Hòa Hảo is a religious movement described either as a syncretistic folk religion or as a sect of Buddhism. It was founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ (1920–1947), who is regarded as a saint by its devotees. It is one of the major religions of Vietnam with between one million and eight million adherents, mostly in the Mekong Delta. The religious philosophy of Hòa Hảo, which rose from the Miền Tây region of the Mekong Delta, is essentially Buddhist. It reforms and revises the older Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương tradition of the region, and possesses quasi-millenarian elements. Hòa Hảo is an amalgam of Buddhism, ancestor worship, animistic rites, elements of Confucian doctrine, and the White Lotus religion, transformed and adapted to the mores and customs of the peasants of the region. Coming from the remote edges of Southern Vietnam, it opposes urban life and prefers a communitarian lifestyle. Unlike orthodox Buddhism, Hòa Hảo eschews elaborate rituals and temples, maintains no monastic order, and teaches home practice. It also advocates that each devotee can have direct communion with the Buddha, and that inner faith is more important than external rites. Regular Hòa Hảo rites are limited to four prayers a day, while the devotees are to maintain the Three Fundamental Bonds and Five Constant Virtues. The influence of colonial overlords, the growing intensity of war from the late 1930s to the mid-1970s, and the attendant ideological conflicts all shaped the inception and later development of Hòa Hảo. It was, along with Hồ Chí Minh's Việt Minh and another religious movement known as Cao Đài, one of the first groups to engage in military conflict with colonial powers, first the French and then the Japanese. Hòa Hảo flourished under the Japanese occupation of World War II, with its adherents largely being peasants, tenants, and agricultural workers. It transformed into a militant and nationalist religion, and rapidly developed into a private army that operated mainly for the benefit of its leaders, while setting up its own virtually autonomous government in the region. The Hòa Hảo remained an autonomous force in Vietnamese politics after the war, opposing both French colonialists and the Việt Minh movement. During the First Indochina War, disagreements with other major factions made the Hòa Hảo an aggressive religio-political-military cult. Sổ was kidnapped and executed by the Việt Minh while coming back from an unsuccessful conference to resolve issues with