The Encyclopedia of World Religions

466 S Vietnamese religions

the ideas of L AO - TZU and C HUANG - TZU . It empha sized such practices as communicating with spirits through seances, HEALING by religious means, lay ing out tombs and houses through the art of FENG SHUI , and telling the future by such means as using the Chinese book the I C HING . All of these religions existed together. The educated elite favored Confucianism, the farm ers favored village religion and Taoism, and peo ple looked to Buddhism to deal with death and beyond. But all formed part of a loose association. The coming of R OMAN C ATHOLICISM , favored by the French colonial rulers, changed that. Many Viet namese converted to Roman Catholicism. Indeed, Roman Catholicism was more successful in Viet nam than anywhere else in East Asia, except the Philippines. Catholics were supposed to reject all other religions. Not everyone did so, but those who did made life in the villages difficult. They refused to cooperate in village worship. Some of their non Catholic neighbors also saw them as disloyal. Vietnam has also known several new reli gious movements. In the 19th century an apoca lyptic movement known as Buu Son Ky Huong became popular in the south. It developed around the idea that the Buddha M AITREYA was going to appear soon and restore pure Buddhism. In 1939 a new movement, Hoa Hao, arose when a 20-year old man claimed to be the reincarnation of the founder of Buu Son Ky Huong. In 1926, another new religious movement, Cao Dai, appeared after an experience that its founder had at a seance. Organized like the Catholic church—it even has a pope ( see PAPACY )—Cao Dai recognizes not only Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian deities but also J ESUS , M UHAMMAD , and such unlikely figures as Pericles and Victor Hugo as gods. Both Hoa Hao and Cao Dai were active militarily in the war between North and South Vietnam that followed World War II. Today, the situation of religion in Vietnam is uncertain. The government has taken some steps to ensure that religions will not threaten it. At the same time, Vietnamese who have left Vietnam have brought their religions with them. The most famous is probably the Buddhist Zen monk, Thich

Vietnamese religions Religion in Vietnam is a complex mixture that includes many different tra ditions. This complexity is due in part to the coun try’s history. China ruled Vietnam for more than a thousand years (111 B . C . E .–939 C . E .). Then, after centuries of independence, the French conquered the country and made it into a colony (1883–1939). A Communist government officially opposed to religion took control of Vietnam in 1974. Most Vietnamese have been farmers living in villages. They have worshipped the protecting deity of their village. Each village has had a dif ferent protector. Some villages have worshipped heavenly gods, but others have worshipped thieves, prostitutes, or rebels—whatever being the inhabitants thought would assist and protect them. Villagers traditionally maintained an ALTAR for this deity in a public building where members of the village met to make decisions. Besides worshipping village deities, the Viet namese have known many other religious tradi tions. Vietnam is sometimes considered a Buddhist country, but its B UDDHISM is unusual. The Chinese brought Buddhism into northern Vietnam. As a result, the Buddhism that traditionally prevails there is M AHAYANA B UDDHISM in two forms: Thien Buddhism, related to Chinese Ch’an and Japanese Z EN B UDDHISM , and Tinh-do, the Vietnamese form of P URE L AND B UDDHISM . In the south, however, Buddhism came from Khmer people living in the Mekong delta. Their Buddhism was the rather dif ferent T HERAVADA B UDDHISM , the Buddhism of Cam bodia and other Southeast Asian countries. The Chinese brought more than just Buddhism to Vietnam. They also brought C ONFUCIANISM and T AOISM . During the Chinese period Confucianism, which emphasizes propriety and learning, formed the worldview of the ruling elite. After indepen dence in 939, Confucianism suffered a temporary setback, but later Vietnamese rulers returned to it. The religion of the court also had some important protecting deities of its own: the dragon king and the turtle god. Taoism was more a religion for ordinary peo ple. In Vietnam as in China, it did not emphasize the ideas that most Americans associate with it,