Cao Dai, and the rest of what Vietnam believes
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Vietnam records much of its population as having no religion. It is also impossible to walk 100 m in a Vietnamese city without passing an altar. Both are true: ancestor veneration counts as family duty rather than faith, which is how a country full of incense reads as secular.
Around that sit the traditions with names, and one of them was invented in living memory.
What is Cao Dai?
A Vietnamese religion founded at Tay Ninh in 1926 to combine Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Catholicism into one system. Its symbol is a divine eye. Its clergy wear white with coloured sashes by branch, and its saints have included Victor Hugo.
None of that is a curiosity to the several million people in the south who follow it. The Holy See at Tay Ninh sits about 90 km northwest of Ho Chi Minh City. It is a working cathedral with services at six-hour intervals, and visitors watch the midday one from the upper gallery.
Most people see it as a half-day paired with the Cu Chi tunnels, which is a long day and the standard tour. The day trips page covers what that combination costs in road time.
What else is practised here?
Six things, overlapping constantly.
| Tradition | Where it shows | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ancestor veneration | Every home and most shops | The altar with fruit and incense |
| Mahayana Buddhism | Pagodas everywhere | The largest named tradition |
| Catholicism | Hanoi, Saigon, Phat Diem, the highlands | Four centuries old |
| Cao Dai | Tay Ninh and the south | Founded 1926 |
| Hoa Hao Buddhism | The Mekong Delta | A reformist lay movement, from 1939 |
| Folk practice | Mother goddesses, earth gods, spirit mediums | Runs through all of the above |
The pagodas guide covers the Buddhist half in detail, including the three words on the gate that separate a pagoda from a shrine from a communal house.
What is the altar in the shop?
Two altars, usually. The ancestor altar sits high, with photographs of the dead, fruit, tea and an incense burner. The small red shrine on the floor by the door belongs to the earth god or the god of wealth, and it takes its own offerings.
Pagodas and home altars both get busier in the seventh lunar month, when offerings move out onto the pavement — the ghost month guide explains what is being fed and why.
Offerings are renewed on the first and the fifteenth of the lunar month, and again through the days of a funeral, when the shops fill with marigolds and the incense thickens. That is also when a pagoda is busiest, which the pagodas guide treats as the reason to go rather than to avoid it.
Do not photograph either without asking. It is somebody's family, in their workplace.
Where does Catholicism fit?
Deeper than most visitors expect. Missionaries arrived in the seventeenth century, and the Latin-based writing system Vietnam uses today came out of that work. The country has one of the larger Catholic populations in Asia.
St Joseph's in Hanoi and Notre-Dame in Saigon are the two most visitors see, both covered in the colonial architecture guide. The denser Catholic country is Nam Dinh, where several hundred parish churches stand in the rice fields of one province.
The more interesting single building is Phat Diem, south of Ninh Binh. It is a stone cathedral of the 1890s built in the form of a Vietnamese temple, with a bell tower like a communal house.
What about Hoa Hao and the delta?
Hoa Hao Buddhism began in 1939 in An Giang province. It is a lay, austere reform movement with no temples and no clergy in the usual sense. Its few million followers concentrate in the Mekong Delta, and it stays invisible to visitors because there is nothing built to look at.
The absence of monuments is worth knowing precisely because it explains what you do not see. A region with millions of believers and no monuments is not a region without religion.
How should you behave?
The same way in all of them. Cover shoulders and knees, take your shoes off where the threshold says so, keep behind whatever line the congregation keeps, and ask before pointing a camera at a person.
At the Cao Dai service, visitors stay on the upper gallery and stand still while the congregation enters. The central aisle is reserved. The etiquette guide covers the rest, and none of it takes any effort.
FAQ
What is Cao Dai?
A Vietnamese religion founded in Tay Ninh in 1926 that combines Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Catholicism, with a divine eye as its symbol and a cathedral of its own. It claims several million followers, almost all of them in the south.
Can you visit the Cao Dai Holy See?
Yes, and the midday service is the usual reason to go. The temple sits at Tay Ninh about 90 km northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, services run at six-hour intervals through the day, and visitors watch from the upper gallery rather than the floor.
What religions are practised in Vietnam?
Mahayana Buddhism, ancestor veneration in almost every household, Catholicism from the colonial period, Cao Dai and Hoa Hao in the south, Protestantism in the highlands, and the older folk practices that run through all of them. Most people combine several without difficulty.
Is Vietnam a religious country?
Statistically much of the population records no religion, and in practice almost every home and shop has an altar with fruit, incense and a photograph on it. Ancestor veneration is treated as family duty rather than as religion, which is why the numbers and the streets disagree.
What is the altar in every shop?
An ancestor altar, or a small red shrine to the earth god at floor level near the door. Offerings of fruit, tea, cigarettes and burning incense are renewed on the first and fifteenth of the lunar month, and photographing them without asking is the common visitor mistake.
Are there Catholic churches worth visiting?
Several, and Catholicism has been in Vietnam for four centuries. St Joseph's in Hanoi, Notre-Dame in Saigon and the stone cathedral at Phat Diem, which was built in the 1890s in Vietnamese temple style rather than European, are the three that repay a visit.
How should you behave in a Vietnamese temple?
Cover shoulders and knees, take your shoes off where the threshold shows a row of sandals, ask before photographing anyone, and stay behind whatever line the congregation keeps. The rules are the same in a pagoda, a Cao Dai temple and a church here.