ABSTRACT
Religion plays an important role in contemporary Vietnamese society and politics. Vietnamese society has been described as characterized by widespread "re-enchantment". The success of Chua Linh Ung is illustrative of the so-called re-enchantment of Vietnamese society, as described by Philip Taylor and others. Introductory texts on Vietnamese Buddhism often claim that Zen is historically the most important Buddhist school in the country. Influenced by the Buddhist modernist revival movement that had started in the 1920s, as a young monk Thich Nhat Hanh already subscribed to the modernist notion that Buddhism should be active "in this world", and strive for social, political, and educational reform. The visit could be seen as a powerful example of the possibility of reconciliation and forgiveness, which are central to Hanh's ethics. A product of globalization, as well as a representative of "traditional" Vietnamese values, Hanh was fast becoming a core symbol of Vietnam's newly devised modernity, along with free-market capitalism, open borders, and mass tourism.
