by Jim Goodman
 |
| noon prayers at the Cao Đài Cathedral in Toà Thánh |
This eye, the left eye of God
(left being the yang side), the
iconic symbol of the Cao Đài religion, first appeared in a vision of Ngô Văn
Chiêu, a Vietnamese working as a colonial official on Phú Quốc
Island in 1921. In his free time
he studied about Buddhist and Taoist beliefs, as well as spiritism—the belief
humans could contact the deceased and other spirits. He attended séances and in one of these he claimed messages
from Đức
Cao Đài, Lord of the High Stage (or Tower), or God, according to his
interpretation, that were instructions on the tenets of a new religion for a
new epoch.
 |
| Cao Đài symbols on the cathedral ceiling |
Moving to Saigon soon after,
he was joined by other séance practitioners with similar experiences,
particularly Lê Văn Trung and Phạm Công Tắc. By 1926 these men had molded the
massages of the séances into a specific creed of principles and rules and
applied to the French colonial government for recognition as a new religion. The French approved. Ngô Văn Chiêu having decided
to retire to a life of meditation by then, Le Văn Trung became the first Giáo
Tông, or Leader of a Religious Group.
The central Cao Đài tenet is
that the current age is the Third Period of revelation and salvation. In the First Period God transmitted his
messages through Dipankara Buddha (a previous incarnation of Buddha dating back
100,000 years), Lao Zi, the founder of Taoism, and other ancient Chinese
sages. In the Second Period,
God’s agents were Shakyamuni Buddha, Moses, Confucius, Jesus and Mohammed. But these truths were limited to their
historical periods and geographical conditions and have been distorted since
their introduction.
 |
| the Left Eye of God, cathedral windows |
 |
| Cao Đài pantheon |
The Cao Đài creed aims to
become the Universal Religion of the Third Period and draws upon existing
religions for its articles of faith.
From Buddhism it adopted the notion of reincarnation and the five taboos
against killing, lying, licentious behavior, stealing and intoxication. From Confucianism it incorporated its
social order and code of behavior.
From Taoism it took the yin-yang
concept and from Catholicism it got its organizational structure.
 |
| Cao Đài temple in Trà Vinh |
The Cao Đài religion assigns
nearly equal importance to men and women.
They pray separately during the services, and women enter from the left
side, while the men enter from the right.
But the women line up in ranks opposite the men and they can be members
of the clergy. Because the order
of the clergy so resembles that of Catholicism, outsiders describe them as priest,
bishop, cardinal and pope.
Actually, there are more ranks than these and more words used to
identify them. And the use of
’pope’ to identify the giáo tong is
inaccurate, for the Vietnamese word for ‘pope’ in the Catholic sense is
actually giáo hoàng.
The only position a woman cannot
hold is giáo tông. According to Taoism (or perhaps a
Confucian prejudice), yin cannot rule
over yang, lest chaos ensue. Taoist influence also established the
veneration of the Queen Mother of the West, a Chinese goddess, as the celestial
representative of yin.
The binding element in this
fusion of beliefs in the years of its formation and growth, distinguishing it
from established religions, was spiritism. The preferred method of contacting spirits was the séance,
during which famous personalities, as various as Joan of Arc, Napoleon, Victor
Hugo, Louis Pasteur, the Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, other Vietnamese
personalities, Sun Yat-sen and even William Shakespeare and Vladimir
Lenin. They sent messages regarding
finer points of doctrine and organization, sometimes transmitted via automatic
writing. And sometimes blank
sheets of paper were locked up in a box and opened after some time, containing
messages allegedly written by spirits.
 |
| Cao Đài priest |
 |
| the Covenant with God |
Three of these personalities became
important Cao Đài saints: Nguyễn Bỉnh
Khiêm, Victor Hugo and Sun Yat-sen.
Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm was a famous 16th century scholar and poet
during the turbulent time of the usurping Mạc Dynasty, with a reputation as a
political prophet. Victor Hugo,
the French novelist whose works Les
Misérables and Toilers of the Sea
expressed much sympathy for the poor and downtrodden, also was a believer in
spiritism. Sun Yat-sen founded the
Chinese Republic in 1911, an event Cao Đài adherents believed helped set the
stage for the Third Period. A
painting in a ground floor room of the cathedral in Toà Thánh, reproduced at
other Cao Đài sites, shows the three of them signing a Covenant with God. Nguyễn Bỉng Khiêm holds an ink stone,
while Victor Hugo writes with a quill pen and Sun Yat-sen with a brush the
words “God and Humanity, Love and Justice” in French and Chinese.
 |
| Cao Đài clergy leaving the cathedral |
 |
| devotee at prayer |
The newly recognized religion
set up its Holy See in Toà Thánh, a few kilometers east of Tây Ninh city. Its membership grew quickly, especially
among the peasantry. But it also became
troubled by doctrinal disputes.
Since the principles of the religion came from séances, some new
adherents began searching for these messages through their own informal séances. The leadership decided to officially
restrict the practice to two recognized mediums, one male, one female, in the
Holy See. Eventually it published The Compilation of Divine Messages, as
well as a Religious Constitution.
 |
| devotee with offerings |
 |
| Cao Đài priest representing the Taoist element |
 |
| Cao Đài Cathedral in Toà Thánh |
The Tây Ninh-run branch
remained by far the largest Cao Đài organization. Phạm Công Tắc assumed leadership, though not the office of giáo tong. The Cao Đài message began evolving from then on, taking on a
more nationalistic flavor.
Southwest Vietnam at that time witnessed several new Buddhist sects that
emphasized temporal works more than spiritual; i.e. involving oneself in
improving the world rather than withdrawing from it. Cao Đài advocated self-cultivation, but also promoted
equality and opposed exploitation, factors which spurred peasant conversion.
Cao Đài had always opposed colonialism as a matter of
religious doctrine, but tempered this by calling for increasing dialog with the
colonial authorities. Under Phạm
Công Tắc the notion of dialog was all but muted and the religion took on a more
openly nationalist stand as the messages revealed by the mediums started
criticizing colonialism and its hardships. At the same time he oversaw the construction of the great
cathedral in Toà Thánh, which elevated the Cao Đài prestige and influence.
 |
| cathedral interior |
In 1941 widespread revolts
against French rule broke out over much of Vietnam. In the course of the crackdown, French authorities seized
the Holy See at Tây Ninh, temporarily forbade religious services and hustled Phạm
Công Tắc and other Cao Đài dignitaries off to exile in Madagascar. Cao Đài leaders then formed an army,
which eventually grew to 25,000, to protect its believers and, hopefully, ally
with the Japanese to overthrow French rule. But the alliance never materialized, Japan lost the war and
the French returned.
However, the re-installed
colonial government immediately faced a Việt Minh-led insurgency. Seeking local allies, the French
reversed their attitude about Cao Đài, brought the leaders back from exile and
enlisted them as allies against the Việt Minh. Phạm Công Tắc agreed, but others didn’t and the Cao Đài army
was not an effective French ally.
 |
| cathedral garden |
When the war ended and the
country was split in two, Cao Đài leaders initially supported Ngô Đình Diệm,
but in 1955, after a government raid on the Holy See, opposed him. They remained just as opposed to the
Communists, though, so after re-unification in 1975 the Hanoi government
disbanded their army, confiscated their lands and closed their temples. This was similar to what the government
did to all private religious armies (Hòa Hào being another) and
establishments—Buddhist, Taoist, Catholic and Protestant included. Only in the late 80s did the government
return the confiscated lands and in 1997, with a far more tolerant policy in
place, lifted prohibitions on Cao Đài religious expression.
In the 21st century
religion in Vietnam began enjoying a period of rejuvenation. Temples and churches drew crowds again
and festivals revived. How much
religious sentiment influenced daily behavior again after decades of secular
propaganda and the onset of the century’s materialism is debatable. Yet the revival of piety and respect
for tradition is certainly sincere.
For Cao Đài adherents, following the moral precepts and cultivating a
personal relationship with God are still the essence of the faith. As part of their reverence for all
life, they are supposed to eat vegetarian food ten days a month and the clergy
must abstain from meat entirely.
 |
| the other Cao Đài temple in Toà Thánh |
Today, estimates of the number
of Cao Đài followers ranges from six to eight million, making it Vietnam’s third
largest religion. Most of them are
in the Mekong Delta and travelers can spot Cao Đài temples in most Delta provinces,
recognized by their tall twin front towers and the All-Seeing Eye mounted on
the front façade. They also exist
further north, as far as Hội An, Đà Nẵng and Huế. The congregations there are much smaller, though. Basically the further southwest you go
in Vietnam, the greater the number of Cao Đài devotees and temples.
Tây Ninh is still the Cao Đài heartland
and the ostentatious cathedral at Toà Thánh its most splendid house of worship
and the model for most of the others in the Mekong Delta. The front features two tall towers, the
entrance between them leading to a long hallway, supported by thick,
dragon-entwined pillars, at the end of which sits a huge globe with the Left
Eye of God prominent in the center.
The same Eye, inside a triangle, is on the rows of window grilles at
either side. Smaller towers stand
on the roof at the halfway point and at the rear.
A large garden park, with a few
towers and other buildings, lies adjacent and a path past statues of other Cao Đài
saints and message-bearers leads to another Cao Đài temple in the same
compound. It has just one front
tower, but an equally long hallway behind it and is used to accommodate the
spillover from the cathedral during services.
 |
| Cao Đài priest representing the Confucian element |
 |
| Cao Đài clergy at Toà Thánh |
Prayer time for Cao Đài
devotees begins daily at 6:00 and 12:00, a.m. and p.m. Services are the same each time, Sunday
is no different and there are no special holy days or festivals. Attendance is not mandatory, but on an
ordinary day devotees fill the Tòa Thánh cathedral, at least at noon, dressed
in white. The clergy, who sit in
front, wear robes of different colors, symbolizing the three main elements of
the faith—yellow for Buddhism, Blue for Taoism, red for Confucianism.
The offerings they might bring
are simple—flowers, incense, candles and water. Devotees pray while kneeling erect and kowtow at intervals
while a priest raps a gong or a large bronze bowl at the altar. The rituals, which altogether last
about an hour, include music and singing, performed on the indoor balcony above
the hallway.
 |
| Cao Đài Cathedral services |
 |
| leading the Cao Đài prayers at Đà Nẵng |
The ground floor is off-limits
to non-worshipers during prayer sessions.
Tourists can watch the rituals, but only from the second floor
balcony. This prevents them from
disturbing the devotees by coming in to take close-up photographs while people
are trying to privately communicate with God.
As for the future, the
question is how long can the revival of Cao Đài faith continue? The attraction of religion is
decreasing among each younger generation.
Yet a large percentage of the daily congregation at Toà Thánh is young,
especially the females, who in any religion are more involved than the men. Compared to other religions in Vietnam,
Cao Đài is the only one with a strong nationalist identity. It is uniquely Vietnamese and considers
itself the universal religion of the future. Cao Đài devotees associate keeping their faith with retaining
their Vietnamese identity in a globalized world. Perhaps these convictions will insure its survival in the
ever more secular-minded times to come.
 |
| musicians and singers accompanying the Cao Đài prayers |
*
* *
No comments:
Post a Comment