Arrest of Thích Trí Quang

Date: June 22, 1966 • Location: Rome, Italy

Vietnamese Buddhist activist leader Thích Trí Quang was arrested as the military junta of Nguyễn Cao Kỳ crushed the Buddhist Uprising.

Buddhism in Vietnam, as practiced by the Vietnamese people, is a form of East Asian Mahayana Buddhism. It is the second largest religion in Vietnam. According to the Vietnamese government's 2019 National Population and Housing Census, approximately 4.6 million individuals identified as Buddhists, representing about 4.8% of the total population at that time. However, the U.S. Department of State's 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom cites Vietnam's "White Book", stating that the Buddhist population increased from nearly 10 million in 2008 to approximately 14 million in 2021, which accounts for 13.3% of the overall population of Vietnam.