Huynh Phu So

(i) Huynh Phu so was a revolutionary leader, Vietnamese philosopher, and Buddhist religious scholar born in 1919 and died in 1947.

(ii) He started an anti-French movement called the Hoa Hao movement in 1939. The movement drew on religious ideas popular in anti-French uprising of the nineteenth century. The French tried to suppress the movement.

(iii) He was declared “mad banze” and put in mental asylum by French. Interestingly in 1941 he was announced sane, but exiled him to Laos and sent his followers to concentration camps, after the doctor treating him became his follower.

(iv) Phu So performed miracles and helped the poor. He opposed the sale of child brides, gambling and the use of alcohol and opium.