Temples and Pagodas
The term Chua (Pagoda) is reserved exclusively for a Buddhist place of worship in Vietnam; the term is translated into English from Vietnamese as pagoda rather than temple (den in Vietnamese) so as to accommodate a different and diverse category of places of worship and homage which exist within the Vietnamese culture which are called temples or den.
Van Thanh Mieu Temple - The rear hall, built in 1866, has a portrait of Confucius above the altar.
The building was designed in the Confucian style and looks like it was lifted straight out of China.
(Photo: indochinaodysseytours.com)
The idea of a den (temple) pre-dates the idea of a chua (pagoda) and is found in the origins of Confucianism and its contemporary Taoism; both began in fifth-century B.C. China. Confucius developed a moral code initially anchored in theistic trappings; his contemporary Lao-tzu (6th-century B.C.) developed a polytheistic philosophy--half-science, half-religious philosophy--which supposed many different divinities. From the Confucian philosophy developed the practice of ancestor worship. All three of these "religions" (Confucianism, Taoism and ancestor worship) came the den or temple at which worship to Confucius, the various Taoist divinities and the worship to ancestors was performed. Later, den were constructed to honor national hero's whom were seen as extensions similar to the extensive Taoist divinities; this gave rise to the fourth category to the various "den's." Yet another category of den developed: the temple of the community; something like a 'community hall' in America but with far more ritual and symbolism than is associated with the functional American community halls.
Thus:
- Temples to Confucius.
- Temples to Taoist divinities
- Temples to ancestors
- Temples to national hero's
- Temples of the community
The term chua or pagoda is exclusively reserved for Buddhist places of worship, however all of the den's are also places of reverence and sacred worship. On your journey to Vietnam you will visit both chua's and den's and you should view them both with equality as this is how the Vietnamese, for the vast part, view them.
Vietnam Perfume Pagoda is a complex of 30 Buddhist temples, in the hills along the Suoi Yen River.
(Photo: tomsheck.com)
ORIGINS OF VIETNAMESE RELIGIOUS CULTURE
The preponderance of Vietnamese religious culture finds its origins in Chinese religious culture. The first non-animistic religious influences which had pre-eminent influences on Chinese culture were those of two contemporaries: Confucius (551-479 B.C.) and Lao-tzu (6th-century B.C.). These religious philosophies were the first religious philosophies adopted by the Chinese people on a national basis. Buddhism (Buddha 563?-483? B.C.) did not enter China until the third-century B.C. during the incipient period of the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.)
As the Han Dynasty was the champion of Buddhism--as well as with territorial gain, to wit: Vietnam-- they sought a special term for Buddhist places of worship so as to make them distinct from Confucianist and Taoist places of worship; that distinction continues to this day in both the Chinese and Vietnamese languages. With the Chinese conquest of Vietnam these religious influences also took root in Vietnam.
Buddhism--and this is disputed as a number of scholars will give a later date--did not reach Vietnam until about the 3rd century A.D.; and it reached Vietnam simultaneously by two different routes: via southern India direct from India and via China in the two different variants of Buddhism: Theravada Buddhism (Lesser Vehicle; from southern India) which holds that there was only one Buddha, the original Buddha, and Mahayana Buddhism (Greater Vehicle; via the Himalayan countries) which holds that there are countless Buddha's (primarily the Buddha's of the past, the Buddha's of the present and the Buddha's of the future.) Theravada Buddhism exists in Vietnam and is practiced primarily by the native Khmer peoples in the southern parts of the country in the Mekong Delta; Mahayana Buddhism is the dominate strain of Buddhism in Vietnam; if you see monks wearing saffron robes, they are Theravada Buddhist; gray robes, Mahayana Buddhist.
THE LANDSCAPE OF VIETNAMESE RELIGIONS
It is difficult for the Western mind to understand how such a diverse religious biosphere can exist in juxtaposition--and in such a juxtaposition that the adherents to them do not recognize the differences between them; one goes to see the Buddhist monk in the pagoda in Vietnam to have him read the fortunes which emanates Taoism; the Emperor of Jade, a Taoist divinity exists within and is worshipped in many Buddhist Pagodas; various pagodas have ancestral alters which are Confucianist! And a person returns home from a Buddhist pagoda where their Taoist zodiac was deciphered and lights incense at the Confucianist altar to their ancestors in their home. Explained in Chinese this is, "Three ways to one goal," and in Vietnamese, "The Three Ways," however most--including many monks--do not cognitively know the difference between the religions.
Perhaps the single most denominating explanation concerning this is the accommodation of the Sino / Vietnamese cultures rather the exclusionary aspects of these cultures. The cultures will receive a new philosophy with ease but disdain granting a new philosophy pre-eminence. Such a cultural feature may explain the initial triumph of Nestorian Christianity in China in the seventh and eight-centuries A.D. during the T'ang Dynasty and its demise, as well as complete its oblivion, shortly thereafter.
Finally, the goal of the three religions--Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism--are all admissible philosophies as all seek to civilize the human race and the goals of each are not salvation after life but the "good life," the correct conduct of life, here on earth; belief in one does not require rejection of belief in the others as does Christianity.
As a final dilatory note, the Sung Philosophers in the tenth and eleventh-centuries A.D. in China recast Confucian ideas from a neo-religious cosmology to a pruned and demystified creed concerned exclusively with the rule of the state. They repudiated any idea of a supreme God and instead substituted the more abstract idea of a "moral law." Confucianism from this time was held by the ruling classes (read: educated classes) while Taoism and Buddhism were tolerated as the, "opiate of the masses." To a very large extent, this remains true today in both China and in Vietnam: the states are atheistic while their peoples are theistic.
Courtney L. Frobenius
Source: www.vietnamtours.com
