Modernity and Re-enchantment: Religion in Post-revolutionary Vietnam

5. Unjust-Death Deification and Burnt Offering: Towards an Integrative View of Popular Religion in Contemporary Southern Vietnam

161 5 Unjust-Death Deification and Burnt Offering: Towards an Integrative View of Popular Religion in Contemporary Southern Vietnam Ðỗ Thiện There has been no shortage of attempts to overview religions in southern Vietnam.1 Obtaining a coherent picture however, is another story. In what follows, taking a path deviating somewhat from the usual classifying routes,2 I will examine instead two apparently unconnected features in “folk religion” [tín ngưỡng dân gian] as points of departure. They are among the more conspicuous if not striking ones by their non-rational nature, namely, the deification of those who met with untimely, violent, or unjust death [chết oan], and the burning of votive objects as offerings in commemorative rituals [đốt vàng mã]. As practices, they appear as illogical as can be, perhaps a reason why they readily fall into the category of “superstition”. However, they are not totally irrational, for the probable logic running through each also brings together several inter-related themes besides the collective attention given to mortality and metempsychosis. In focussing on these practices as nodal points in 05฀Thien฀p161-193.indd฀฀฀161 7/6/07฀฀฀1:06:54฀PM 162 Đỗ Thiện a web of connections, my exploration of an integrative view of southern popular religion has by no means led to a final conclusion, but I hope it is cogent enough at this stage to stimulate further discussion. Unjust Death It would not be saying much to state that the family is the foundation of Vietnamese society, with the cult of ancestors being the prevalent ritual model. It is not accurate, however, to assert that ancestral worship is the overarching form of Vietnamese religious practice. As Cadière points out, the ancestors are but one part of a vast army of spirits, and their cult is only one varied aspect of Vietnamese religion. The great heroes, or those who have in their life gained merit from eminent service to the kingdom, or to the local community, are honoured among the supernatural protectors by the king’s decree or simply by the decision of village notables. These spirits enjoy regular offerings, and festive celebrations are organized around their significant dates (Cadière 1958, pp. 6–23). There are, however, a host of others whom Cadière terms the “deserted or forsaken souls”. They include spirits of the beggars found dead by the road side; of young women who died unmarried; of the old auntie spinster who passed away childless; of stillborn infants; of accident or crime victims; of fallen soldiers; even of those who perished in a riot. Sometimes these forsaken souls join forces, forming an army of demonic spirits to devastate a whole countryside, and people can hear them fly in hordes through the air, calling out to each other, designating their victims.3 On top of this, in the South, however, there seems to be a greater number of spirits and deities with a biography marked by unjust death, and installed as tutelary spirits in village communal halls đình, or as goddesses in many well-attended temples. The cases of Thiên Hộ Dương and Đốc Binh Kiều of Đồng Tháp province, and Nguyễn Trung Trực of Rạch Giá are examples of deification by popular investiture [dân phong], not by royal decrees. Such investitures are mainly based on the spirits’ supernatural power issued from their violent deaths. Nguyễn Trung Trực, who was executed in 1868 for fighting the French, is a prominent example. Since recent time, his portrait graces the front altars of many đình in the Mekong Delta.4 As for goddesses’ temples in the South, many also spawn hagiographies that claim a violent death suffered by these personages (Taylor 2004a, p. 201). 05฀Thien฀p161-193.indd฀฀฀162 7/6/07฀฀฀1:06:54฀PM Unjust-Death Deification and Burnt Offering 163 The North, in fact, sets a precedent with many tutelary spirits installed without royal certificate and marked by an untimely or unjust death. Nguyễn Văn Huyên mentions briefly:5 He [the tutelary spirit] is sometimes a divinity of popular belief, a beheaded genie [thần cụt đầu], a child prodigy [thần trẻ con], a thief [thần ăn cắp], etc. who revealed themselves by miracle after their death which was violent and...