Religion in Southeast Asia: An Encyclopedia of Faiths and Cultures

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Vietnam, officially known as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, stretches along the eastern coast of mainland Southeast Asia and extends about 1,650 kilometers from north to south. The country covers a total area of 331,212 square kilometers and is bordered by the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea to the east, China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, and the Gulf of Thailand to the south. The capital, Hanoi, is located in the northern region on the banks of the Red River. Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) is Vietnam’s economic and financial hub in the south of the country near the eastern edge of the Mekong Delta. Vietnam’s topography varies from the low-lying delta regions in the north and south to hilly, mountainous terrain in the far north, northwest, and central provinces. Due to its wide range of latitude and topographical relief, Vietnam’s climate and weather patterns vary greatly from one region to another. Whereas the northern part of the country features a subtropical climate, the southern region is tropical with more consistent year-round temperatures.

Vietnam is an ethnically and culturally diverse country with a population estimated at 87.84 million in 2011. The Vietnamese government recognizes 54 ethnic groups, with the Viet (or Kinh) majority comprising more than 80 percent of the total population. Whereas the latter mainly inhabit lowland delta and coastal regions, most ethnic minority groups reside in the highland and mountainous areas. The official language is Vietnamese, a tonal and monosyllabic language commonly classified as belonging to the Mon-Khmer branch of the Austroasiatic language family. Besides the latter, four other language families are represented by Vietnam’s ethnic minority groups: Austronesian, Thai-Kadai, Hmong-Mien (Miao-Yao), and Sino-Tibetan.

Vietnam’s ethnic and cultural diversity also encompasses a plurality of local religious traditions that have historically been shaped in dynamic interaction with various imported philosophies and religions. One of the most commonly held beliefs in Vietnam is the notion that spiritual beings coexist with humans and wield influence over their affairs. The unseen world is hence viewed as inhabited by an extensive array of powerful male and female divinities, mythical and human ancestors, and guardian spirits and wandering ghosts that need to be revered and propitiated in order to ensure their goodwill. Over the centuries, particularly during the centuries of Chinese domination (111 BCE–938 CE), Vietnam’s spirit-based religion has fused with elements from Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. Other major world religions appeared in later stages of Vietnam’s history. The most widespread Christian denomination, Catholicism, was first introduced by Western missionaries in the late fifteenth century and gained a firm foothold in Vietnamese society during the French colonial period. In the first three decades of the twentieth century, the south of Vietnam saw the emergence of several indigenous religious movements, the best known of which are the Cao Dai (a syncretistic blend of Vietnamese and Western spiritualism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism and Christianity, founded in the 1920s) and Hòa Ho Buddhism (a reformist millenarian Buddhist movement founded in 1939).

Vietnam’s recent history is marked by the struggle against French colonial rule, the 1954 division of the country into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Republic of South Vietnam, and the protracted “Vietnam War” that ended with Vietnam’s reunification under communist rule in 1975. Despite constitutional guarantees of religious freedom since the declaration of independence in 1945, the Vietnamese state placed religious beliefs, practices, and organizations under firm control in order to advance its goal of building a socialist society. Whereas complex religious organizations were deemed as potential hotbeds of political dissent, certain components of traditional religious beliefs and practices were discredited as superstitious, wasteful, and backward remnants of a past that needed to be overcome in order to advance scientific progress and socialist construction.

In 1986, the Vietnamese government committed itself to a series of policy measures (known as Đi Mó’i) that entailed the shift from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economy. Alongside economic restructuring, popular beliefs and ritual practices experienced a tremendous resurgence. Temples and shrines that had been neglected due to the government’s restrictive measures were reclaimed by local communities as places of worship and ritual practice. Funds were raised for the renovation, restoration, or new construction of village communal houses, pagodas, and family ancestral halls. Life-cycle rituals, such as weddings and funerals, and village ritual festivals were again celebrated with much grandeur. Spirit mediumship reemerged from the secrecy to which it had resorted and subsequently flourished into a vibrant religious movement known as the Four Palace Religion (Dao Tu Phu) or Mother Goddess Religion (Dao Mau). Alongside this religious revivification, a careful reassessment of Vietnamese “traditional culture” took place as part of the state’s project of preserving and promoting a strong national cultural identity in the process of global integration. While this view has come a long way from perceiving religion, in the Marxian sense, as a mystifying tool of power, official discourse now tends to essentialize certain aspects of Vietnamese religious belief as timeless cultural heritage imbued with national ideals. Recent scholarship has challenged this view by emphasizing that religion in present-day Vietnam constitutes a multifaceted arena of dynamic and creative interaction with the challenges of the contemporary globalized world.

Census data on religious affiliation do not necessarily reflect the deep embeddedness of spirit-based religious beliefs and practices in Vietnamese daily life. Moreover, the latter are subsumed under the category of “folk belief” (tin nguong dan gian), defined as an aspect of traditional culture and customs, and therefore not subject to the state’s religious politics. In contrast, the term “religion” (ton giao) refers only to institutionalized religious denominations. The government currently recognizes 12 religions, of which the following 6 are the most prominent: Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Cao Dai, and Hòa Ho Buddhism. Estimates of the number of adherents vary to some extent, depending on the data source, survey methods, and the ways in which adherence is defined. Buddhists are estimated to make up 10–50 percent of the population; Roman Catholics, 8–10 percent; Cao Dai, 2.5–4 percent; Hòa Ho, 1.5–3 percent; Protestants, 1–2 percent (of which two-thirds are members of ethnic minorities); and Muslims, less than 0.1 percent of the population.

Buddhists burning incense at ancient temple in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. (xuanhuongho/iStockphoto.com)

Since the early 2000s, a number of locally founded (Buddhist/syncretistic) as well as international (mainly Protestant) denominations have received legal status. Yet despite the general relaxation of restrictions on religious expression in the past decades, Vietnam’s record on religious freedom has remained a matter of concern to various international human rights groups and governmental agencies. A major point of criticism is that the Vietnamese government keeps holding significant control over the institutional lives and activities of organized religions. The legal framework governing religious activities stipulates that all religious organizations must be officially recognized and registered with appropriate state agencies at various levels. Unrecognized and unregistered religious groups risk coercive and punitive action by the authorities, particularly if their activities are perceived as a potential threat to state authority and national unity. One prominent example is the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV). Established in South Vietnam in 1964 with clear political aims, the UBCV refused to integrate into the government-affiliated Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) and has thus been effectively banned since 1981. Like his predecessor and other reputed UBCV leaders, the UBCV’s current supreme patriarch and human rights defender, Venerable Thich Quang Do, has reportedly been subjected to various forms of detentions and house arrests in the last three decades. Members of officially recognized religious groups have likewise been faced with varying levels of government interference and pressure.

In recent years, a number of clashes between security forces and Roman Catholic communities were sparked by government claims to church land. Land usage rights remain a contentious issue in Vietnam, where “the people own and the state manages the land,” which is why the government does not conceive of church land confiscations as a violation of religious freedom. Other contentious issues are the inconsistencies and uncertainties with regard to registration procedures of religious groups. This pertains especially to the many and varied Protestant denominations that had been attracting fast-growing followings among ethnic minority groups in the northwest and central highlands. Although the government continues to grant legal recognition to smaller, recently arrived Protestant denominations, many local congregations had their registration applications rejected, and members of unregistered “house churches”' reportedly face consistent, often violent harassment from the authorities. Such restrictions regarding religious activities and organizations are hardly surprising, given that Vietnam as a single-party state is wary of the powerful political potential of religious groups. Yet it is also vital to stress that the proliferation and diversification of religious life in present-day Vietnam must be viewed as part of an ongoing dialogic process of negotiation between state and society actors that involves continuous changes and adaptations on both sides.

Kirsten W. Endres

See also: Buddhism; Cambodia; Cao Dai; Christianity; Colonialism; Confucianism; Daoism (Taoism); Duc, Thich Quang; Engaged Buddhism; Ethnicity; Goddess Traditions; Hanh, Thich Nhat; Hòa Ho Buddhism; Interreligious Relations and Dialogue; Islam; Laos; Minorities; Missionary Movements; Myth/Mythology; Popular Religion; Reform Movements; Ritual Dynamics; Shamanism, Spirit Mediumship; Syncretism; Thailand.

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