Tây Ninh, about 50 miles outside of Saigon, Vietnam is home to the headquarters of the Cao Dai religion, founded in 1926, which engages in prayer, ancestor worship, nonviolence and vegetarianism. Supposedly there are millions of Vietnamese adherents. Their temples are quite common in the country. But the Holy See in Tây Ninh is a must see. Um…you guys gotta see the See. Inside the bright colorful and decorated temple are many great spiritual figures from the East and West, like Lao Tzu, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Mohammed and…Joan of Arc and Victor Hugo. Those lost two are supposedly prophets in Cao Dai religion. Who knew? Like followers of Bahai, this has to do with the fact Caodaists stress the unity of religions – that many of the great figures of different faiths were essentially sharing the same message, and should all be venerated. The many colors of their temples signify this idea with red and green representing Catholicism and Budddhism respectively. The worshipers themselves wear white.
At the temple’s entrance, a scroll shows the religion’s three saints receiving a message from God: Hanh Phu (a medieval Vietnamese aristocrat), Sun Yat-sen (first president of China) and Victor Hugo (the author of Les Misérables who left a lasting impact on this former French colony). For fifty years, the religion was a political force, commanding their own army, until the Communists stripped their powers and persecuted them. One can see (again with the see) this in the temple with a trap door behind the altar for easy escape. But none of that is going on today as busloads of tourists, all in white of course, are seen paying their respects. And one shouldn’t worry if you don’t believe in Cao Dai as they are very welcoming to visitors. Oh, by the way, is it really a surprise with all this seeing stuff that their symbol is a freakin’ eye? I don’t think so.
