The Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam () was founded in 1964 as a nationwide Buddhist organization in South Vietnam. It was banned by the communist Vietnamese government in 1981, which favored the state-sponsored Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam. The Unified Buddhist Sangha continues to operate in exile outside Vietnam.
Before the 1954 partition of Vietnam, the first national Buddhist organization was the General Buddhist Association of Vietnam, established in 1951. The Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam was founded in 1964 to unify 11 of the 14 different sects of Vietnamese Buddhism which were present in South Vietnam at the time. The unification also came in response to the Diá»Âm government's mishandling of the Buddhist crisis in 1963. During the Second Republic, the Sangha was divided into two factions: the moderate, Northern-dominated Quá»Âc Tá»±, led by ThÃÂch Tâm Châu, and the larger, Central-dominated Ấn Quang, led by ThÃÂch TràQuang and notably more hostile to the government.
The UBSV's patriarchs ThÃÂch Huyá»Ân Quang, and ThÃÂch Quảng ÃÂá» were under house arrest due to their opposition to strict government control of religion, which was established after the communists won the war in 1975.
In 1981, six years after the communist victory, the new government consolidated all Buddhist organizations under the umbrella group Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam and placed it under government control. The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and all other non-sanctioned organizations were banned within Vietnam. The UBSV continues to operate in exile outside Vietnam.