Abstract
Since Renovation, an extraordinary diversity and vitality of religious practices in Vietnam have been reported, revealing various ways the Vietnamese are seeking to re-establish and further their relations with the other world. A vast array of religious beliefs comes with the variety of religious practices, expressions, and experiences. This chapter first focuses on analysing the position and contribution of Vietnamese new religions to the process of religious diversification. It then seeks to illustrate how the socialist state has responded to pressure posed by this process, taken the rise of new religions as a case study. The chapter argues that Vietnamese new religions play an active role in religious diversification yet the state refuses to recognize it.
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Notes
- 1.
In post-Renovation Vietnam, there are several new religious groups which base their teachings and practise on the Christian tradition such as Phạ Tốc, Canh Tân Đặc Sủng, and Hà Mòn. Most of those that borrow ideas from Catholicism are found in the Northern and Central Highlands, among ethnic minorities, whereas new religious groups that reuse parts of Buddhist doctrine and practice can be found throughout the nation.
- 2.
Văn bản pháp luật Việt Nam về tín ngưỡng, tôn giáo (Vietnam’s legal documents of beliefs and religion). Tôn giáo Publishing house, Hanoi 2005: 11 (author’s translation).
- 3.
According to the guidelines for implementation of the newest legal document, the Pháp lệnh Tín ngưỡng, Tôn giáo (Ordinance Regarding Belief and Religion) issued in 2004, the minimum time required is 20 years.
- 4.
The word ‘tà đạo’ in Vietnamese can be roughly translated into English as ‘evil cult.’ In popular discourse of religious pathways in Vietnam, there is a sharp distinction between ‘chính đạo’ and ‘tà đạo’. ‘Chính đạo’ means the good genuine pathway that guides people to live a decent life and contribute to the community and society. In contrast, ‘tà đạo’ refers to a wrong way of life, often formed by evil forces, that can only lead to destruction. However, the term ‘tà đạo’ is also used nowadays to label any new religious groups with new perceptions and unusual tenets, rituals, or practices, and are nonmainstream. Regarding contemporary NRMs, none has ever been viewed as a ‘genuine religious pathway.’ However, there are groups that have a very bad public image because they are reported to cause trouble for people and for state authorities.
- 5.
He mentions the Ordinance Regarding Belief and Religion.
- 6.
This NRM is founded and led by Đặng Thị Thinh who was born in 1948 in Vietnam but mostly lives abroad. In 1966, she went to England and France for higher education, and then worked in Germany. Thinh also went to India to study Buddhism. In 1989, she arrived in Taiwan, where she founded her movement called ‘Thanh Hải vô thượng sư’ (Ching Hai, the supreme master). Ching Hai composes and publishes a wide range of books with ideals combined from several religious doctrines. She offers a new method of practice called ‘Quan Yin’ which, in 1996, attracted some 100,000 followers from nearly 50 different countries, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times in 1996. Ching Hai began her own satellite TV channel, based in the United States, in several languages. The movement was introduced into Vietnam in 1989 through various forms of activity. By 2000, it had spread to 30 cities and provinces and attracted nearly 6000 followers. The Vietnamese government officially banned the religion in 2004, charging it with illegal dissemination of unrecognised religious doctrine. Until late 2008, ‘Thanh Hải vô thượng sư’ was still described in Vietnamese media reports as one of ‘the most dangerous cults’ ever known to Vietnamese authorities and the public.
- 7.
See the Introduction to Chap. 1.
- 8.
Lưu Văn Ta was born in 1954 in Hà Tĩnh province. He founded his cult named the Barefoot Way (Đạo Chân không) in 1991 which basically relied on Buddhist tenets. However, he emphasises ascetic practices concerning the body. He and his followers often left home, begged for food in the street and slept outdoors regardless of weather conditions. He encouraged his followers to throw away all their worldly possessions and focus on ascetic practices in order to achieve enlightenment quickly. Occasionally, he organised unusual night rituals during which participants stripped, danced around a fire, and finally had sex together. His cult was heavily suppressed by the authorities in any place it reached. He was forced to abandon his cult and imprisoned twice.
- 9.
During the period 2001–2005, a garden in Đức Hòa district, Long An province, came under media scrutiny. The media, scientific organisations, and the authorities were initially confused by rumours of a ‘magical garden’ with extraordinary powers to cure all kinds of illnesses, even incurable ones. At its peak, some 7000 people were estimated to have gathered inside the garden, around the small house where a special woman was living. Nguyễn Thị Kim Hồ had become famous several years earlier. In 1999, she had declared herself a ‘heavenly messenger.’ Many people came to ask for cheap but extraordinary treatments, at which she disseminated her doctrine of a new belief. Determining that what she was doing was ‘superstitious,’ after issuing warnings, the local authorities and police arrested her. When she returned home in 2003 after 12 months in detention, people continued to come and stay in the garden in the hope of treatment.
- 10.
Võ Trọng Tái was born in 1958 in Quảng Ngãi province. He once worked as journalist and painter. In 2000, he was awarded the first state prize for his design of the legendary ancestors of the Vietnamese (Father Dragon and Mother Fairy-Cha Rồng, Mẹ Tiên) and his work was chosen for the state-financed annual national anniversary of the Hùng kings (sons of this couple). He then established his own company producing symbols of the Vietnamese ancestors. However, it was reported that he in fact ran his own religious cult of the Dragon and Fairy, recruited followers, told them that he was endowed with supernatural abilities, and was preparing to organise a key ritual offering in Hanoi. He was arrested and the company was shut down by the authorities when he was convicted of promulgating superstition and making use of religious belief for personal economic benefit.
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Hoang, C.V. (2017). New Religions in Religious Diversification and the State’s Response. In: New Religions and State's Response to Religious Diversification in Contemporary Vietnam. Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58500-0_7
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