Central Vietnam, 2018. On a very hot September day we got up at dawn, when the air is fresh and the sun is still low on the horizon. We hopped on the scooter, and we went hunting for hidden Champa ruins in the countryside between Da Nang and Hoi An. By late morning our resilience had evaporated in the sticky heat. At noon we were on the last bite of a tasty lunch in the cool courtyard of a beautiful restaurant in Hoi An.

We didn’t find the ruins. But I found something else. Or, it feels, it found me. We drove through tiny, quiet villages surrounded by fields. And along the empty streets, we saw shrine after shrine after shrine. Some small, some as large as the houses around them.  

Even though Vietnam is officially an atheist country, most of the population practises shared beliefs and practices, with thousands of religious events every year. There are a number of major religions in Vietnam. The most practised is folk religion. Folk religion is not organised in a single worship system. It is a collection of different indigenous local traditions devoted to ancestors, gods of nature, and cultural heroes.

Folk religion is spread throughout Vietnam and each region has local customs, rituals and architecture. The Confucian values and the elements of Taoist doctrine in folk religion are testimony to the influence of Chinese culture in Vietnam. There are family chapels dedicated to ancestor worship. Shrines of heroes and kings. Temples are built for nature gods (wind, earth, water, fire gods).

Most temples and shrines have a screen in front of the entrance to block evil spirits and bad energy. In this village, most screens had images of dragons and tigers. This tiny temple is probably dedicated to the deity Thành hoàng bổn cảnh – or the Supreme Guardian of the Land. Thành hoàng is enshrined in each village’s communal temple. It brings fortune and guards the village against disasters.

The link between folk religion and Chinese culture is evident in the use of Chinese characters. In this region of Vietnam, shrines are often aniconic. The lack of images depicting the physical form of the deities is thought to be an influence of Islam and is frequently found in Central Vietnam.

The altars bear offerings of red candles, marigolds, incense. Food and drink are offered to the deities.

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There are shrines in the village, and shrines by the fields. A sacred tree facing the fields had its own shrine next to it, well stocked with offerings to the Others.

With thanks to…

A very big THANK YOU to Greg Ball, Trương Trần Trung Hiếu, and Keina Nguyen