The State and religions
Buddhism accounts for around 10% of the population; Catholicism, around 8%; Protestantism, around 0.5%; Islam, less than 100,000 followers. As for sects, which are mainly present in the Mekong Delta, Caodaism accounts for around 2% of the population and Hoa Hao Buddhism for 1.5%. Statistical data on religious affiliation in Vietnam vary from one source to another. According to some government sources, over 80% of Vietnamese citizens declare themselves to have "no religion". Sociological surveys on religious practice in Vietnam are often subject to censorship by the authorities. Nor should multiple allegiances be excluded: some declared atheists willingly attend church and/or pagoda, and practice ancestor worship.
Religious life in Vietnam remains under close scrutiny. The new Law on Belief and Religion, passed by the National Assembly in November 2016, came into force on January1, 2018. From now on, religious organizations have a legal status exempting them from registering with the government. The law also specifies that "religious activities that undermine national defense, public order and security, the environment, morality, as well as activities that may harm society, health or endanger human life, are (...) prohibited". Religious communities and numerous associations have been highly critical of this law, which they accuse of being a smokescreen for repression. Expressions such as "public security" have no particular meaning and allow the law to be used against political opponents. In practice, the situation regarding religious freedom depends very much on the local authorities. In the Tây Nguyên highlands, the spread of evangelical Protestantism among ethnic minorities is particularly closely monitored. Security forces - often in civilian clothes - do not hesitate to intervene violently against certain religious figures deemed hostile to the State and the Communist Party, or in the case of land disputes between the State and religious communities arbitrarily dispossessed of their property.
The cult of the ancestors
The daily spiritual life of the Vietnamese is linked to ancestor worship, the adoration of genies and respect for the lunar calendar, which marks the rhythm of cycles, festivals and seasons. Often mistakenly associated with Buddhism or Confucian values, ancestor worship as practiced in Vietnam actually predates the establishment of these religious and moral precepts. It represents the fundamental belief of the Vietnamese people and is based on the conviction that the soul of the deceased survives after death and protects his descendants. After the body has disappeared, the soul undertakes a long journey to the heavenly realm, the abode of the immortals, from where it may occasionally return to help the family. Wandering souls need the tributes, prayers and offerings of the living to emerge triumphant from these migrations and thwart the traps set for them by evil spirits. Every household has an ancestral altar(ban tho). Here you'll find photographs of the deceased, funerary tablets on which the souls of the departed sit, candlesticks, offerings of fruit and flowers, and a few incense sticks.
The cult of geniuses
Belief in spirits is based on the conception of a bipolar world made up of a visible world, the "here below", and an invisible world, populated by supernatural beings of various origins. Every village has one or more, housed in consecrated spaces or temples dedicated to them. There's the wind genie, the harvest genie, the marriage genie, the fertility genie, and all the evil genies... In the home, the altar of the "domestic triad" (not to be confused with the ancestral altar), loaded with offerings, honors the genie of the hearth, the genie of the soil and the earth goddess. The genies don't live in the houses or temples permanently; their effigies are only present at the time of important festivals and ceremonies. The rest of the time, they live alone in small stone niches outside the house or at the edge of villages. On feast days, they are carried in procession to the village, decked out in their finest finery.
Buddhism
Buddhism first appeared in Vietnam around the 2nd century AD. It followed the land and sea routes taken by Indian merchants in the south, and in the north by itinerant Chinese monks travelling from Canton to India or Tibet via Tonkin. Buddhism slowly took hold among the Vietnamese population, who had long remained faithful to their animist traditions. It only really became popular around the 10th century, when it became the official religion, particularly under the Ly dynasty (1009-1225). The 12th century saw the construction of numerous temples(den) and pagodas(chua). Towards the 15th century, Buddhist influence declined in favor of Confucianism, which became the dominant ideology.
Today, some 80% of the Vietnamese population claim to be Buddhists (around 10 million followers). However, the original doctrine remains the preserve of a minority who practice meditation (around 10%). The working classes pray to Buddha by burning incense sticks, not forgetting to include ancestor and spirit worship. In addition to Gautama, devotion was paid to several Buddhas, particularly Amitâbha (Quân Am), goddess of mercy and giver of children.
Buddhism, which remains the country's main religion, is tightly controlled by the authorities. A dissident church, the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), of which dissident Thich Quang Do is one of the leaders, frequently takes a stand on human rights, and some of its members are often tried and imprisoned for "harming the interests of the State". The UBCV was banned in Vietnam in 1981, after the establishment of the Buddhist Church of Vietnam (VBC), the only Buddhist organization authorized by the Communist authorities.
Catholicism
In Vietnamese, Thiên chua giao (the religion of the Master of Heaven), Ki tô giao (from Christos or Christ, pronounced Ki tô in Vietnamese) or Công giao (common religion to translate the original meaning of Catholic: universal), Catholicism represents some 7 million followers. Thanks to an edict outlawing Christianity and targeting a "man of the ocean named I-ni-Khu", we know that the first priest to enter Vietnam did so before 1533, that his name was Ignatius, that he was probably Portuguese and probably arrived via Malacca, conquered by Albuquerque in 1511. It was in the 17th century, through the Portuguese Jesuits from Macao, that Vietnamese Catholicism really took off. It was in this context that the great figure of Alexandre de Rhodes came to prominence, inspiring in 1664 the founding of the Missions étrangères de Paris (MEP), which was entrusted with the evangelization of the country.
Under the Nguyen dynasty, Emperor Minh Mang initiated a long period of persecution of Vietnamese Catholic communities. According to Confucian logic, by rejecting ancestor worship, Vietnamese Catholics were touching the very foundation of royal legitimacy. As subversive agents, they were also accused of being fodder for French aggression. Persecution and massacres continued until 1885-1886. In 1988, Pope John Paul II canonized 117 Vietnamese martyrs who died in torture between 1745 and 1862. The Vietnamese government refused to recognize these canonizations, as they concerned "servants of the French colonialists [...] condemned to death for high treason against the Fatherland". These historical circumstances were to have a lasting impact on the nature of relations between the Vietnamese Church and the political authorities. In 1954, following the Geneva Accords, the vast majority of Catholics preferred to leave the communist North and go into exile in the Saigon-ruled South. After complicity with French colonialism, the Communist government denounced collusion with American imperialism. Relations between the Communist state and Vietnamese Catholics have improved, although there have been periods of tension, due in particular to disputes over the confiscation of Church property by the state. On January 25, 2007, Prime Minister Nguyên Tân Dung paid an official visit to the Vatican, where he was the first representative of Hanoi's communist regime to be received by a Pontiff. The meeting marked an important step in the possible establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the Holy See. During the consistory of February 14, 2015, Archbishop Pierre Nguyên Van Nhon (76) of Hanoi was promoted to the dignity of cardinal by Pope Francis.
Protestantism
Introduced to Vietnam in 1911, in Da Nang, with the start of the missionary activities of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA), an American evangelical Protestant mission, still active today. The evangelical Christian community in Vietnam has grown considerably over the last few decades, and now numbers over a million followers. The most remarkable progress has been made among the Hmông minority. Among certain ethnic groups (Hmông, Dao, ethnic groups from the Tây Nguyên highlands), Protestantism goes hand in hand with demands for independence supported by the diasporas who have taken refuge in the United States. They lobby Congress intensively, and relations between the evangelical churches and the Vietnamese government are marked by the intervention of the US embassy, often constituting a point of friction between the two countries. The government maintains strict control over the movement by systematically destroying places of worship deemed illegal, and by legally recognizing (in effect, placing under trusteeship) the South Vietnamese Evangelical Church since 2001.
Islam
Neighbouring the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, Vietnam has a small Muslim community of less than 100,000 followers. Islam is said to have been introduced into the kingdoms of Champa as early as the end of the tenth century, but it did not really develop until the fifteenth century, at the time of the decline of these kingdoms. Many Cham, whose original religion was Brahmanism, had then emigrated to the Khmer kingdom (Cambodia) where they were converted to Islam by Muslim Malays. Back in their country, they were at the origin of a first small community of Muslims within kingdoms that remained mostly faithful to Brahmanism. In the 18th century, as a result of conflicts between the Khmer and Vietnamese kingdoms, another important community found refuge around what is today the Vietnamese city of Châu Dôc.
Cham Ba ni and Cham Islam. These different historical circumstances explain the formation of two blocks of Cham Muslims in Vietnam: the Cham Ba ni in the Center (Ninh Thuân and Binh Thuân) and the Cham Islam in the South, around Châu Dôc and Ho Chi Minh City. The former practice a very heterodox Islam, influenced by Brahmanism and indigenous traditions. Muslim rites are distorted and the community lives on the margins of the Islamic world, not knowing Arabic and not making pilgrimages. Women go to the mosque and choose their husbands, who must live in the house of his wife's family. The Cham Islam, on the other hand, heavily influenced by Malaysia, strictly observe Islamic rites. According to government sources, Ho Chi Minh City now has 14 mosques; the Vietnamese Muslim community comprises about a hundred thousand followers, half of whom are divided between Cham Islam and Cham Ba ni.
Caodaism
A syncretic, millenarian religion founded in Cochinchina (southern Vietnam) in 1925 by Ngô Minh Chiêu, a colonial administration official who is said to have had several apparitions and to have come into contact with a spirit named Cao Dai, who asked to be represented in the form of a symbolic eye. Inspired by Buddhism, Caodaism is a religious syncretism that places all religions practiced in Vietnam under the supreme authority of Cao Dai. Caodaism, the religion common to all, represents the last divine revelation. The doctrine is also inspired by Western belief systems such as Christianity and Freemasonry, and includes the prophets Jesus, Mohammed and Confucius, the saints Victor Hugo, Sun Yat Sen, Joan of Arc, Pasteur, Lenin and Winston Churchill... Caodaism underwent several schisms from April 1926 onwards. The Tây Ninh branch, whose Holy See is based in the eponymous province (Mekong delta), nevertheless succeeded in imposing its hegemony over its rivals. In addition to its religious aspect, this community played an important political role. During the Japanese occupation, the sect, which founded a militia, was hostile to the French. During the first Indochina war, it more or less sided with the French in exchange for de facto autonomy for the Tây Ninh region. In 1955, Ngô Dinh Diem's takeover of the sects led to the dissolution of the militia, which was re-established after Diem's assassination and led anti-communist actions. This community, which was persecuted after 1975, is now regaining a degree of freedom and counts some 2 million followers.
Hoa Hao
Inspired by Buddhism, this nationalist sect was founded in 1937 by Huynh Phu Sô (1920-1947), known as "the mad monk", from the village of Hoa Hao, Châu Dôc province, in the Mekong Delta. After collaborating with the Japanese during the Second World War, Huynh Phu Sô, hostile to the French, founded the Vietnamese National Socialist Party(Dân Xa) in June 1946, supported by an armed militia of 50,000 men. In 1947, Huynh Phu Sô was assassinated by the Vietminh, who saw him as a dangerous rival. His successor, Nam Lua (Five Fires), rallied to the French, who appointed him general.
Hoa Hao doctrine is based on the commented prophecies of Huynh Phu Sô. He preached a purified Buddhism, advocating the abandonment of all superstition and the simplicity of religious rites and ceremonies. The 1.5 million followers (mainly in the Mekong Delta) pray twice a day. As a sign of respect for the ancestors, men are not allowed to cut their beards or hair.
