New Religions and State's Response to Religious Diversification in Contemporary Vietnam: Tensions from the Reinvention of the Sacred

176 Pages·2017·4.049 MB·English

by  Chung Van Hoang (auth.)

Boundaries of Religious Freedom:
Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies 7
Chung Van Hoang
New Religions and
State’s Response
to Religious
Diversifi cation in
Contemporary Vietnam
Tensions from the Reinvention of
the Sacred
Boundaries of Religious Freedom:
Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies
Volume 7
Series Editors
Lori G. Beaman, University of Ottawa, ON, Canada
Anna Halafoff, Deakin University, Vic, Australia
Lene Kühle, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
Processes of globalization have resulted in increasingly culturally and religiously
diverse societies. In addition, religion is occupying a more prominent place in the
public sphere at the turn of the 21st Century, despite predictions of religious decline.
The rise in religious diversity, and in the salience of religious identity, is posing both
challenges and opportunities pertaining to issues of governance. Indeed, a series of
tensions have arisen between state and religious actors regarding a variety of matters
including burial rites, religious education and gender equality. Many of these
debates have focused on the need for, and limits of, religious freedom especially in
situations where certain religious practices risk impinging upon the freedom of
others. Moreover, different responses to religious pluralism are often informed by
the relationship between religion and state in each society. Due to the changing
nature of societies, most have needed to define, or redefine, the boundaries of
religious freedom refl ected in laws, policies and the design and use of public spaces.
These boundaries, however, continue to be contested, debated and reviewed, at
local, national and global levels of governance.
All books published in this Series have been fully peer-reviewed before final
acceptance.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11839
Chung Van Hoang
New Religions and State’s
Response to Religious
Diversification in
Contemporary Vietnam
Tensions from the Reinvention of the Sacred
Chung Van Hoang
ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Singapore, Singapore
ISSN 2214-5281 ISSN 2214-529X (electronic)
Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies
ISBN 978-3-319-58499-7 ISBN 978-3-319-58500-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-58500-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017943338
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors
or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims
in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Printed on acid-free paper
This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
Since 1990s, new religious groups mushroomed throughout Vietnam. The sudden
appearance and popularity of these indigenous groups calls for enquiry into their
nature and their place in the religious revival that has been a feature of the post-
Renovation Vietnam. These groups appear to be thriving despite the cautious
approach of the authorities, and criticisms in the media and from some established
religious organizations. For years, I have been drawn to explore their origin, attrac-
tion, self-representation, ambitions, challenges, creativity, vitality and impacts.
This book results from my research into these interesting themes in more than
5 years, which actually covers my PhD candidature, though I may not fully address
them all. As you will see, it seeks to understand the re-emergence of spiritual beliefs
and practices, albeit with modification and creative borrowings, in Vietnam’s post-
Renovation era. It does so by considering three currently active new religious groups
in Vietnam: the School of Teaching Goodness; the Way of Hồ Chí Minh as the Jade
Buddha; and the Tố Dương’s Field of Extrasensory Perception. Fieldwork was con-
ducted with the founders/leaders and followers of these groups in order to analyse
their emergence, organisation, doctrines, rituals and practices.
The book argues that these groups are part of a process of religious reconfigura-
tion caused by the intensified interactions between the religious and non-religious
spheres in a rapidly modernizing Vietnam. Within the religious sphere, for example,
these new religious groups develop new syncretic forms of worship that combine
the familiar vocabularies of Buddhism and folk spiritual practices in innovative
ways. As providing alternative pathways to salvation, they play an important role in
religious diversification that cannot be neglected by traditional religious streams.
Without the religious sphere, the three new religious groups I discuss seek to engage
with the political sphere in order to affect state regulation of religious minorities and
of religious diversity, to gain legitimacy by making reference to familiar figures,
such as Hồ Chí Minh. My empirical findings also indicate how new religious groups
re-enchant the economic and the public sphere.
The argument made in the book is that the emergence of these and other similar
groups does not simply equate to so many new religions in Vietnam. Rather, as I
demonstrate, post-1986 new religious groups have changed the shape of the religious
v
vi Preface
sphere in Vietnam, redefined the relationship between new religions and state-rec-
ognized religious organizations and diversified options for the Vietnamese to redis-
cover their sacred world and to continuously adapt religion to their modernizing
society.
The concept of religious reconfiguration developed in this book provides a
framework for the study of religion in Vietnam, which opens the way to further
analysis from a comparative perspective. Meanwhile, an emphasis upon religious
reinvention which addresses processes of remaking, transforming, legitimating and
accomodating can be useful for research into new religious movements elsewere in
Asia. A research in the challenges of new religions could act as a catalyst for inter-
disciplinary studies based on detailed empirical study of religious diversity and of
religious freedom by other scholars. The book is my contribution to not only the
understanding of new religions but also to the religious studies as a rising discipline
in contemporary Vietnam and elsewhere. The book is, therefore, suitable for post-
graduate students and social researchers who are interested in religious revival, reli-
gious diversification, state-religion relationships and state’s regulation of new
religions.
Yet this research could only be done with important support and guidance that I
had from research and educational institutions and distinguished persons though I
cannot name them all here. I would like first to sincerely express my gratitude to all
the people who were involved in my research over the years. I would like to thank
La Trobe University for its full financial support of my candidature from 2009 to
2014. My sincere thanks go to people from the Institute of Religious Studies (Viện
Nghiên cứu Tôn giáo) at the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. I would like to
record my thanks to Professor Đỗ Quang Hưng, the former director of the Institute
for Religious Studies, who inspired and supported me to do research on new reli-
gious movements. At La Trobe University, my sincere thanks must go to many peo-
ple who have contributed tremendously to my PhD thesis. I would like first to
express my profound gratitude to Dr. Chris Eipper, Dr. John Morton, Dr. Wendy
Mee as my principle supervisor, Dr. Nicolas Herriman and Dr. Rowan Ireland.
Beyond La Trobe University, my thanks go to Professor Joel Kahn from Melbourne
University, Professor Oscar Salemink from University of Copenhagen and Professor
Hue-Tam Ho Tai from Harvard University who read my proposal and chapters and
provided valuable feedback. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to
Professor Adam Possamai from the University of Western Sydney who made much
valuable comments and encouraged me to publish my PhD thesis into a book. My
special thanks also go to colleagues at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute who encour-
aged me to work hard on the final manuscript. Finally, I dedicate this book to my
large family in Vietnam who always express love and encouragement. The book is
also dedicated to my own family, my wife and two daughters who have been with
me from the beginning of my journey to understand my own people, their culture
and life world.
Hanoi and Singapore Chung Van Hoang
Spring 2017
Contents
1 The Rise of New Religious Worldviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Advent of Hồ Chí Minh as the Jade Buddha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Questioning the Rise of New Religious Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Renovation and Religious Revival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Enquiries into New Religious Groups Since Renovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
An Alternative Approach to New Religious Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Into the Landscape of New Religions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2 Modernity and Religious Reconfiguration: A Vietnamese
Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Modernity and Interactions Between Religious
and Nonreligious Spheres . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Modernity and Social Differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Modernity Following Different Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Social Spheres’ Multidimensional Interactions in East
and Southeast Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Religion and Aspects of Modernity in Contemporary Vietnam . . . . . . . . . 37
Religious Changes During the Colonial Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Different Religious Landscapes During 1945–1975 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
A New Religious Landscape Since Renovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Theorising the Rise of New Religious Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Religious Reconfiguration in Vietnamese Modernity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3 Revitalising the Legacy of a Local Sage: The School
of Teaching Goodness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Founder of the School of Teaching Goodness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
From a Carpenter to a Spiritual Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Building the School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Students at the School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Changing Local Authorities’ Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
vii
viii Contents
Remaking the Past into the Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Revitalising the Legacy of the Local Sage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Reforming a Traditional Village School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Reviving a Local Folk Belief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Utilising Ancestors’ Knowledge to Help People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Beyond Revitalisation of Traditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4 A ‘Spiritual Revolution’ for National Salvation: The Way
of the Jade Buddha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Deification of Hồ Chí Minh and Its Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
The Jade Buddha and His Heavenly Mediums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
A ‘Spiritual Revolution’ to Remake the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Followers of the Jade Buddha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Millenarian Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Legitimating the Belief in Hồ Chí Minh’s Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
An Updated Account of Deification of Hồ Chí Minh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5 Seeking Reconfiguration of Buddhism: The Great Mother’s
Field of ESP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
The Spiritual Master with a Doctoral Qualification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Messages from the World of Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Believers of the World of Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
An Experimental Reconfiguration of Buddhism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Adapting Religious Innovations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6 The Reinvention and Reconfiguration of New Religions . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Generalizing VNRMs’ Basic Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Processes of Religious Reinvention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Remaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Transforming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Legitimating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Accommodating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
New Religions and Religious Reconfiguration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
7 New Religions in Religious Diversification
and the State’s Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Religious Diversification and the Role of VNRMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
The Expansion of the Religious Sphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Diversification Within a Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
State’s Response to Religious Diversification: The Case
of NRMs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Managing NRMs at the Central Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Managing NRMs at the Local Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Contents ix
The Future of New Religions in Vietnam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169