Hình ảnh Việt Nam xưa & nay

Tag: Vietnam’s folk beliefs

  • A brief description of the Vietnamese folk beliefs

    Since ancient times, with the prosperous natural conditions, Vietnamese people’s livelihoods had long been dependent upon the gifts of nature. Thus, the worship of nature was soon to become the oldest tradition and an important aspect of Vietnamese indigenous religion. Moreover, Vietnam is the at the gate of an open sea where many peoples and cultures gathered. Each religion being introduced into Vietnam was modified to be more familiar with the customs and indigenous ideology.
    Tháp Chàm Ninh Thuận
    Tháp Chàm Ninh Thuận

    Classification of Vietnam’s folk beliefs

    Fertility rites made an early appearance in Vietnamese history. With the importance of the agriculture and farming, the Vietnamese worshiped the symbol of yin-yang, the harmonious balance of heaven and earth, and the prosperity of beings. Fertility rites are found in Dong Ho folk paintings from Bac Ninh province, with images of buffalo, pigs, chickens, fish; or in the ancient cultural products such as the imagery of sexual intercourse on bronze drums found in the village of Dao Thinh (Yen Bai), dating back to 500 BC. The custom of “mortar pounding to welcome the bride” is also an expression of traditional belief; mortar and pestle are symbols of male and female and of natural production.
    Nature worship: Nature is the Great Mother of the Vietnamese people, the image of an omnipotent goddess bringing prosperity, fortune, and protection for everyone. This ideology appeared in the systematic mother goddess cult, formed upon the impact of Chinese Taoism, combined with the Goddess worship tradition from prehistoric times. The fact that women were being worshiped is something very unique when put into the context of the country under the teachings and rituals of Confucianism.
    – Three – Four Palaces: Mother of Heaven (or Mau Thuong Thien), Mother of Grand Forest (or Mau Thuong Ngan), Mother of Water (or Mau Thoai) and Mother of Underworld.
    – Four natural elements:
    Goddess of clouds – worshiped at the temple Bà Dâu
    Goddess of rains – worshiped at the temple Bà Đậu
    Goddess of thunder – worshiped at the temple Bà Tướng
    Goddess of lighting – worshiped at the temple Bà Dàn
    – Animals and plants worship: Unlike the many different cultures that worship the powerful animals such as tigers, lions, falcons, etc. Vietnamese people worship animals such as buffalo, snakes, rats, dogs, cats, elephants, these animals are very familiar to the lives of people of an agricultural society.
    Veneration of the dead: The Vietnamese people have great respect to the realms of life and death. They believe that the human body consists of two parts: body and soul. The 3 parts of the Soul include Consciousness (the mastery of awareness), Energy (energy causes the body to operate) and Shen (spirit of life). The folk saying, “The livings with wisdom are sacred after death,” explains the fundamental causes for the Vietnamese beliefs and rituals.
    “Better to be blind and keep the orders within the household
    Than to have clear sight but do not worship your ancestors.” (Nguyen Dinh Chieu, Luc Van Tien)
    Although the Vietnamese keep their rituals and forms of worship, but most of the population do not follow a particular doctrine or religion. Would the mixture of religious and folk beliefs, with the vague interpretation of beliefs and disbelief, become a problem for the nation? Or would it be the necessary space for the economic development and integration in terms of knowledge? Ultimately, the worship of nature brings a solid ethical foundation for a sustainable developing society. Likewise, being grateful and showing respect to ancestors and national heroes are the basis of the tradition “when drinking water, remember its source” – which is a valuable quality of the people of Vietnam.
    Source:
    Wikipedia
    http://chimviet.free.fr/quehuong/ng…
    http://vovworld.vn/vi-VN/Van-hoa-Xa…
    Trịnh Khánh Linh (THE PAVONIS ORGANIZATION)
  • The Origins of The Vietnamese

    The Origins of The Vietnamese

    According to a national legend telling the origins of the Vietnamese, the first Vietnamese descended from the dragon lord Lac Long Quan and the female heavenly angel Au Co. They married and gave birth to a sac of 100 eggs from which hatched 100 humans. One day Lac Long Quan told Au Co: “I am descended from dragons, you from fairies. We are as incompatible as water is with fire. So we must live apart from each other” the husband then went seawards with 50 of their children, while his wife went to the mountains with the other half of the clan.

    The oldest son, Hung Vuong, later installed himself as Vietnam’s first monarch. Because of that, Vietnamese people refer to themselves as the dragon’s son and fairy’s grand children.

     

    The Origins of The Vietnamese

     

    Most Vietnamese considers Van Long of the Hong Bang Dynasty, exited from 2879 BC to 257 BC as the first state, and Hung Vuong as the first king, the founding father of the country.

    Vietnam has exited for nearly 4000 years; they are ancient people with their own identity and culture. Their salient tradition is fighting for national independence. Even from the ancient time they had to struggle against foreign domination. China occupied and assimilated Vietnam for almost 1000 years, the Vietnamese finally expelled the Chinese in 938 AD.

     

    The Origins of The Vietnamese

     

    However, anthropologists said Vietnamese belong to an ethnic called Austro-Asiatic, which was born of a cross between the Mongoloids and the Austro-Negroid inhabitants 10,000 years BC. This ethnic settled in a territory extending from south of the Yangtze River in the present day China to the northern part of present day Vietnam. During the Bronze Age 3000 years BC the group of Viet people in the red river basin created a cultural and national identity before the formation of Chinese Empire. This later was known as the first state of Vietnam.

     

    Therefore in Vietnamese, Vietnam is written in two words, Viet and Nam, Viet is the name of an ethnic group, and Nam means south. Vietnam, then, refers to the country of Southern Viet people. To Vietnamese, South (Nam) often evokes what pertains to Vietnam, while North (Bac) evokes China.

     

    There are 54 officially recognized ethnic groups living in the territory of Vietnam, making the total population of this country over 93 millions. Sizes of those ethics are big different, Viet people makes up of 86% of the national population and is the largest ethnic group in Vietnam, the second largest group is Tay People, with 1,7 m. The smallest is Ơ Đu, with less than 400 people.

     

    The Origins of The Vietnamese

     

    Each ethnic group in Vietnam has its own cultural identity while still sharing certain similarities with mutual exchanges within the national border, and influences from China, India and Southeast Asian Countries. Generally, most of ethnic in Vietnam rely on wet rice agriculture or swidden farming, combining with raising poultry, collecting, hunting and fishing; and handicrafts and on commerce of different level.

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