US embassy cable - 04HANOI327

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 000327 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV AND DRL/IRF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, SOCI, PGOV, VM, RELFREE 
SUBJECT:  RESURGENCE OF TRADITIONAL BELIEF CELEBRATIONS 
 
1.  (U)  Summary.  The expansion of religious freedoms and 
resurgent interest in local culture over the past two 
decades has also sparked new pride in local folk belief and 
led to the resurgence of large, well-organized festivals 
dedicated to local gods and heroes.  Poloffs attended one 
major festival on the first full moon of the lunar new year 
and found a very happy crowd of worshippers and well-wishers 
who boasted of the revival of this event over the past five 
years.  While not emblematic of worship service of a major 
world religion, such folk beliefs remain important to many 
Vietnamese both culturally and in a devotional sense.  They 
clearly value these opportunities overtly to pay their 
religious (some might say superstitious) tributes and make 
their personal wishes at shrines of an astonishing variety 
throughout the country.  End Summary. 
 
Wide variety of belief systems 
------------------------------ 
 
2.  (U) Article 70 of the SRV Constitution of 1992 specifies 
the right to "freedom of belief and of religion" (as well as 
the right to follow any religion "or none.")  For many 
Vietnamese, personal belief structure is a complicated 
tapestry, often weaving together strains of ancestor 
worship, superstitions about local deities from Vietnamese 
mythology, tributes to particularly outstanding kings, 
military leaders, and other "national heroes," and/or 
adherence (to varying degrees of formality) to a major world 
religion (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam) or one of Vietnam's 
esoteric religions (Cao Dai or Hoa Hao).  Virtually all 
homes, and many shops, have small shrines to ancestors, to 
which small tributes of fruits and incense are regularly 
made.  Rural villages often have not only temples or 
churches but also local "shrines" dedicated to one of these 
indigenous figures or myths. 
 
3.  (U)  Recent years have witnessed a notable revival in 
public displays of devotion and ritual.  Some are well-known 
internationally and attract hundreds of thousands of 
participants, such as the Catholic La Vang pilgrimage and 
the Hoa Hao Founders' Day.  However, many of the indigenous 
Vietnamese folk religious festivals are equally or even more 
popular among Vietnamese believers.  Their variety is 
impressive, as are the organizational skills of local 
residents who stage increasingly elaborate ceremonies.  A 
few, non-representative examples include: 
-- the Keo Pagoda Festival in Thai Binh province, which 
twice a year pays honor to Khong Lo, a Buddhist monk who 
once cured King Ly Thanh Tong of a disease; 
--  the Phu Ung Festival in Hung Yen province, in tribute to 
General Pham Ngu Lao of the Tran Dynasty, who led battles 
against Chinese invaders; 
--  the Phu Giay Festival in Nam Ha province, dedicated to 
Princess Lieu Hanh, also known as the "Mother of the 
Nation"; 
--  the Hung Temple festival in Phu Tho, in honor of the 
Hung kings; 
--  the Dau Pagoda Festival in Bac Ninh, worshipping Mrs. 
Man Muong, who helped fight a local drought; 
--  the Giong Festival in Hanoi's outskirts, commemorating 
the "Giong Genius," a legendary hero who defeated invaders; 
--  the Chem Temple Festival in Hanoi, commemorating a 
Vietnamese war hero from the first millennium; 
--  the Tu Lien Village Festival in Hanoi, dedicated to 
local patron saints of Bao Trung, Minh Khiet, Uy Hanh, and 
Mai Hoa; 
--  the Ok Om Bok Festival, a moon-worshipping ceremony of 
the Khmer people in the Mekong Delta; 
--  the Phuong Do Temple festival in Thai Nguyen, in honor 
of a local patron saint, Duong Tri Minh; 
--  the Ha Thach Village Festival in Phu Tho, worshipping 
local patron saints including Hung King, mountain god Tan 
Vien, and female generals Trung Trac and Mai Hoa; 
--  the Vong La Village festival in Hanoi, venerating patron 
saints Cung Muc, Linh Khon, and Minh Chieu, devotees to Hung 
King the 18th; 
--  the Co Le Pagoda Festival in Nam Dinh, honoring Buddhism 
and local monk Khong Minh Khong; and, 
-- the Trang Temple festival, celebrating Trang Trinh Nguyen 
Binh Khiem, who won a royal literature and philosophy 
competition in 1535. 
 
4.  (U)  Common to these festivals are parades featuring 
figurines mounted on traditional palanquins, presentation of 
tributes (food, liquor, incense) at the shrine, ritual 
kowtowing by local venerables (usually older residents of 
the near-by village), and processions of village 
representatives, often dressed in traditional garb -- ao dai 
for the ladies, and ao the and round hats for the gentlemen. 
The events themselves are almost always organized based on 
the lunar calendar, not the international calendar.  After 
the rituals, there are often traditional sporting events 
(usually a type of wrestling and/or tugs-of-war) and 
cultural performances, such as water puppets or boat races. 
 
February 5, a big day 
--------------------- 
 
5.  (U)  The first full moon of the lunar new year (Year of 
the Monkey) took place on February 4/5 and was the occasion 
of religious festivals and celebrations throughout the 
country.  According to media, more than one million 
participants attended a festival at the Buddhist Ba Temple 
in Binh Duong, reportedly the largest number ever attended. 
Buddhist temples in and around Hanoi were packed with 
worshippers offering fruit and incense and making wishes.  A 
small traditional shrine devoted to mothers in Ha Tay's Son 
Tay district attracted a parade of 70-something female 
villagers giving thanks to their past fertility. 
 
6.  (U)  Poloffs also attended a major festival in Ha Tay at 
the Va Shrine (Den Va) in Ba Vi District.  This shrine is 
devoted to the "Tan Vien Genius," a mythological mountain 
spirit who once defeated the "Flood" or "Water" Genius in 
this flood-prone plain in the Red River Delta.  Processions, 
each representing a different near-by village, of ao dai- 
and ao the-clad elders escorted offerings aboard elaborate 
palanquins upon the shoulders of young men (sporting ancient- 
style military tunics) en route to the 500-year old shrine. 
At the shrine, villagers made individual and joint 
presentations and kowtows.  According to local security 
officials, the crowd on February 5 was about 10,000 people; 
over the previous night when the moon was at its fullest, as 
many as 30,000 villagers came to make their individual 
offerings, police estimated.  The black-toothed (from 
decades of betel nut chewing or actual dyes in the interest 
of "fashion") grandmothers dressed in their finest ao dais 
and jewelry positively giggled with delight as they 
approached the shrine or sat waiting their turn to make 
offerings in the shrine itself. 
 
7.  (U)  Virtually everyone in the crowds and in the 
processions proudly claimed that this year's celebration was 
the largest ever, with plans for a still more elaborate 
festival in 2005 (a more auspicious year in a three year 
cycle).   One member of the organizing committee noted that 
the festival really only resumed in 1999 after a forty-year 
gap, although the festival itself dated back "hundreds of 
years."  Other villagers indicated that the festival had 
never entirely died out, but had been modest and without the 
inter-village processions now a major hallmark of the event. 
 
8.  (U)  In addition to the worship rituals, there were 
speeches by local officials, obligatory thanks to the 
leadership of the Communist Party as well as the local and 
provincial People's Committees, and special appreciation for 
the support (moral rather than financial, apparently) of the 
provincial Departure of Culture.  The Provincial Vice 
Chairman sat in the front row of dignitaries but -- somewhat 
unusually for Vietnam -- did not speak. 
 
9.  (U)  Surrounding the shrine itself was a makeshift 
county fair atmosphere, with stalls selling incense, 
lacquered flowers, and other worship items as well as local 
delicacies, toys, and handicrafts.  There were even games 
(darts, shotguns, ring-tossing) and one lone but popular 
merry-go-round.  Crowds of school-aged youth roamed these 
areas, while the elder generation mostly stayed on the 
grounds of the shrine itself, with different mat-covered 
sites designated for various villages (each featuring 
different kinds of local liquor for the consumption of the 
males). 
 
10.  (U)  Comment:  The importance of folk beliefs and 
rituals in Vietnam is the often under-rated side of 
religious life and practice important to many Vietnamese. 
The resurgence of these traditional practices is clearly 
welcomed by the Vietnamese for both religious and cultural 
reasons.  The GVN and Communist Party -- to their credit -- 
have been sensitive enough to permit, and perhaps even to 
encourage such manifestations of local belief, without 
trying to usurp the indigenous organizational underpinnings 
that make each of these events so unique. 
BURGHARDT