Nhung LU ROTS

Nhung (forthcoming). "Hòa Hảo Buddhism and the Target of Net-Zero Plastic Waste in the Mekong Delta". In Mette Halskov Hansen & Kenneth Bo Nielsen (eds.), Religion and Ecological Crisis: Responses from Asia. Amsterdam University Press.

Lu Rots, Nhung. 2025. "Towards an Alternative Buddhist Modernity: Hòa Hảo Charity Healing and Herbal Medicine in the Mekong Delta". Contemporary Buddhism. https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2025.2482902. 

Lu Rots, Nhung. 2024. “Hòa Hảo.” In The Database of Religious History. University of British Columbia. https://religiondatabase.org/browse/2329.

Rots, Aike and Nhung Lu Rots. 2023. "When Gods Drown in Plastic: Vietnamese Whale Worship, Environmental Crises, and the Problem of Animism." Environmental Humanities 15(3), 8-29. DOI: 10.1215/22011919-10745957.

Lu Rots, Nhung. 2018. "Havforurensning, matbekymringer og sosiale endringer i Vietnam." Asiapunkt.no, 28. oktober.

Lu Rots, Nhung. 2018. "The Aftermath of a Marine Disaster: Food Anxieties, Pangasius Production and Social Change in Contemporary Vietnam." Asia in Focus 6, 25-37.

Le, Doan Hong, Anand Nayyar, and Nhung Lu Rots. 2018. "Implementation of the WTO Agreement on Custom Valuation in Vietnam: Trade integration and local compliance at Danang Port". Indian Journal of Finance 12(7), 42-56. DOI: 10.17010/ijf/2018/v12i7/129970.

Lu, Nguyen Nhung. 2013. "Energy Policies in the European Union: Convergence or Divergence?". UMB Student Journal of International Environment and Development Studies 3, 39-47.

• Rots, Nhung Lu (2025). Towards an Alternative Buddhist Modernity: Hòa Hảo Charity Healing and Herbal Medicine in the Mekong Delta. Contemporary Buddhism. ISSN 1463-9947. 25(1-2), s. 216–243. doi: 10.1080/14639947.2025.2482902. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article examines the role of Hòa Hảo Buddhism in providing alternative healthcare, through traditional medicine and charity clinics, in the Mekong Delta. Based on participant observation and interviews with Hòa Hảo Buddhists, herb doctors, herbal healers, and other health professionals, it outlines the various motivations and interests behind Hòa Hảo’s large-scale charitable efforts, linking these to broader discussions of Buddhist modernity and biopolitics in Vietnam. This article argues that Hòa Hảo leaders and healers have turned common herbs and volunteer labour into tactical resources that provide meaning, generate value, and reshape religious and political identities for followers. With the emergence of new medical science and the market economy in recent decades, the rural Vietnamese populations have experienced insufficient healthcare. Hòa Hảo practitioners have offered alternatives to public healthcare services and responded to a lack of trained doctors and other medical staff by reemploying medical knowledge that originates from the teachings of their religious founder and pioneers. This new focus on healing practices has reshaped social relations within Hòa Hảo communities. It also constitutes an alternative trajectory towards a Buddhist modernity, providing religious devotees with new ways to reconnect their Buddhist cosmology with everyday needs in a changing society.

• Rots, Aike Peter & Lu, Nhung (2023). When Gods Drown in Plastic: Vietnamese Whale Worship, Environmental Crises, and the Problem of Animism. Environmental Humanities. 15(3), s. 8–29. doi: 10.1215/22011919-10745957. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Abstract Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the category animism has seen a remarkable resurgence in Western scholarship, capturing the interest of many anthropologists, scholars of religion, and philosophers. Some authors have argued that animism can provide a model for a new environmental ethics that acknowledges more-than-human agencies and interdependencies. However, the question remains as to how so-called animist ontologies can transform not only individual moralities, but also the extractivist economic-political structures underlying the current crisis. In this article, we assess some of these claims by examining an Asian ritual tradition that is arguably animistic, while also containing elements of Buddhism, Daoism, and ancestor worship: the worship of whales, widespread along the coast of South and Central Vietnam. Fishing communities here believe that whales are divine beings, incarnations of the maritime god Ông Nam Hải (Lord of the South Sea)—also known as Cá Ông (Lord Fish)—who rescue people in distress at sea. When fishers find beached whales, they offer them elaborate funeral ceremonies and enshrine their bones in local temples. Whale worship constitutes a way of relating to the physical environment, and rituals help people respond to problems such as coastal erosion and overfishing. However, there is no evidence suggesting that this particular animistic belief system has given way to environmentalist action, let alone induced systemic change. Animistic ontologies certainly have ethical dimensions, and they may provide ways for people to make sense of and cope with Anthropocenic crises, but that does not mean they teach people how to act sustainably. At the very least, that would require an active process of translation and adaptation.

• Rots, Nhung Lu (2018). The Aftermath of a Marine Disaster: Food Anxieties, Pangasius Production and Social Change in Contemporary Vietnam. Asia in Focus. 6, s. 25–37. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  In April 2016, a marine disaster seriously disrupted fishery and aquaculture in and around Ha Tinh Province, Vietnam. The environmental disaster has strengthened Vietnamese distrust in domestic produce, especially seafood. Food anxieties have driven many Vietnamese consumers to the streets, demonstrating for changes in the food system and demanding environmental justice. In recent decades, seafood, in particular fish, has played a significant role in Vietnam’s economic growth and become an important export commodity. Pangasius fish from the Mekong Delta, for instance, is not only one of Vietnam’s key export products, but also a key tool for poverty reduction. However, global and domestic anxieties over food safety and environmental degradation constitute a threat to the industry. At the same time, it constitutes an opportunity, providing incentives to change towards sustainable farming practices. Applying transition theory in food practices, this article examines how current food anxieties, global as well as domestic, affect sustainable pangasius production. It also addresses the question whether new food practices can contribute to economic and political change in Vietnam.

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• Rots, Nhung Lu (2026). Stranding beach ridges: Plastic materiality and sediment crisis in the Mekong Delta. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Vĩnh Châu (Sóc Trăng) is a river estuary where one of the Mekong’s streams meets the South China Sea (called East Sea in Vietnam). The town’s surrounding landscape is comprised of small sand ridges of 1-4 meters high and muddy swamp in between. In recent years, these beach ridges have been swamped with landfill plastics. In order to solve the problem, Vĩnh Châu authorities have mobilized international donors, national campaigners, and domestic volunteers to clean up dumping grounds and raise environmental awareness of plastic ocean. However, plastic’s materialities have become embedded in local moral economy and deeply entrenched in their social relations. Based on fieldwork data and semi-structured interviews with waste management officers, local scientists, and cleaning volunteers, this paper shows the complexity of plastic materiality, Anthropocene sediments, local practices, and global initiatives to tackle ocean pollution. It concludes that plastic sediment is an on-going crisis in the Delta regardless of international cleanup efforts in the Mekong Region.

• Rots, Nhung Lu (2026). Buddhist Modernity and Anti-colonialism in southern Vietnam: the case of Hòa Hảo Buddhism. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Hòa Hảo Buddism (Phật Giáo Hòa Hảo) is a religious tradition based in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam that blends ancestor worship, nationalism, and Buddhism. In recent decades, Hòa Hảo followers have actively participated in volunteer work and been engaged across social arenas. Their social engagement constitutes an alternative trajectory towards a Buddhist modernity, providing religious devotees with new ways to reconnect their Buddhist cosmology with everyday needs in a changing society.

• Rots, Nhung Lu (2026). Redirecting Anxiety: : The Affective Labour of Hòa Hảo Buddhist Volunteers in the Mekong Delta. doi: https:/buddhist-studies.ed.ac.uk/2026-ukabs-conference-buddhism-and-emotion. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Hòa Hảo Buddism (Phật Giáo Hòa Hảo) is a religious tradition based in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam that blends ancestor worship, nationalism, and Buddhism. In recent decades, Hòa Hảo followers have actively participated in volunteer work and engaged across social arenas. Their social engagement constitutes a form of religious mobilisation grounded in affective relationships with the founder and other religious pioneers, as well as Buddhist cosmology and the environment. Joyful affects from social work and mutual care have improved their mental and physical well-being, eased grief-related pain and sadness, and enhanced their capacity to cope with varying levels of anxiety. Based on ethnographic interviews with Buddhist volunteers, this paper examines anxiety as an emotional response to human insecurity, health vulnerabilities, environmental hazards, and market uncertainties in the Mekong Delta. I argue that this negative emotion can be redirected and transformed into a new form of labour in which affect is central to economic production, emphasizing feelings and passions as drivers for productivity. Accordingly, the affective labour in Hòa Hảo Buddhist practice of volunteering not only brings together the mind and the body, but also potentially produce new subjectivity and sociality.

• Rots, Nhung Lu (2026). Hòa Hảo Buddhism and and the Target of Net-Zero Plastic Waste in the Mekong Delta. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Rivers and waterways in the Mekong Delta have become choked with plastic. To address this crisis, Hòa Hảo Buddhism has joined forces with local and national authorities. Devotees mobilized to act against pollution and to reach net-zero plastic waste; lay teachers propagated a green Dharma based on their founder’s teachings; and Hòa Hảo leaders formed political networks with state actors. Thus, the plastic crisis has provided Hòa Hảo Buddhism a good opportunity for religious revival after being long marginalized in the Vietnamese religious landscape. The chapter argues that while Hòa Hảo actions have been instrumental in raising environmental awareness, they have been less successful in transforming devotees’ behaviours towards sustainable consumption, let alone a future of net-zero plastic waste.

• Rots, Nhung Lu (2025). Review of "Environment and Narrative in Vietnam", edited by Ursula K. Heise and Chi P. Pham. Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 20(3-4), s. 192–195. doi: 10.1525/vs.2025.20.3-4.192. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Nhung Lu (2025). Khmer’s sacred time and sacred space in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Nhung Lu (2025). Environmental and livelihood change in Vietnam’s Khmer coastal region: From coastal dunes to agroforestry and aquaculture. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Nhung Lu (2025). Hòa Hảo Buddhism and the Green Revolution in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Religion and revolution: one day research seminar at MF, 12 June 2025 Time: Thursday 12 June, 09:00-16:00 Place: MF, Aud 4. The seminar is organized by MF Religion & Politics Research Group. Participants prepared 20 min. presentation/paper and leave 20 min for Q&A.

• Chen, Xianwen & Lu, Nhung (2024). Ecosystem Services and Hedonic Valuation of Agricultural Land: A Systematic Review. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Nhung Lu (2024). Buddhist responses to the plastic waste crisis in the Mekong Delta. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Nhung Lu (2024). The rise and fall of a Buddhist environmental movement: Hòa Hảo Buddhism and the plastic waste crisis in the Mekong Delta. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Nhung Lu; Hansen, Mette Halskov & Ngo, Tam (2026). Engaged Buddhism and environmentality among religious minorities in Vietnam. Universitetet i Oslo. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Denne artikkelbaserte avhandlingen diskuterer hvordan buddhistiske samfunn i Mekongdeltaet forholder seg til sosiale, kulturelle og miljø-endringer, med hovedvekt på to minoritetsgrupper i Vietnam: Hòa Hảo-buddhistene og Khmer Theravada-buddhistene. Den undersøker hvordan den regionale miljø-forvaltningen påvirker lokale buddhistiske organisasjonenes responser på helse- og miljøutfordringer, og hvordan dette påvirker lokale institusjoner og deres ressurser. Avhandlingen bygger på ni måneders etnografisk feltarbeid i flere lokaliteter, med en kombinasjon av deltakende observasjon og oppfølgingsintervjuer med religiøse ledere og tilhengere, herunder buddhistiske abbeder, lekfolk og tjenestemenn i lokalsamfunnene. Forskningen bidrar til akademiske debatter innen miljøhumaniora ved bruk av teorier fra politisk økologi, utviklingsstudier og buddhismestudier. Avhandlingen bruker begrepene environmentality og engasjert buddhisme for å analysere en fremvoksende subjektivitet i de buddhistiske minoritetene, ved å se på hvordan de responderer på lokale økologiske- og helseutfordringer. Den legger vekt på hvordan den nye subjektiviteten kan skifte deres miljøpolitikk fra motstand til samarbeid med statelige myndigheter. Avhandlingen sammenligner og analyserer fremvoksende praksiser, nye strategier og endrede maktforhold innenfor de to buddhistiske gruppene i kontekster preget av utfordringer innen forurensning, klimaendringer og initiativer for bærekraftig utvikling. De tre artiklene illustrerer samfunnenes responser på nye sykdommer, utilstrekkelig helsevesen, plastforurensing, saltinntrenging, og sårbarhet i møte med ekstremvær. De belyser ulike veier som de to buddhistiske samfunnene har valgt i møtet med disse utfordringene. Avhandlingen konkluderer med at den fremvoksende subjektiviteten har motivert Hòa Hảo-institusjoner til å samarbeide med myndighetene i statlig ledet miljøforvaltning og alternative helseløsninger. En slik respons er imidlertid ikke synlig innen Khmer-samfunnet, noe som kan forklares med mangel på lokal deltakelse, forsømmelse av kunnskap om lokal økologi, og asymmetrisk fordeling av makt i bærekraftig politikk.  

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