Janet Alison Hoskins
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824840044
- eISBN:
- 9780824868611
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824840044.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Caodaism, Vietnam’s third largest religion with four million followers, is now a major world religion. Colorful and strikingly eclectic, it incorporates Chinese, Buddhist and Western traditions along ...
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Caodaism, Vietnam’s third largest religion with four million followers, is now a major world religion. Colorful and strikingly eclectic, it incorporates Chinese, Buddhist and Western traditions along with more recent world figures like Victor Hugo, Jeanne d’Arc, Lenin and (in the USA) the Mormon founder Joseph Smith. Sometimes described as “outrageously syncretistic”, its combination of different elements has been seen as an excessive, even trangressive combination of the traditions of Asia and the West. Caodaism emerged in the 1920s during the struggle against colonialism in French Indochina. Millions converted in the first few decades, and Caodaists played important roles in the nationalist movement and the American war in Vietnam. Communist victory in 1975 led to severe restrictions inside Vietnam, but Caodaism flourished in the diaspora in the US, France, Australia and Canada. The lives of religious founders from the Caodai “the age of revelations” (1925-1934) are contrasted with experiences of their disciples and descendants in the “age of diaspora” (1975-present) when many Caodaists went into exile. Paired biographies of founders and followers show the tension between initial religious inspiration and diasporic re-interpretations in a new context, as the religion has achieved a global outreach on both sides of the Pacific.Less
Caodaism, Vietnam’s third largest religion with four million followers, is now a major world religion. Colorful and strikingly eclectic, it incorporates Chinese, Buddhist and Western traditions along with more recent world figures like Victor Hugo, Jeanne d’Arc, Lenin and (in the USA) the Mormon founder Joseph Smith. Sometimes described as “outrageously syncretistic”, its combination of different elements has been seen as an excessive, even trangressive combination of the traditions of Asia and the West. Caodaism emerged in the 1920s during the struggle against colonialism in French Indochina. Millions converted in the first few decades, and Caodaists played important roles in the nationalist movement and the American war in Vietnam. Communist victory in 1975 led to severe restrictions inside Vietnam, but Caodaism flourished in the diaspora in the US, France, Australia and Canada. The lives of religious founders from the Caodai “the age of revelations” (1925-1934) are contrasted with experiences of their disciples and descendants in the “age of diaspora” (1975-present) when many Caodaists went into exile. Paired biographies of founders and followers show the tension between initial religious inspiration and diasporic re-interpretations in a new context, as the religion has achieved a global outreach on both sides of the Pacific.
Alexander Soucy
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835989
- eISBN:
- 9780824871567
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835989.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter presents a background of the Vietnamese religious landscape and different conceptions about how the supernatural relates to people’s lives. Starting off with descriptions of some of the ...
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This chapter presents a background of the Vietnamese religious landscape and different conceptions about how the supernatural relates to people’s lives. Starting off with descriptions of some of the ways that people approach religion and religious practice, the chapter illustrates the widely different interpretations of being religious in Vietnam. Buddhism cannot be understood through the philosophical content of religious texts. For most practicing Buddhists, what is identified as Buddhism represents only apart of a complex interaction with a supernatural world that is also populated by various other beings that have the power to help or hinder. The chapter ends with the opposing elite view of religion, and how it has played out in recent history.Less
This chapter presents a background of the Vietnamese religious landscape and different conceptions about how the supernatural relates to people’s lives. Starting off with descriptions of some of the ways that people approach religion and religious practice, the chapter illustrates the widely different interpretations of being religious in Vietnam. Buddhism cannot be understood through the philosophical content of religious texts. For most practicing Buddhists, what is identified as Buddhism represents only apart of a complex interaction with a supernatural world that is also populated by various other beings that have the power to help or hinder. The chapter ends with the opposing elite view of religion, and how it has played out in recent history.
