.png)
| Part ofa series on the |
| Culture of Vietnam |
|---|
 |
| History |
| People |
| Languages |
| Cuisine |
| Festivals |
| Music |
| Sport |
Monuments |
Vietnamese folk religion (Vietnamese:tín ngưỡng dân gian Việt Nam) is a group of spiritual beliefs and practices adhered to by theVietnamese people. About 86% of the population inVietnam are reportedirreligious,[1] but many among them practice folk religious traditions.
Vietnamese folk religion is not anorganized religious system, but a set of local worship traditions devoted to the "thần", a term which can be translated as "spirits", "gods" or with the more exhaustive locution "generative powers". These gods can benature deities ornational, community or kinshiptutelary deities or ancestral gods who are often deified heroic persons.Vietnamese mythology preserves narratives telling of the actions of many of the cosmic gods and cultural heroes.Ancestral veneration is practiced by most Vietnamese to varying degrees.
Đạo Mẫu is a distinct form of Vietnameseshamanism, giving prominence to somemother goddesses into its pantheon. Thegovernment of Vietnam also categorisesCao Đài as a form of Vietnamese indigenous religion, since it brings together the worship of thethần or local spirits withBuddhism,Confucianism andTaoism, as well as elements ofCatholicism,Spiritism andTheosophy.[2][3]
During the Nguyễn dynasty's persecution of Catholics in Vietnam, non-Catholics were calledlương dân (良民).[4][5] The termsbên lương andbên giáo were used to denote non-Catholic and Catholic alignments, respectively.[6]
The Vietnamese folk religion was suppressed in different times and ways in the 20th century. Debate and criticism of cultural destruction and loss began in the 1960s. In the beginning of the 1980s, the state returned to its policies of preserving religious culture, and the Vietnamese indigenous religion was soon promoted as the backbone of "a progressive culture, imbued with national identity".[7]
In the project of nation-building, the public discourse encourages the worship of ancient heroes of the Vietnamese identity, and gods and spirits with a long-standing presence in folk religion.[8] The relationship between the state and the local communities is flexible and dialogical in the process of religious renewal; both the state and the common people are mutual protagonists in the recent revival of Vietnamese folk religion.[9]
In Vietnamese folk religion,linh (chữ Hán:靈) has a meaning equivalent toholy andnumen, that is the power of a deity to affect the world of the living.[10]Compound Sino-Vietnamese words containing the termlinh indicate a large semantic field:linh-thiêng靈聖 "sacred",linh-hiển靈顯 "prodigious manifestation" (seexian ling),linh-ứng "responsive靈應 (to prayers, etc.)" (seeganying),linh-nghiệm靈驗 "efficacious",linh-hồn靈魂 "spirit of a person",vong-linh亡靈 "spirit of a dead person before 'going over'",hương-linh "spirit of a dead person that has 'gone over'".[10] These concepts derived from Chineseling.[10]Thiêng聖 is itself a variation ofthánh, meaning "constitutive principle of a being", "essence of a thing", "daemon", "intelligence" or "perspicacity".[10]
Linh is the mediating bivalency, the "medium", betweenâm and dương, that is "disorder" and "order", with order (dương,yang in Chinese) preferred over disorder (âm,yin in Chinese).[11] As bivalency,linh is alsometonymic of the inchoate order of creation.[12] More specifically, the linh power of an entity resides in mediation between the two levels of order and disorder which govern social transformation.[12] The mediating entity itself shifts of status and function between one level and another, and makes meaning in different contexts.[12]
This attribute is often associated with goddesses, animal motifs such as the snake (an amphibious animal), theowl which forgoes day in favour of night, thebat which bears aspects associated with both birds and mammals, therooster who crows at the crack between night and morning, but also rivers dividing landmasses, and other "liminal" entities.[12] There areâm gods such asNguyễn Bá Linh, anddương gods such asTrần Hưng Đạo.[13]Linh is a "cultural logic of symbolic relations", that mediates polarity in a dialectic governing reproduction and change.[14]
Linh has also been described as the ability to set up spatial and temporal boundaries, represent and identify metaphors, setting apart and linking together differences.[15] The boundary is crossed by practices such assacrifice andinspiration (shamanism).[15] Spiritual mediumship makes the individual the center of actualising possibilities, acts and events indicative of the will of the gods.[15] The association of linh withliminality implies the possibility of constructing various kinds of social times and history.[16] In this way, the etho-political (ethnic) dimension is nurtured, regenerated by re-enactment, and constructed at first place, imagined and motivated in the process of forging a model of reality.[16]
_(4356115370).jpg)
The Vietnamese folk religion fosters Confucian values; For example, Temples of Literature (Văn Miếu) are temples devoted to the worship of Confucius that in imperial times also functioned as academies.
Taoism is believed to have been introduced into Vietnam during thefirst Chinese domination of Vietnam. In its pure form it is rarely practiced in Vietnam, but can still be seen in places with Chinese communities such as Saigon, where there is a community of Cantonese/Vietnamese Taoist priest residing in the Khánh Vân Nam Viện Pagoda. Elements of its doctrines have also been absorbed into the Vietnamese folk religion.[17] Taoist influence is also recognisable in theCaodaist andĐạo Mẫu[18] religions.
According to Professor Liam Keelley, during the Tang dynasty native spirits were subsumed into Daoism and the Daoist view of these spirits completely replaced the original native tales.[19][unreliable source?] Buddhism and Daoism replaced native narratives surrounding MountYên Tử安子山.[20][unreliable source?]
Đạo Mẫu ("Mother Religion") refers to the worship of theMẫu (theMother Goddess) and the various mother goddesses, constituting a central feature of Vietnamese folk religion. The worship of female goddesses by the Vietnamese dates back toprehistory. It is possible that the concept of a Mother Goddess came to encompass the different spirits of nature as one only spirit manifesting itself in a variety of forms. Along history, various human heroines, emerged as protectors or healers, were deified as other manifestations of the Mother Goddess.[21]
As a distinct movement with its own priesthood (made ofshamans capable of merging the material and the spiritual world), temples, and rituals,Đạo Mẫu was revived since the 1970s in North Vietnam and then in the newly unified country.[22] In the pantheon ofĐạo Mẫu theNgọc Hoàng is viewed as the supreme, originating god,[23] but he is regarded as abstract and rarely worshipped.[24] The supreme goddess isThánh MẫuLiễu Hạnh.[25] The pantheon of the religion includes many other gods, both male and female.[26]
Local female deities and goddesses are also venerated such as the Cult of Thiên Tiên Thánh Giáo inHuế, the Cult ofThiên Y A Na orLady Po Nagar inNha Trang, the Cult of theBlack Virgin inTây Ninh and the Cult of theLady of the Realm inAn Giang.
The Cao Đài faith (Vietnamese:Đạo Cao Đài "Way of the Highest Power") is an organisedmonotheistic Vietnamese folk religion formally established in the city ofTây Ninh in southern Vietnam in 1926.[27][2]The full name of the religion is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ ("Great Way [of the] Third Time [of] Redemption").[27] Followers also call their religion Đạo Trời ("Way of God"). Cao Đài has common roots and similarities with theTiên Thiên Đạo doctrines.[28]
Cao Đài (Vietnamese:[kāːwɗâːj]ⓘ, literally the "Highest Lord" or "Highest Power"),[27] is the highest deity, the same as theNgọc Hoàng, who created the universe.[29][page needed] He is worshipped in the main temple, but Caodaists also worship the Mother Goddess, also known as the Queen Mother of the West (Diêu Trì Kim Mẫu, Tây Vương Mẫu). The symbol of the faith is the Left Eye of God, representing the dương (masculine, ordaining, positive and expansive) activity of the male creator, which is balanced by the yin (âm) activity of the feminine, nurturing and restorative mother of humanity.[2][27]
Đạo Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương ("Way of the Strange Fragrance from the Precious Mountain") is a religious tradition withBuddhist,Taoist,Confusianism,Zen,Yiguandao elements, originally practiced by themystic Đoàn Minh Huyên (1807–1856) and continued byHuỳnh Phú Sổ, founder of theHòa Hảo sect. The name itself refers to theThất Sơn range on the Vietnamese-Cambodian border, where Huyên claimed to be a livingBuddha.
During acholera epidemic in 1849, which killed over a million people, Huyên was reputed to have supernatural abilities to cure the sick and the insane. His followers wore amulets bearing the Chinese characters for Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương, a phrase that became identified, retrospectively, with the religion practiced by Huyên, and themillenarian movement associated with the latter. The faith has roughly 15,000 adherents mostly concentrated in the provinces ofAn Giang,Đồng Tháp,Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu,Long An,Sóc Trăng,Vĩnh Long,Tiền Giang andBến Tre.
Đạo Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa or justĐạo Hiếu Nghĩa is an organised Vietnamese folk religion founded in the late 1800s. It has roughly 80,000 followers scattered throughout southern Vietnam, but especially concentrated inTri Tôn District.[30]
TheMinh Đạo orĐạo Minh is a group of five religions that haveTiên Thiên Đạo roots in common with, yet pre-date and have influenced,Caodaism.[31]Minh Đạo means the "Way of Light". They are part of the broad milieu of Chinese-Vietnamese religious sectarianism.[32] After the 17th century, when theMing dynasty saw its power decline, a large number of Minh sects started to emerge inCochinchina, especially aroundSaigon.[32]
The Chinese authorities took little interest in these sects, since, at least until the early 20th century, they limited their activities to their temples.[32] They were autonomous structures, focusing on worship, philanthropy and literature.[32] Yet they had embryonic Vietnamese nationalistic elements, which evolved along the development of their political activity in the early 20th century.[32]
FiveMinh Đạo movements appeared in southern Vietnam in the 19th and 20th centuries:Minh Sư Đạo ("Way of the Enlightened Master"),Minh Lý Đạo ("Way of the Enlightened Reason"),Minh Đường Đạo ("Way of the Temple of Light"),Minh Thiện Đạo ("Way of the Foreseeable Kindness") andMinh Tân Đạo ("Way of the New Light").[32]
The founder ofMinh Lý Đạo was Âu Kiệt Lâm (1896–1941), an intellectual of half Chinese and half Vietnamese blood, and a shaman, capable of transcending the cultural barriers of the two peoples.[33] The primary deities of the pantheon of the sects are the Jade Emperor (Ngọc Hoàng Thượng Đế) and theQueen Mother of the West (Tây Vương Mẫu).[33]
Symbolic, liturgical and theological features of theMinh Đạo sects were shared with the Caodaist religion.[34] From 1975 onwards, the activities and temples of some of theMinh Đạo religions have been absorbed into sects of Caodaism, while others, especiallyMinh Đường Đạo andMinh Lý Đạo, have remained distinct.[35]
TheMinh Đường Trung Tân ("School of Teaching Goodness") emerged in the 1990s in theVĩnh Bảo District, a rural area of the city ofHải Phòng. A local carpenter known simply as "Master Thu" claimed to have been visited at night by the spirit of 16th-century sageNguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, who ordered him to build a shrine in his honor. Thu owned some land, where he built and inaugurated in 1996 a shrine to Khiêm. By 2016, it had attracted more than 10,000 visitors, and Thu had organized around the channeled messages of Khiêm a new religious movement with thousands of followers.[36]
The Ông Trần Cult is a unique and distinctive faith practiced by 20,000 residents of theLong Son Island inBà Rịa-Vũng Tàu province.
A rough typological identification of VietnameseGods categorises them into four categories:[37]
Some of the most popular Deities are:Lạc Long Quân (who, with his wifeÂu Cơ, gave rise to the Vietnamese people),The Four Immortals (Tản Viên Sơn Thánh,Thánh Gióng,Chử Đồng Tử, andLiễu Hạnh), theFour Palaces' Goddesses (Mẫu Thượng Thiên,Mẫu Thượng Ngàn,Mẫu Thoải, andMẫu Địa),Đức Thánh Trần,Sơn Tinh and Thủy Tinh, Thiều Dương Thánh Mẫu,Bà Chúa Kho,Bà Chúa Xứ,Thần Nông,Ngọc Hoàng,Bà Đen,Quán Thế Âm,Táo Quân, theBà mụ,Kim Quy and others. TheVietnamese mythology is the body ofholy narrative telling the actions of many of these Deities.
_(14765465201).jpg)
Thelinh of the gods, as it is appropriated for social construction, is also appropriated in self-cultivation.[16] It provides a locus for dialectical relations, between the individual and his or her social others, and between the self and the spirits, to intersect and overlap.[38] This is especially true of the experiences provided through shamanic practices such aslên đồng.[16]
Within the field of self-cultivation, action of self-empowering is expressed in a cluster of Vietnamese terms:tu "to correct", "to improve", as intu thân "self-perfecting with meditation",tu hiền "to cultivate gentleness/wisdom", ortu sửa "to correct", "to repair"; the wordchữa "to repair", "to correct", as insửa chữa "correction", "repair", orchữa trị "to cure an illness"; the wordcứu "to rescue", as incứu chữa "to cure", "to heal", incứu rỗi "to save souls", andcứu nước "to save the country".[38]
The practice of self-cultivation knits together the individual and the social in an orientation of discourse and action.[38] The individual project gives rise to a matrix of potentials, with which the individual deals with personal crises by constructing new meanings, seen as modalities of perfectibility.[39]
Vietnamese temples are generically calledmiếu (meaning "temple") in Vietnamese language. In the northern regions, the miếu are temples hosting the "main worship" of a deity and usually located at secluded places,[40] whileđình, đền, điện, đài ortịnh are temples for "emissary" or "secondary worship" located nearer or within habitation places.[40] In southern regions the two categories tend to blur.[40]Nhà thờ họ are family shrines of northern and middle Vietnam, equivalent to the Chineseancestral shrines.
Another categorisation proposed by observing the vernacular usage is that miếu are temples enshriningnature gods (earth gods,water gods,fire gods), or family chapels (gia miếu);đình are shrines oftutelary Deities of a place; andđền are shrines of deified heroes, emperors, and other virtuous historical persons.[40] Actually, other terms, often of local usage, exist.[40] For example, in middle Vietnam one of the terms used is cảnh, and inQuảng Nam province andQuảng Ngãi province a native term is khom.
Phủ ("palace") refers to a templar complex of multiple buildings, while one single building is ađền.[21] In English, in order to avoid confusion with Vietnamese Buddhist temples, đền and other words for of the Vietnamese folk religion's temples are commonly translated as "shrine".
Media related toVietnamese folk religion at Wikimedia Commons
