Taoism in Vietnam

Gateway of the Quán Thánh Temple.

Taoism in Vietnam (Vietnamese: Đạo giáo Việt Nam) is believed to have been introduced into the country during the first Chinese domination of Vietnam.[1] Under Lý Dynasty King Lý Nhân Tông (1072-1127), the examination for the recruitment of officials consisted of essays on the "three doctrines - Tam Giáo/三教” (Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism).[1]

Taoism in its pure form is rarely practiced in Vietnam, but elements of it have been absorbed into the Vietnamese folk religion and you may still see fragments of it practiced in areas with small Chinese communities.[2] One of these small communities is Khanh Van Nam Vien Pagoda which is a temple owned by Cantonese Quanzhen Taoists in Saigon. Fujianese Taoists also inhabit smaller rural villages in the west such as Châu Đốc where the local spirit medium rituals belong to the Lu Shan Sect. Other than these small Chinese communities, most other descendants of the Taoist religion in Vietnam are not as organized as they would be in places with larger Chinese communities therefore have been turned into nothing more than “witch doctors/thầy pháp”. These masters are said to specialize removing curses or to curse someone. The only similarities between a “Taoist” and a “witch doctor” would be that both share practices and rites and one of the main deities that would be worshippedand invoked is Thái Thượng Lão Quân.

Taoism has also influenced the Caodaist and Dao Mau[3] religions in Vietnam.

According to Professor Liam Kelley during the Tang dynasty native spirits were subsumed into Daoism and the Daoist view of these spirits completely replaced the original native tales.[4] Buddhism and Daoist replaced native narratives surrounding Mount Yên Tử (安子山).[5]

References

  1. ^ a b Religion in Vietnam
  2. ^ Bryan S. Turner; Oscar Salemink (25 September 2014). Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia. Routledge. pp. 240–. ISBN 978-1-317-63646-5.
  3. ^ Tu Anh T. Vu, 2006, p. 30
  4. ^ https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2015/11/26/the-daoist-appropriationsubordination-of-bach-hac-spirits/
  5. ^ https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/elephant-mountain-and-the-erasure-of-viet-indigeneity/

See also


This page was last updated at 2021-01-11 05:52 UTC. Update now. View original page.

All our content comes from Wikipedia and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.


Top

If mathematical, chemical, physical and other formulas are not displayed correctly on this page, please useFirefox or Safari