Đạo Dừa

Đạo Dừa temple in Bến Tre.

Ông Đạo Dừa, the coconut monk, real name Nguyễn Thành Nam (Phước Thịnh, 1909–90) founded the Đạo Dừa sect of religion in Vietnam.^[1][2] He studied in Rouen, France from 1928, and began to gather a following in Mỹ Tho and Bến Tre during the late 1950s.^[3]

The temple in 1969

References

1. The Rough Guide to Vietnam 4 Page 142 Jan Dodd, Mark Lewis, Ron Emmons - 2003 "Ong Dao Dua, the Coconut Monk Ong Dao Dua, the Coconut Monk, was bom Nguyen Thanh Nam in the Mekong Delta, ... During a lengthy period of meditation at Chau Doc's Sam Mountain (see p.172) he devised a new religion, "
2. Vietnam Page 115 John Hoskin, Carol Howland - 2006 "Ong Dao Dua, a charismatic leader, initiated a new religion that fused Buddhist and Christian elements. For three years he is said to have sat and meditated on a stone slab, sustained only by a diet of coconuts (hence the nickname)."
3. David W. P. Elliott The Vietnamese War: Revolution and Social Change in the Mekong Page 15 2007 "Dao Dua, known as the "coconut monk," an eccentric religious figure in My Tho and Ben Tre who started to gather a following in the tense and unsettled time of the late 1950s.