Buddhists elect new executive

The Most Venerable Thich Tri Quang was re-elected as head of the managing committee of the HCM City Buddhist Sangha.—VNA/VNS Photo The Anh

HCM CITY (VNS)— The HCM City Buddhist Sangha elected a new executive board to serve until 2017 at a two-day conference which ended yesterday.

It has 53 official members and 25 alternate members. The Most Venerable Thich Tri Quang was re-elected as head and he will have 11 deputy heads.

He is also the deputy head of the Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha's executive board and head of the managing committee of the HCM City Buddhist Sangha.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Quang said since 1981 both the Viet Nam and HCM City sanghas have developed sustainably and stably in every aspect, attracting attention from followers at home and abroad and from people at all levels of society.

"The sangha has made important contributions to building and defending the lovely country of Viet Nam, making it more and more stable and develop strongly and bringing contentment and peace to everybody.

"In line with the sangha's charter of Dharma-Nation-Socialism, its clergy and followers have stood in harmony and solidarity in the last five years to continuously make improvements in conformity with the country's integration and development tendency, and seriously implement the Government and Party's policies."

The clergy and followers had also fulfilled various tasks like educating monks and nuns; propagating Dharma, or the Buddha's teachings, Buddhist rituals and culture, and charity; and strengthening ties with international Buddhist organ-isations.

The city has 8,737 monks and nuns, 1,130 pagodas, and nearly four million Buddhist followers. —VNS