Heads bowed, palms pressed together in prayer, thousands of Buddhists filed quietly through Saigon's Xa Loi Pagoda last week to witness what most of them believed to be a miracle. Amid the fragrance of incense-burning reeds, yellow-robed priests chanted from sunrise to midnight, laymen gazed in awe, and weeping women held children up to see it all. On the altar, inside a crystal urn, which in turn was encased in a bouquet-flanked glass chest, lay the object of their reverenceĀa charred piece of flesh. Over it a hand-lettered sign announced: "The Eternal Heart of High Priest Quang Due."
Two weeks...