Ngô, keen on spiritualism, turned the tables
HAS a hundred kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, the town of Tây Ninh (160,000 inhabitants) owes its fame to one of the most unusual buildings in Vietnam: the Holy Mother Cao Đài cathedral-temple. The place houses the “Holy See” of this curious religion created in the 1920s by Ngô Văn Chiêu, a modest official of the Cochin-Chinese administration. A Buddhist practicing ancestor worship like any Vietnamese, Ngô was also keen on spiritualism.
By turning the tables with office colleagues, he would have had, in 1921, at the age of 43, several apparitions of a spirit revealing to him the existence of the Cao Dai, term meaning “supreme palace” and designating, neither more nor less, a new god. In 1926, Caodaism was officially founded. In a colonial context troubled by the emergence of nationalist movements, the Saigon authorities quickly recognized this new cult, in order to make it an ally.
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Caodaism aims to reconcile beliefs
Caodaism is to religion what fruit salad is to dessert: a delicious mixture. An all-out syncretism aimed at reconciling beliefs. Here, Buddha neighbors Lao Tzu, Jesus, Moses and Mohammed… In the immense sanctuary of Tây Ninh, whose construction began in 1933, the dominant colors (yellow, blue and red) borrow from the great religions of Asia.
From Confucianism, the Caodaists have kept the cult of ancestors, the importance of the family, the daily link with the dead. From Taoism, detachment from the world. From Buddhism, precepts of morality and purity: do not lie, do not drink alcohol, reject violence. To which is added a zest of Christian imperatives: love of neighbor and charity. The community also receives numerous donations, and lives on agricultural income from the land and gardens linked to the sanctuary.
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The movement attracted many intellectuals from its beginnings
From the outside, it looks like a church. The building also faces east, as in the Christian tradition. The clergy is organized on the Catholic model, with a pope, cardinals, bishops. But past the porch, the entrance opens onto an oddity: a fresco where we recognize Victor Hugo in academic uniform, writing with a pen the mottos “God and Humanity”, “Love and Justice”.
The French writer, keen on spiritualism, is one of the illustrious figures venerated by disciples, like Joan of Arc, Pasteur, Descartes, Shakespeare, Churchill and Lenin. “To fully understand and practice Caodaism, you had to have a certain level of knowledge,” highlight the history of Chau Nguyen Ngoc.
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Far from being a cult for superstitious peasants, the movement attracted many intellectuals from its beginnings.
A temple dedicated to the love of kitsch
Fascinated by this sect to which he considered converting, the American writer Graham Greene described the joyous catch-all inside: “Christ and Buddha contemplate from the ceiling of the cathedral an oriental fantasia à la Walt Disneydragons and snakes in technicolor.” The nave (107 m long) is in fact punctuated by 18 pink columns around which these chimerical creatures wind.
The ground is divided into nine sections, so many steps to paradise. On the altar and the stained glass windows, there is the Eye of Providence, a symbol of universality reminiscent of Masonic symbolism.
Colorful tunics according to different oriental philosophies
HAS Provided they wear decent clothing, visitors are welcome to the services. Attending them (there are four per day, at 6 a.m., noon, 6 p.m. and midnight) is a unique experience. The ritual, unchanged since the origins, lasts around thirty minutes, is performed to music, sacred chants being launched from the top of a mezzanine leaning against the entrance wall. The faithful are dressed in white. Men enter from the right, women from the left.
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The members of the clergy occupy the central aisle. The highest dignitaries, wearing a tiara, wear colored tunics, representative of different oriental philosophies: the yellow of the Buddhists, the red of the Confucianists or the blue of the Taoists.
An influence as strong as it is controversial
A private army of some 20,000 men was formed in the 1930s by the Caodaist movement. These battalions collaborated with the Japanese invader during the Second World War, then the sect enlisted its men with the French against the Viet Minh separatists, before siding with the Americans and the troops of South Vietnam. When Saigon fell in 1975, the communist power undertook to destroy Caodaism: 500 temples closed and leaders were executed.
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Today, the cult has lost many followers but remains important in the south and center of the country. Now recognized as a religion by the authorities, it has spread throughout the world (including the Paris region) with the diaspora who fled Vietnam.
➤ Article published in the magazine GEO n°540, Le Vietnamfrom February 2024.
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2024-03-16 12:48:13
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