İnanç Dosyası 30 | Syncretism / Cao Daism / Vietnam

CAO DAISM, a new Vietnamese religion, began when Ngo Van Chieu, an official in the French colonial administration, received a message from a “superior spirit” in 1919. The “Superior spirit” revealed itself to him as Cao Dai or the Supreme Being. Cao Daism attempted to bring all existing faiths in Vietnam under one single supreme creator, or Cao Dai, beginning first with the three major religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism; then Christianity, Islam, the Cult of Ancestor worship and the Saints of the world, regardless of race, sex or geography. Followers of this cult practice communication with the souls of the departed and are heavily influenced by European spiritualism. Statues of Jesus, Confucius, Buddha, Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu dominate the nave of the cathedral, the Cao Dai Holy See, as symbols of human fraternity.  Victor Hugo, Sun Yat Sen, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joan of Arc, Louis Pasteur and Sir Winston Churchill are all acknowledged as saints.  It is of fusion of Oriental and Occidental religions propounding the concept of a universal God.  

 Daily noon worship in this 1927 surrealist structure.

Vietnam – Tay Ninh, the Cao Dai Holy See.

The Divine Eye within a triangle, surrounded by sun rays is the representation of the existence of the Supreme Being. Cao Daists must avoid killing living beings, covetousness, verbal deceit and the temptations of the flesh-adherents look to hasten the evolution of the soul through re-incarnation. Chastity, simplicity and vegetarianism are the strict rules of the Religious Order. In 1926 Cao Daism became an official new religion recognized by the French colonial administration. It borrowed the structure and terminology of the Catholic Church.

The attire worn on the way to the temple and the places occupied inside the temple during the service are determined by a person’s position in the hierarchy. The color of their robes indicates their “branch” of the religion: yellow for Buddhism: purple for Confucianism; and azure for Taoism. Offerings consist of flowers, fruit, incense, water, alcohol and tea.

 

The sect’s highest authority is called the Pope. Cao Daism has female Cardinals and Popes. The Cao Dai Cathedral was built in 1927. The eclectic ideology of Cao Daism is mirrored in the interior. With the primary colours of a Hindu temple, the building bears the characteristics of both a cathedral and a pagoda. The arms of the papal chair are carved into dragons and there is a sky-blue ceiling with painted stars and fluffy clouds. Men enter the Cathedral through an entrance in the right wall, women by a door to the left, and all must take off their shoes. In the entrance of the temple, a Vietnamese poet and Victor Hugo are depicted writing on the walls, in French and in Chinese the Cao Dai principles of “God and humanity, love and justice”.  Beside them, the Chinese nationalist leader Sun Yat Sen holds an ink stone, a symbol of “Chinese civilization allied to Christian civilization giving birth to Cao Daist doctrine”.

İnanç Dosyası 29 | Syncretism

Vietnam – Tay Ninh, the temple of the Holy See of the Cao Dai creed. 

The term SYNCRETISM is used to designate a system which reconciles dissonant elements or combines heterogeneous elements, or for systems which endeavour to reconcile conflicting philosophies or inimical factions of theology. Syncretism in religion usually comes about through the communication and interplay between different cultures. A thriving syncretism is a result of the contributions from popular traditional rites, mystery cults, astrology, mythologies, magic, ecclesiastical cosmologies and the speculations of philosophy. Syncretism comes about as a natural, unconscious movement whenever differing cultures come into contact. Occasionally however, it can be brought about by a conscious, systematic endeavour. In many parts of the world, the activities of missionaries have produced many various syncretistic forms of religions, which combine Christian with native elements. In that sense, syncretistic developments are found in nearly every religious faith. The many conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE brought about the meeting of east and west, caused differing cults and mythologies to become acquainted with each other, and increased the interaction between the eastern religions and the west over a vast geographical area. This mixture of Greek and eastern forms of worship was widespread in the Hellenistic age. Whether primitive or sophisticated, many contemporary systems of religion and cults have today a distinctly syncretistic nature.

The following chapter on Syncretism will deal with Cao Daism, Agama Hinduism and Santerias.

A huge church with some surprising sights.  Along the walls are wooden statues of the saints, each of whom gets a new shawl embroidered by local women every year.  Depicting the saints with the villagers’ own features and dressing them in their own regional costume undoubtedly makes it easier for them to identify with the church doctrine.  There are wooden carvings with the figures of corn (from which humans were formed, according to Mayan religion).

Guatemala - Santiago Atitlan

 

On the steps of the Cathedral, Maya men and women pray and burn incense before entering the church to approach the altar.

Guatemala, Chichicastenango.

 

There are many examples of the way in which, after the arrival of the Spaniards, Christian beliefs and forms of worship synchronised with local customs. The Virgin Mary and Pachamama (the Soil Mother), the Rain God, Illapa, (known to the Aymaras as Thunupa) and Saint James were held as equal partners. In the same way, pagan festivals and Christian feast days overlapped. The southern solstice on which rain prayers were offered and Christmas, also the Inti Raymi festival celebrated to prevent frost and drought and a Catholic feast day were combined.  Natives who once were not allowed in the church to pray can now practice their faith in their own way. 

Bolivia – Copacabana, in Our Lady Morena del Lago Church.

Priests sing to a mournful drum rhythm at the monastery of Ura-Kidanemeret, Lake Tana. Music and dance are an integral part of the religious ceremony in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and their mastery requires many years of rigorous training. Yared, a sixth century Ethiopian saint, is said to have devised the first system of musical notation in Africa and to have composed the entire body of formalised sacred music and dance still in use in Ethiopia today.

Ethiopia,Lake Tana