Back to the fake monk village in Nghe An

Practice by car

In mid-March, after receiving information that the Da Nang police had just uncovered a group of people from the same hometown of Nghia Dong commune (Tan Ky) pretending to be monks to beg for money, we decided to go back to this countryside. Because when mentioning Nghia Dong, people have long remembered the name "fake monk village" that the people in the commune are not very proud of. However, after many years, we thought that this profession no longer had a place to live.

Nghia Dong is a poor midland commune, nestled along the Hieu River, more than 100 km from Vinh City. When we showed the pictures and names of the three people who were recently discovered pretending to be monks to beg for money, the commune leaders were not surprised. “They get discovered all the time. Once exposed in one province, they move to another province to continue practicing their profession. We know but we cannot ban it, we have already publicized it so much but we still give up,” the commune official said with a laugh.

The group of three people we mentioned all have registered residence in Nghia Dong commune. At the end of February, they shaved their heads and drove a car from Nghe An to Da Nang. There, the three people put on monk robes, brought many fake monk documents and then traveled to pagodas and businesses in the area to ask for money. "The group of three people drove a car and showed fake monk certificates. They said they lost all their money in Da Nang, so they asked for it to buy gas to go home," said the abbot of a pagoda in Da Nang.

On the morning of February 29, when the group appeared at Linh Ung Non Nuoc Pagoda (Ngu Hanh Son District), receiving a report from the people, the police coordinated with the Executive Committee of the Buddhist Sangha of Ngu Hanh Son District to invite 3 people to the ward for questioning, confiscating robes and fake certificates. Here, the group admitted to impersonating monks to ask for money. Before that, the group had traveled to many provinces and cities in the South to operate with the same trick of impersonating monks.

Among them, VDN (42 years old), is said to have “seniority” in the profession. This monk’s house is located next to the road at the end of hamlet 10, and looks quite spacious compared to the neighbors. “He didn’t become a monk, he just went out to make a living. Just during Tet, they gathered to eat, drink, and sing karaoke all day. Was he discovered again?”, an elderly neighbor seemed not surprised when we mentioned N.

According to this person, N. got married a long time ago, his wife is currently working abroad; as for him, his whereabouts are mysterious, he is rarely at home. His children are often sent to his grandparents' house. Every time he returns to his hometown, N. never admits that he is a monk who pretends to beg for money, but everyone in the neighborhood knows. "He has been doing that job for a long time. It's just that he is too ashamed to admit it. Every time he returns to his hometown, he hides the monk's clothes he uses to practice his profession," the neighbor added.

"Capital" of the fake monk profession

Leaving N.'s house, we went to Hamlet 5, which is considered the "capital" of the fake monk profession in Nghia Dong commune. "There used to be a lot of them, but now thanks to labor export, few people do this job," said Mr. Hoang Van Loi, who has been the Hamlet Chief of Hamlet 5 for more than 20 years.

According to Mr. Loi, in the past, due to extreme poverty, people in the village flocked to the South to work as hired laborers. Here, people learned from each other and pretended to be monks to sell incense, beg for money, and beg for alms. This situation became widespread about 20 years ago. “In recent years, most of them have grown old and stopped working. Some people asked their children to go abroad to work, but when they had money, they quit,” Mr. Loi added.

Mr. Loi also cannot estimate how many people in the whole village have been doing this job. He only knows that occasionally when reading the newspaper, he sees someone in the village being discovered. “No one dares to admit doing this job, so it is all just rumors from the people. They keep saying this person, that person is pretending to be a monk. We cannot verify it, except in cases where the police discover it,” Mr. Loi said.

Not far from Mr. Loi’s house is the shop of Mr. TVL (52 years old). Mr. L. and his wife are people with “seniority” in the fake monk profession, having just “retired” a few years ago. It took a lot of convincing for Mr. L. to agree to tell the story of his profession.

“If the police hadn’t discovered it and reported it in the newspaper, no one would have known that my husband and I were doing this job,” Mr. L. said with a laugh. Nearly 20 years ago, Mr. L. and his wife decided to go to the South to work. In a foreign land, he happened to meet a fellow countryman pretending to be a monk begging for alms and money. After asking around and learning that this job was easy to make money and didn’t require much effort, Mr. L. and his wife immediately quit their jobs at the company.

For only a few hundred thousand, through a fellow countryman, the couple easily obtained two sets of monastic robes and fake documents. Mr. L. then went to a shop to shave his head, while his wife tied her hair in a high bun and covered it with a scarf. Since then, they have traveled throughout the southern provinces to make a living. “We only choose to go to a few business headquarters, or knock on the doors of big houses to ask for money. Sometimes we buy some incense in the city and then sell it at a high price. Sometimes we use the excuse of building a pagoda…”, Mr. L. said. Because they are afraid of meeting acquaintances, the couple do not practice in crowded cities, but often go to the countryside in the far southwestern region. During Tet, Mr. L. usually leaves early, waiting for his hair to grow well so he can return to his hometown, avoiding suspicion from the people.

“Everyone thought we were workers. So every time we came home, our tools were hidden,” Mr. L. added. “If you work at night too much, you will eventually meet a ghost.” A few years ago, he and his wife were discovered by the police in a southern province and deported from the area. After that, he and his wife decided to “retire,” using the money they had saved after many years of working to return to their hometown to open a business.

According to Mr. L., there are still many people in Nghia Dong who choose this profession to make a living. They are practicing this profession more and more sophisticatedly, making it harder to detect. The problem is that there are no official statistics, and no one admits that they are pretending to be monks to make a living.

Signs of recognition

Most Venerable Thich Tho Lac - Head of the Central Cultural Committee of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, and Deputy Head of the Standing Committee of the Executive Committee of the Buddhist Sangha of Nghe An province, said that the rampant situation of fake monks has been a burning issue for many years, affecting the reputation of the church. "To date, there is not a single pagoda built in the entire Tan Ky district. Therefore, there are very few people becoming monks," said Most Venerable Thich Tho Lac.

According to Venerable Thich Tho Lac, it is actually very easy to recognize a fake monk. In the North in general and Nghe An in particular, there are no monks who go begging for alms. In Buddhism, only the Southern sect and the Mendicant sect in the Southern provinces used to go begging for alms (wearing yellow or dark yellow robes); while the monks and nuns of the Northern sect do not go begging for alms.

Therefore, any “monks” who beg for alms wearing Northern Buddhist robes, that is, wearing robes (yellow, blue or brown) and any “nuns” who cover their heads with scarves are all fake monks. Not to mention that when the Church officially issues an order to temporarily suspend alms-begging activities, all those who go begging for alms can be considered fake monks. Legal alms-begging does not accept money, only enough food for a meal. Therefore, those who beg for alms and accept money are illegal. This is one of the important factors to identify fake monks, because they pay more attention to asking for money than asking for food and drink.

In addition, the proper time for alms-begging is in the morning and ends before 12 noon. Those who continue to beg for alms after 12 noon until evening are illegal and are fake monks. The behavior of a proper alms-begging practitioner is always upright, following the etiquette of a monk such as: walking leisurely and slowly; not looking sideways or up and down, only looking down at the ground; not asking for anything; not ringing bells, knocking wooden fish or chanting loudly to attract attention; absolutely not entering the donor's house, just standing outside the gate (waiting for a while, if not given alms, must immediately go to another house)...

“No monk sells incense on the street. If they do, they are only allowed to sell it in the cultural products area of ​​the temple, not on the streets,” said Venerable Thich Tho Lac, adding that authorities need to step up propaganda to make people aware, as well as strictly handle this fake monk problem.