sign of a Hoa Hao household, whether or not the family takes part in the church. Between those inside the organization and those outside, the difference lies in paperwork and meetings, not at the altar.
The library does not rank this group against any other. All Hoa Hao groups share the same teaching and the same worship.
VIISymbol of the Branch
Brown altar cloth
Trần dà
VIIIOther Branches of Hòa Hảo Buddhism
Hoa Hao Buddhist ChurchGiáo hội Phật giáo Hòa Hảo, Ban Trị sự Trung ươngThe officially recognized organization since 1999, headquartered at An Hoa Pagoda in An Giang.Unaffiliated Hoa Hao lay followersBecause practice is home-based, many families keep the faith at their own altars without joining any organization.
Pure Hoa Hao BuddhismGiáo hội Trung ương Phật giáo Hòa Hảo Thuần TúyA separately organized group outside the recognized church and not registered with the state.Uses the common symbol of the path
Overseas Hoa Hao communitiesPhật Giáo Hòa Hảo hải ngoạiTemples and committees of Vietnamese followers abroad, largest in the United States, such as the Southern California Hoa Hao hall.IXSources
The library cross-checks the sources below. Where they disagree, the page gives both.
?Quick Questions
Is someone outside the boards still a Hoa Hao follower?
In the faith's teaching, practice lies in refining the heart and keeping the precepts, which can be done at home. The faith does not require joining an organization.
How many people practise this way?
There is no reliable figure. The group has no organization or list that could be counted.
What does neutral faction mean?
It is the term English Wikipedia uses for followers who belong to no group. They do not call themselves a faction.