Vietnam's pagoda mystery

Thanks Hieu.
Link
My theory: The roster records names of the local people (say, the people born in that phuong or quan) who died as martyrs. It's also appropriate to let a stone like that in a pagoda where the wandering souls can find a place to rest. And the "atheistic Marxist regime" is not so anti-religious, well at least nowadays, as many people want to think. So it is not really a mystery as the article suggests.
But it's still amazing when we can learn our history and our sacrifices in nearly 100 years through such a simple stone.