Book Review
Hero and Deity: Tran Hung Dao and the Resurgence of Popular Religion in Viet Nam
Reviewed by Reinhard Hohler
Chiang Mai (16 April 2009)
An in-depth and informative book about the religious system in Communist Viet Nam, which so far was not known at all in the academic literature, is long overdue. A long journey of the female author, Pham Quynh Phuong, was necessary to prepare the manuscript at the National University of Singapore. She started from an early ethnological interest in religious practices as an undergraduate student at the Viet Nam National University, through research and writing for a Master of Arts degree at the Institute of Folklore Studies in Ha Noi, to the doctoral dissertation at La Trobe University in Melbourne/Australia. The publication of the book was done by Mekong Press at Chiang Mai in 2009 and partially funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
The research work was made possible thanks to the financial support provided by the Doctoral Scholarship Program from the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge, USA, while the fieldwork was funded from the School of Social Sciences at La Trobe University in Melbourne/Australia. Many people have helped to gather crucial information, especially local cadres, villagers, and religious practitioners, whom she had met for the last ten years in her native country of Viet Nam.
The front cover shows a typical modern monument of Tran Hung Dao, a brilliant military strategist from the thirteenth century who defeated the Mongols in three famous sea-battles in today’s northern part of Viet Nam, and an associated temple festival scene in Viet Nam. The book also features a short preface and two black and white maps to document the different regions and provinces where Tran Hung Dao is venerated and worshipped as a deity.
The book’s contents are divided into a short prologue, introduction, seven chapters, a closing epilogue, glossary, and the comprehensive bibliography, as well as an index.
In Chapter 1, called “Spiritualizing History”, the author tries to provide both the historical and folkloric background to the Tran Hung Dao phenomenon by tracing the genesis and spread of this cult through Vietnamese history. Once set in the thirteenth century, the heroic image of Tran Hung Dao was promoted by subsequent dynasties. Furthermore, the development of this cult shows how closely linked the spread of popular religious movements is to political and social upheavals and to the destiny of the nation. To facilitate discussion, there is the presentation of a kind of “national pantheon” in which Tran Hung Dao holds a very special place.
The more than three thousand year history of Viet Nam is a history of “heroism” in the form of constant resistance to foreign invaders and continual defence of the land and nation. This history begins with the Hung kings, who are children of the sacred Father Dragon Lord Lac and the Mother Bird Fairy Au Co, when the Vietnamese people were known as the Lac tribe, prior to their thousand-year domination by the Chinese (from 221 BC to 939 AD). Then followed another thousand years of struggle against Chinese and Cham attacks, from the eleventh century until the arrival of the French in 1858. The struggle continued during the time of French colonialism, culminating in victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and the final unification of the country after the defeat of the Americans and the southern “Christian” regime in 1975. For many Vietnamese, this long history has the power of myth, which permeates Vietnamese life.
It was this “resistance history” that has created a national pantheon of charismatic heroes, such as Thanh Dong, the Trung Sisters, Lady Trieu, Ngo Quyen, Tran Hung Dao and Le Loi among others. Yet the phenomenon of Trang Hung Dao is unique, because he is the only historical hero worshipped as a popular deity across the country. From a prince and military hero, Tran Hung Dao posthumously became a spirit that is now worshipped together with the spirits of all his family members as well as his subordinates.
Actually, there is no record of Tran Hung Dao’s birthday. He reached fame during the Tran dynasty (1226-1400), when he was sent by the king to intercept the first invasion by the Mongol-Chinese army in 1257. Two following invasions in 1285 and 1287 ended with his final victory in 1288 at the Bach Dang River within the Red River Delta by driving iron-tipped wooden stakes into the riverbed and luring the Mongol-Chinese fleet into the river, exactly when the tide began to ebb. The trapped foreign fleet of four hundred ships was sunk or set alight with flaming arrows. After this successful strategy, Tran Hung Dao retired to live in an herbal garden in today’s Kiep Bac in Ha Dong Province. He died on August 20 of the lunar calendar in 1300. Prior to his death, Tran Hung Dao gave instructions for his body to be secretly buried to prevent people from exhuming it. Hence, there is no grave.
From a historical hero, Tran Hung Dao became a deity. His cult has evolved over seven centuries and survived into the present. His mysterious biography is consistent with Confucian morality and fits well with popular expectations of a spirit that has an enormous healing power. Ironically, it is the Ngoc Son Temple in central Ha Noi, which was established in 1842, that is the most visited place for tourists to know about Tran Hung Dao.
Chapter 2 deals with “Sacred Places” and the myriad temples devoted to “Saint Tran” with local, regional, and national significance. Interesting to note is the spread of the cult from the Red River River Delta to other regions in the country, which is a result of the north-south migration of the Vietnamese people.
Reaching the south, the presence of Saint Tran temples are seen from two perspectives: the self-identity of northern migrants, who felt vulnerable in the social space of the south, and the late political claims of the southern versus northern administration.
The most important temples in the red River Delta are Kiep Bac Temple in Hai Duong Province (where Tran Hung Dao died), Bao Loc (his homeland) and Co Trach (original family home) in Nam Dinh Province, Tran Thuong (army provision store) in Ha Nam Province. Also, there are A Sao (arms and food depot) and Dong Bang (army camp) in Thai Binh Province. Another one is the relatively new Sinh Temple in Quang Ninh Province. In Ha Noi, religious practitioners often mention three public temples, namely Phu Ung, Tuong Thuan and Ngoc Son (in Hoan Kiem Lake).
The oldest temple in the central city of Hue, the capital of the last Nguyen dynasty, was only established in the early twentieth century. In Nha Trang further south, a temple for Tran Hung Dao was built in 1962, in Vung Tau near today’s Ho Chi Minh City, in 1958. In Ho Chi Minh City are about twenty to thirty temples, where Tran Hung Bao is venerated, all built during the French colonial time. There are only a few Saint Tran temples in the southern Mekong River Delta.
Chapter 3 details “A World of the Dead, Ghosts, and Demons”. In this context it is important, that the Vietnamese recognise four worlds, namely the ethereal world of “bodhisattvas, a world of gods and spirits, a world of the living, and a world of ghosts and evil spirits. Now, the world that a person inhabits in the next life is determined by which part of his or her body (head, heart, stomach and feet) cooled last after death (see p. 68). The chapter examines the way, how physical, mental and emotional problems are interpreted and how people access the healing power of Tran Hung Dao. Thus, Saint Tran temples become healing places, where people seek help to get rid of evil spirits that cause the disease and make people sick, miserable, or even crazy. Here blood rites come in (p. 93-94).
To make a long story short, Chapter 4 describes “Spirit Possession and Empowerment”. At this chapter, the author presents modern female practitioners, whose activities involve “medium” spirit possession by channelling Saint Tran as a mode of empowerment. Soul calling ceremonies and the presence of supernatural beings are similar rituals as known in the neighbouring countries. What is typical Vietnamese is the “Four Palaces” cult, popular known as “len dong” — in fact a syncretistic mixture of indigenous beliefs and elements imported from other religious traditions, such as the Taoist Jade Emperor, Buddhist Kwan Yin, and even the spirit of Ho Chi Minh (see p.101). Also, spirit possession allows both female and male mediums to transgress lines of gender.
Chapter 5 goes into “Spiritual and Material Well-Being” and introduces the one view that sees religion as a spiritual realm, where people seek security, and the other view that people are attracted to religion for “mercenary” reasons.
Wealth produces religious rituals and religious devotions, while rituals and religious devotion produces wealth. So, spirit possession seems the most controversial of all religious activities under discussion (see p. 145-146).
Chapter 6 traces the relationship of “Popular Religion and Nation-Building” and includes the promotion of the hero cult by the one party-state in Viet Nam. As the legal status of popular religion occupies a grey area, the state’s cultural ideology is simply to discourage the superstitious spirit possessions and promote hero worship instead. Based on Western models of the nation-state, secularisation and scientific rationalism were deemed to be necessary for economic progress and the creation of a civilised society, whereas superstition was deemed backward, feudal and uncivilised (see p.150). But luckily, there was no “Cultural Revolution” in Viet Nam like in China under the Communists. Nevertheless, worshipping “heroes” is now the official religion in Viet Nam and there is a political link of the traditional hero Tran Hung Dao and the late national leader Ho Chi Minh. More interesting is that another famous contemporary personality, namely Genral Vo Nguyen Giap, is already waiting to get incorporated into the syncretistic pantheon of traditional spirits. Footnote 15 on p.175 states that modern historians have recently begun to claim that the ultimate victory over America and the southern regime in 1975 should be credited to General Giap!
Last not least, in Chapter 7 the author successfully argues that “Intellectuals, Cultural Discourse, and Reflexivity” have played significant roles in re-framing the nature of religious practices and will therefore lead to a resurgence of popular religion in Viet Nam.
The useful bibliography at the end of the book should encourage scholars and students alike to dig even deeper into the very neglected theme of syncretism and spirit worship, as well as the animistic world-view of modern Southeast Asia.
Reinhard Hohler, based in Chiang Mai/Thailand, is a PhD candidate in ethnology, political science and geography at the University of Heidelberg/Germany and can be contacted by e-mail: sara@cmnet.co.th