Dao Cao Dai: a Socio-Historical Analysis of a Syncretic Vietnamese Religion and Its Relationship to Other Religions
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Dao Cao Dai: A Socio-historical Analysis of a Syncretic Vietnamese Religion and Its Relationship to Other Religions DOCTORAL DISSERTATION Mohammad Jahangir Alam Department of World Religions and Culture University of Dhaka June 2019 Dao Cao Dai: A Socio-historical Analysis of a Syncretic Vietnamese Religion and Its Relationship to Other Religions Dissertation submitted to the University of Dhaka for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Mohammad Jahangir Alam Registration No. 97/2011-2012 Re-registration No. 101/2016-2017 Department of World Religions and Culture University of Dhaka June 2019 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to Archbishop Duc Tran Quang Vinh, Chief of the Caodai Army, whose life-long unending contribution and the highest price he paid for the religion and his community influences millions of people in all ages of the Caodai world in particular. ii ABSTRACT In this dissertation Cao Dai religion is presented as one of the best examples of the outcome of Western and Asian acculturation occurred in the South of Vietnam down through the centuries. Thus, the current research makes it plain that Caodaism to a certain extent tends to be viewed as an outstanding example of a harmonious synthesis of both cultural as well as religious blends in the history of world religions. First to be considered is the fact that this research focuses Vietnamese socio-historical context with a view to gaining more comprehensive understanding of its significant role the way it played in the process of fostering the emergence of Caodaism in the South of Vietnam beginning in the early 20th century. At this point, this research work tends to explore Vietnamese social milieu in order to identify diverse deeply embedded cultural roots that actually served as a strong base for syncretic origin of Caodaism. As scholars view, with very few exceptions, the Vietnamese have a long established unique tradition of religious tolerance and thereby the religious amalgam is found to be very common among them. This century old tradition of religious tolerance and harmony in fact helped Vietnam to be a meeting place of religions and cultures. Therefore, more than a thousand-year old process of absorbing foreign elements and thereby its social integration has created a profound sense of Vietnamese identity. We have thus far discussed and evaluated about how Cao Dai religion emerged and it continued assimilating all borrowed elements into its own in the matrix of such a distinct Vietnamese socio- historical identity. At the same time, a further attempt is made to consider how the Cao Dai followers have kept undergoing a complex and syncretic religious life; and why the adherents never bother whether their religion is in greater peril of syncretism. In analyzing some reasons for this, present thesis explores the situations of continuous contact of Cao Dai religion with previously established traditions in Vietnam and addresses iii the approach how Caodaism blends and systematically internalizes borrowed elements in association with the elements of Western and other Eastern thoughts for its subsequent development. Consequently, Caodaism appears to be a new panorama and finds expression in a distinctive social system. This is, in a broad sense of the phenomenon, the unique syncretistic approach of the religion which has very smoothly incorporated, amalgamated and even adopted diverse elements locally in a sort of holistic mode. The study claims that these hybrid characteristics of the religion allow Caodaists to overcome a sense of cultural inferiority by establishing cultural equality with the West and the East. However, as the Western and Eastern traditions had been dominant streams to Caodaism, it was natural to have their impact upon the new religion. Thus, the present research also deals with a good effort in exploring philosophical understanding of Caodaism, its faiths and morals in order to assess Caodaism’s relation with the religions of Semitic and Indian origins. The conclusion drawn in relation to the study presented in this dissertation is that it may be pointed out that the central theme of Cao Dai syncretism is actually the way in which Caodaism approaches all borrowed elements from a refreshed and new viewpoint. Therefore, we can deduce from established arguments that the themes dealt with in the syncretic doctrine of Caodaism are the new versions of the themes of the older ones which have been transparently assimilated into Caodaism. It is to this comprehensive understanding that researcher hopes to contribute. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation owes a great debt of gratitude to Professor Dr. Kazi Nurul Islam, my advisor, who patiently supervised its various stages and offered penetrating and unerring criticism of its earlier drafts. His support was a source of encouragement and an incentive to emulate his own high standards of scholarship. I would especially like to thank Dr. Fazrin Huda, the chief of my PhD committee, for her assistance as chief advisor and for her very helpful suggestions before and during the defense of the dissertation. As my teacher and mentor, she has taught me more than I could ever give her credit for her excellent guidance. Significantly, this program could not have been finished without Dr. Huda’s outstanding contribution. I have been blessed to meet a lot of wonderful people who I have learned a lot about Caodaism from. Most importantly, I am grateful to Rev. Tran Quang Canh, the Honorable President of the Cao Dai Overseas Missionary, California, for graciously sharing his views on different areas of my study and answering my questions. He has always been supportive of my career goal and who worked actively to provide me with every useful support to pursue that goal. This work would not have been possible without his assistance and the financial support of the Cao Dai Overseas Missionary. My special thanks also go to the highest body of Cao Dai Tay Ninh branch for the approval and making my visit to Vietnam possible. That was how the Language and Cultural Study at Vietnam National University provided me a unique setting for the study of Cao Dai religion in the matrix of Vietnamese culture. Special thanks are due to Cardinal Thuong Tam Thanh, Chairman of the Sacerdotal Council, Cao Dai Tay Ninh Holy See, for inspiration and for occasions when he offered a listening ear and gave me sound advice. v I express my thanks to Mr. Nguyen Tuan Em, an active Assistant to the President of Cao Dai Overseas Missionary in charge of Cao Dai TV Program in Vietnam and an English- Vietnamese interpreter for the Sacerdotal Council of Caodaism, and his beloved wife Mrs. Ly Thi Thuy Trang, a staff of Cao Dai TV program and an active Assistant to the Executive Board of Cao Dai Overseas Missionary, were exceedingly helpful and hospitable during my stay in Tay Ninh in 2012 and 2013. Such graciousness is not forgotten. In Tay Ninh, many Caodai priests, and many other warm friendly Caodai disciples, both leaders and adepts, deserve my heartfelt thanks and gratitude. I also express my gratitude to Professor Huynh Ngoc Thu, Dean of the Faculty of Anthropology of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, who also assisted me in my research and language study while I was staying in Ho Chi Minh City. In Ho Chi Minh City, the valuable assistance of Mr. Wayne, a Canadian converted Caodaist was much appreciated. Many of the persons I met for this study openly received me in their homes and freely shared their personal experiences and impressions during my field trip to Mekong Delta in the South of Vietnam and Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I have received assistance and cooperation from many people throughout the Cao Dai world and in the academic world in my research for this dissertation. It is impossible to list them all here but I hope that they know how grateful I am for their help. They all were truly generous with their time and knowledge. Finally, nothing has been more important to me in the pursuit of this project than the University of Dhaka, the excellent academic home for me, which provides unending and enormous facility to successfully accomplish this project. vi Before I close I remember my beloved father Md. Matiur Rahman, a Freedom Fighter of the Bangladesh Liberation War, who always spoke to me on "Honesty is the best policy" and taught me from my childhood to do all good deeds in my life. vii SUPERVISORS’ DECLARATION We confirm that, to the best of our knowledge, the research work entitled “Dao Cao Dai: A Socio-historical Analysis of a Syncretic Vietnamese Religion and Its Relationship to Other Religions” has been carried out and the dissertation is prepared under our direct supervision and the dissertation represents the original research work of the candidate. All such materials that have been obtained from other sources have been duly acknowledged. (Dr. Fazrin Huda) (Dr. Kazi Nurul Islam) Supervisor Co-supervisor Associate Professor Professor and Founding Chairman Department of World Religions and Culture Department of World religions and Culture University of Dhaka University of Dhaka viii DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Mohammad Jahangir Alam declare that this dissertation titled “Dao Cao Dai: A Socio- historical Analysis of a Syncretic Vietnamese Religion and Its Relationship to Other Religions” is my own work carried out under the joint supervision of Professor Kazi Nurul Islam and Dr. Fazrin Huda, Department of World Religions and Culture of the University of Dhaka and has been generated by me while in candidature for a research degree at this University. I have acknowledged all main sources of help. I confirm that either none of this work has been published before submission or parts of this work have been published.