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24-593: The name Bạc Liêu is based on the Chinese pronunciation of a Khmer name (Pol Leav ពលលាវ in Khmer). In the 1950s the area was a center of Huỳnh Phú Sổ 's Hòa Hảo religion after Sổ was released there. Bạc Liêu has a tropical savanna climate ( Köppen Aw ). 9°17′N 105°43′E  /  9.283°N 105.717°E  / 9.283; 105.717 This article about a location in Bạc Liêu province , Vietnam

48-525: A Japanese collaborator by predicting their demise, but his contacts with them allowed his supporters to gain weapons. He was considered a mystic. In 1945, as the Japanese were defeated and Vietnam fell into a power vacuum , Sổ ordered the creation of armed units for campaigns against the local administration, landowners and French colonial forces. This led to the Hòa Hảo becoming less of a religious and more of

72-467: A confrontation arose when a band of 15,000 Hòa Hảo, armed with hand-to-hand weapons, attacked the Việt Minh garrison at Cần Thơ . With their antiquated weapons, Sổ's men were slaughtered, losing thousands. Sổ's brother and the brother of his commander Soái were captured and executed. The return of French forces helped to keep the Hòa Hảo and the Việt Minh apart, but the Hòa Hảo periodically sought vengeance on

96-482: A following in the southern Mekong Delta and was looked to by his disciples for guidance in their daily lifestyles. In a time of colonial occupation , a native religion appealed to the masses who were displaying nationalist sentiment. Unlike Gautama Buddha , Sổ was Vietnamese. As a result, Sổ became a nationalist icon and became a wanted man for the French colonial authorities, having gained 100,000 followers in less than

120-563: A major campaign through the Mekong Delta. He recruited tens of thousands of converts to his movement who followed him around in his travels. His reputation grew immensely after a series of his predictions came true: the outbreak of World War II, the fall of France to Nazi Germany , and the Japanese invasion of French Indochina . His prediction of a Japanese invasion prompted many rice farmers to desert their farms en masse and flee to

144-544: A military-political movement, as people such as landowners converted in the hope that they could buy protection. As the Hòa Hảo began battling the French, they also came into conflict with other military organizations such as the Việt Minh (communists) and Cao Đài who were also fighting the French. The Hòa Hảo were in control of most of the Mekong Delta and was unwilling to toe the Việt Minh line from Hanoi . On 9 September 1945,

168-593: A windbag." He was exiled upon his release to the coastal town of Bạc Liêu in the far south. His key supporters were sent to a concentration camp in Nui Bara . The French restrictions and coercions strengthened his nationalist appeal, and Bạc Liêu soon became a place of Hòa Hảo pilgrimage, although it was far from the movement's strongholds. In 1942, the French could no longer withstand the growing popular reactions generated by Sổ's oracular pronouncements and political instructions. They exiled him to Laos . By that time

192-429: A year. He predicted that politics would be the cause of his premature death. The cult must stem much more from internal faith than from a pompous appearance. It is better to pray with a pure heart before the family altar than to perform gaudy ceremonies in a pagoda, clad in the robes of an unworthy bonze . In early 1940, after a few weeks in retreat to compose and put on paper oracles, prayers and teachings, Sổ launched

216-480: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Hu%E1%BB%B3nh Ph%C3%BA S%E1%BB%95 Huỳnh Phú Sổ ( Vietnamese: [hʷɨ̀n fǔ ʂô] ; 15 January 1920 – 16 April 1947), popularly known as Đức Thầy (lit. "Virtuous Master") or Đức Huỳnh Giáo Chủ (lit. Virtuous [Sect] Founder (ie. Patriach) Huynh), was the founder of the Hòa Hảo religious tradition. Born in the village of Hòa Hảo, near Châu Đốc , Southern Vietnam , French Indochina , in 1920, Sổ

240-645: The Dân Xã . This defiant move made him a target of the Việt Minh as relations deteriorated. The southern Việt Minh leader, Nguyễn Bình , realising that Sổ would not subordinate himself to the Việt Minh, set up a trap. Sổ was caught and executed in April 1947. According to Vietnamese police documents, Huỳnh Phú Sổ was arrested and executed on December 22, 1947 by the Viet Minh in Long Xuyen. Following his death,

264-787: The South Vietnamese leader Ngô Đình Diệm in the 1950s, during the Vietnam War . Trần Văn Soái was born in Long Xuyên in 1889. He then settled in Cái Vồn of Cần Thơ , a province in Southern Vietnam . He began his career as an uneducated peasant, working as a mechanic on ships that sailed the Bassac River , then as a ticket collector for a bus company, and finally as a bus driver. He eventually moved up to become

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288-674: The Hòa Hảo autonomy. Diệm demanded that Soái hand over control of his administrative region to the Saigon government. Soái refused this, and Diệm dispatched the Vietnamese National Army (VNA) to the region and threatened to level Soái's headquarters if the Hòa Hảo forces resisted. Nevertheless, the Diệm government paid $ 3 million for Soái's loyalty. As the VNA wiped out most of Bình Xuyên 's forces, an independent military force within

312-540: The Hòa Hảo were defeated and Sổ's men were massacred by the Việt Minh-controlled Advanced Guard Youth, who were reportedly aided by a nearby Japanese garrison. The slaughter was characterized by its savagery. After Sổ's death, Soái assumed the title of commander in chief of the Hòa Hảo armed forces. During the 1950s, the new authority in Saigon , led by Ngô Đình Diệm , desired to relinquish

336-619: The Hòa Hảo's political and military power diminished as the various commanders began infighting without a centralised leadership structure and without a leader; it became basically a network of war lords, the most famous being Trần Văn Soái , named a "one-star general" by the French (a rank which does not exist in the French Army, so Văn Soái added a second one on his képi ), and Ba Cụt . Tran Van Soai Tran Van Soai ( Vietnamese : Trần Văn Soái ; 1889–1961), also known as Nam Lua ( Năm Lưa ; lit.   ' Five Fires ' ),

360-447: The Japanese had taken over French Indochina, but had left the French apparatus in place, intervening only when they saw fit. The Japanese intercepted the transfer of Sổ with the help of some Hòa Hảo followers and brought him back to Saigon . The Kempeitai kept him under protection and the Japanese authorities rebuffed French protests and demands for extradition by saying that he was held as a "Chinese spy". He avoided accusations of being

384-566: The Việt Minh by tying sympathisers of the latter together and throwing them into the river to drown. The Việt Minh were worried by Sổ's nationalist credentials and social structure, and attempted to co-opt him into a National Unified Front. It was dissolved in July 1946 after it was apparent that Sổ would not follow the Việt Minh. Sổ entered politics openly by creating the Viet Nam Democratic Socialist Party , known as

408-443: The army, Soái, along with other Hòa Hảo generals, declared war on Saigon government in late May 1955, furious that they were not granted enough privileges. They knew that a direct confrontation with the VNA would be catastrophic, so they burned down to their bases and dispersed their army of 16,000 men into the jungle to operate as guerrillas. The Americans did not discourage Diệm from fighting back this time. The VNA, led by

432-477: The hills. The French derided him as the "mad bonze ". As his movement became politicised, it began to attract aspiring politicians, with the likes of Huynh Cong Bo , a prominent landowner, and its future military commanders, Trần Văn Soái and Lâm Thành Nguyên . Nguyen claimed that Sổ had cured him of illness. Fearing anti-French demonstrations and revolts would occur as a result of Sổ's following, Vichy French governor Jean Decoux decided to act. In August, Sổ

456-509: The owner of a bus service that operated between Trà Ôn and Cần Thơ. During this period, Soai was the leader of his own gang of bus drivers. In a struggle with a rival gang boss in 1940, he was seriously injured and had to give up his job. Around this time, he converted to Hòa Hảo , founded by Huỳnh Phú Sổ , and devoted his significant energies to advancing through the ranks of the sect. His third wife, Le thi Gam, took over his financial interests as well as management of his bus firm. He became

480-491: The sect's leading military leader during World War II . On 7–9 September 1945, a band of 15,000 Hoahaoists armed with hand-to-hand weapons, and aided by the Trotskyists , attacked the Việt Minh garrison at the port city of Cần Thơ, which the Hòa Hảo considered the rightful capital of their domain. They were led by Soái, his eldest son, Lâm Thành Nguyên , and Sổ's younger brother, but with their antiquated weapons,

504-547: The sublime dogmas of Buddhism ... The witnesses to this miracle, deeply impressed by the strange scene, became his first converts." His simplified teachings were designed to appeal primarily to the poor and the peasants. He attempted to win supporters by cutting down on ceremonies and complex doctrines, eschewing the use of temples. He won over followers by offering free consultations and performing purported miracle cures with simple herbs and acupuncture , and preaching at street corners and canal intersections. He quickly built up

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528-525: Was a Vietnamese general and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Hòa Hảo . Born in Southern Vietnam into peasantry, he initially worked as a bus driver and became a gang leader. He converted to Hòa Hảo during World War II , and then quickly rose to prominence as the sect's leading military leader. He fought against the Japanese and Viet Minh during World War II and the First Indochina War . His forces then struggled against

552-551: Was detained in the psychiatric hospital at Chợ Quán hospital near Saigon under the reasoning that he was a lunatic . Sổ famously succeeded in converting his psychiatrist, Dr. Tam, who became an ardent and devout supporter (Tam was later executed by the Việt Minh for his activities). A board of French psychiatrists declared him sane in May 1941, reporting that he was "a little maniacal , very ignorant even in Buddhist practices, but

576-790: Was the son of a moderately wealthy peasant. Plagued in his youth by illness, he was a mediocre student and graduated from high school only because of his father's influence. He was a brave child, so his father sent him to Núi Cấm in the Seven Mountains to learn from a hermit who was both a mystic and a healer. After some training, Sổ made his mark during a stormy night in May 1939, having returned to his village after his master's death. While in an agitated state, Sổ appeared to have suddenly been cured of his illnesses and started to propound his religious teachings, which were based on Buddhism, on that spot. According to observers, he spoke for several hours spontaneously "with eloquence and erudition about

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