Impressions of Ho Chi Minh City & Surrounding Temples
Ho Chi Minh is a thriving metropolis that, while not at all pretty, oozes the spirit of young Vietnamese urbanites. Motorscooters and motorbikes swarm the streets like invading ants; they are everywhere and even something seemingly as simple as crossing the street is like putting one’s life at risk as they do not give way to pedestrians. Despite the heavy traffic, which is not nearly as clogged as that in Yangon because the two-wheelers weave in and out to keep the colony moving, the air is more breathable than in many other Asian cities. There are the usual street vendors cooking their particular specialty every few meters along the sides of the main streets in front of a wide variety of shops selling everything from daily use Vietnamese products to designer shoes and clothes. Life vibrates across the city and, while there are clear poor, emerging middle class, and expensive areas they flow seamlessly together. The impression one gets is that of a city that is on an economic upswing, with hope supported by hard work for a prosperous future.
This is not to say that all is rosy. The universities are still struggling, but not nearly as much as those in Myanmar and many young people do not have the means to attend universities. The system is similar to Myanmar and China in that there is an exam after secondary school that determines what one can study and where one studies, but there is a bit more self-determination in Vietnam as compared to the other two in that the students are allowed to choose their top three fields and placements. The score on their exam then determines whether they will be competitive in getting into either of their first two choices or not. If their score is below that of the standard set by their third choice, they can then pay more to attend a different kind of public institution or go to one of the privates. Many students still want to study abroad and as the young population is growing quite rapidly, it would appear that this would be welcomed by the Education Ministry as it will be increasingly more difficult to accommodate all the incoming students in the facilities they currently have. As in the other countries, despite Vietnam being officially a communist country, health care remains prohibitively expensive for most people.
The museums in Ho Chi Minh City and at the Cu Chi Tunnels describe the heroic efforts of the Viet Cong against the invading U.S. The “American War” stories are brutal to listen to. I have to admit I did not go to the War Remembrance Museum as I have no interest in glorifying politically inspired murder, but did go to the Ho Chi Minh City Museum and the History Museum, both of which had large sections devoted to the War. I found it particularly interesting that the guide for the Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnel tour, as well as people at the hotel, and other Vietnamese young and not-so-young people I spoke with, had a very different interpretation of the situation. There is clearly a difference in perception between North, with the VC interpretation, and the South, which doesn’t condemn the Americans for being in the country at all, rather that they were more upset to have the foreigners pull out without leaving the South Vietnamese with the necessary resources to continue the fight on their own. I was more than once informed that the U.S. did not invade, that they were helping the people in the South who didn’t want Ho Chi Minh’s army or politics in their region. Mr. Binh, who said he was an officer in the U.S. Navy, mentioned that the CIA was probably more at fault for the result of the war than any other force as, according to him, JFK had wanted to send humanitarian aid to the people in Vietnam and limit the amount of military involvement, thereby allowing the So. Vietnamese to concentrate on the fighting and build their capacity. Somehow the agreement between JFK and the then President of the Republic of South Vietnam went array and the Vietnamese President and his brother were murdered & JKF was shot three weeks later. This seemed just too coincidental to the people in former Saigon.
The War’s effects are still very prominently displayed as there are very few men older than 50 around. The toll on the Vietnamese young men during the war was high on both sides of the DMZ. The government has made some of the key sites of the War into tourist attractions, not the least of which are the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 50km outside of Ho Chi Minh City.
There are a couple of different sections to the extensive tunnel system that was in use during the War. The most popular for the tour busses, which is what I was on as part of an all day excursion from HCMC, is at Ben Ninh and showcased not only the tunnels (which have been slightly enlarged to accommodate Western tourists – even though they are still claustrophically narrow), but also the booby traps used by the Viet Cong on their enemies and their enemies’ search dogs. There were a number of traps with very large steel spikes, some with dual rotating posts that would rip the flesh off of anything that fell into it. As the traps were covered with jungle grasses and leaves to blend invisibly into the landscape, anywhere one tread could have led to a descent into a living hell. Both South Vietnamese as well as the Americans were subjected to this torture. In the History Museum I learned where they had gotten the idea from. It seems this was an old defensive strategy used by the Vietnamese against invading Chinese ships. Large wooden spikes were driven into the seabed during low tide and when the Chinese sailed in during high tide they got caught on the spikes. So spikes have been used in warfare here for almost a millennium.
Beyond the instruments of torture for the enemy, there were the tunnels themselves that must have been torture for those having to live in them for weeks, if not months, on end. There were air shafts at various intervals to allow for fresh air, but even during my time in them, which was very short, late in the afternoon, and in mid-February, the air was stiflingly hot and muggy. Cu Chi really showcases the depth of human depravity and man’s inhumanity to each other, so it was even more upsetting to arrive at the gift shop/restaurant and find that one could buy real bullets to shoot on the shooting range, including those for AK47s, and that they were selling bullets that had been made into pens. The commercialization of the human tragedy that occurred here was quite upsetting. The tragedy is bad enough, but then to almost make light of it with more shooting and marketing gimmicks, to my mind, shows a lack of human compassion and understanding.
Luckily the opposite is true in the temples. I was only able to visit a few during my three days in the region, but they were sufficiently impressive. Perhaps the most unusual was the Holy See of Cao Dai faith. This is a religion that is unique to Vietnam. It is a new religion, having been founded in the 1920s, and one that takes the bohemian flavor of Paris into an eclectic religious practice. (During the 20s Vietnam was still under French colonial control.) The main temple is a couple of hours outside of HCMC, but there are local churches/temples scattered throughout the areas in So. Vietnam that I drove through. They all look like elaborate brightly colored birthday cakes with twin towers in front that stick up like candles. The buildings are painted yellow/gold with pink, light blue, and red-orange highlights outlining some of their sacred imagery. The one key feature is the eye of God (just like the one on the American dollar bill) that looks down on the populace from the center of the outside façade. Inside the main temple there is a very very long corridor leading up to a couple of steps with the altar. The eye appears in the center of a world globe at the back by the altar and on the somewhat stained-glass windows that line the outside of the room. There are double rows of eight pink pillars with Nagas winding their way upward lining the apse. We were there during the noontime service, and it was quite a ritual to behold. Tourists and non-participants are not allowed on the main floor during the service, but we could observe a portion of it from an upstairs gallery. The participants are divided into four main groups according to the color of their robes and then subdivided by hat and the way the robes are worn as well as by gender. The women are on the left side facing the altar and the men on the right with a passageway between them. The women were only in white as were the men at the back of the temple, which I believe indicates their lesser priestly status. The men of the higher orders were then divided into blue, red or yellow robes indicating the particular faith they represented: Taoism, Buddhism or Confucianism respectively. The differences in the women were more subtle and in the design of the robe itself rather than in the color. There was elaborate prayer ritual with people standing up, kneeling, bowing, and moving up and out of the temple on gong-sounded cues that I couldn’t begin to figure out, but the devotees were clearly aligned with the expected movements which flowed from one scene to the next as if in waves of white and color.
According to a plaque at the front of the temple there were three signatories of the Third Alliance between God and Mankind. These three saints of Cao Dai are Sun Yatsen, for leading the Communist Revolution, Victor Hugo for his compassion for the disenfranchised and for having revealed himself as a superintendent of monasteries and Nguyen Binh Khiem, the first Vietnamese Poet Laureate and Prophet. Both Sun Yatsen and Victor Hugo are said to have been the latter’s disciples. Other saints of the faith include the Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, Mohammad, Pericles, Julius Caesar, and Joan of Arc. It is a fairly eclectic syncretic faith with a strong sense of Vietnamese nationalism, although the founding Pope refused to become enmeshed in politics and the position has remained vacant for over two decades. The religion is based in a monastic tradition and the participants during the service appeared to be all monks or nuns, although it seems that one can enter into the monastery for as little as a day and as long as a lifetime. The head nun, somewhat similar to a Mother Superior, wears a white pointed hat with a veil that looks like it comes from a medieval fairy tale. The head of the entire order is like a pope.
The main principles of the faith are God, Humanity, Love and Justice. There is a quote on the religionfacts.com website that describes how the order views its faith:
The noble effort of CaoDai is to unite all of humanity through a common vision of the Supreme Being, whatever our minor differences, in order to promote peace and understanding throughout the world. CaoDai does not seek to create a gray world, where all religions are exactly the same, only to create a more tolerant world, where all can see each other as sisters and brothers from a common divine source reaching out to a common divine destiny realizing peace within and without. 4
It goes on to explain that the faith “encourages obedience to the three duties (between king and citizen, father and child, husband and wife), and five virtues (humanity, obligation, civility, knowledge, reliability) of Confucianism.” And that “the purpose of life is peace within each individual and harmony in the world. Cao Dai followers also seek to gain religious merit and avoid bad karma.”
If only other religions could be so tolerant….
Ho Chi Minh City is divided into districts and most of the tourist sites, including the museums and temples are in the central core stretching from Districts 1 and 3 to Cholon, the former Chinese section, in 8. (?) Cholon is home to lots of temples, including those that are Confucian, Taoist, Buddhist and a synthesis of one of more of those religions, albeit not to the extent Cao Dai does. The mixture of religions within the more traditional temples is easily identified through the incorporation of statues, often made of lacquered papier mache, of honorific figures from the different faiths. As it was impossible in just a few days to visit many of the city’s temples, I concentrated on just two very different styles: the Jade Emperor Pagoda & the Vinh Ngheim Pagoda.
The Jade Emperor Temple is ostensibly a Taoist temple tucked in the back off a side street that leads to a major thoroughfare. The smoke from incense and joss sticks makes it virtually impossible to get a clear photo of the statuary, but makes it obvious how much this temple is used and the images worshipped. According to local belief, the Jade Emperor controls the gates to heaven. He is assisted by two attendants who guide souls to their appointed place either in heaven or in one of the 10 Hells, which are vividly depicted in one of the halls. The Buddha has a central place within the temple, with side shrines to a fertility goddess, Kim Hua, and Confucius among others. As turtles play a key role in the mythology, there is a large pond filled to the brim with swimming creatures.
The Vinh Ngheim Pagoda is a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist temple, dedicated to Kuan Yin, the Buddha, Samantabhadra and Manjushri. This is a new seven-storied concrete pagoda that towers over the neighborhood. I was there in the evening and the gates to the upper floors were locked, but the view even from the second was impressive. The second floor has the central staircase and outside walls lined with seated Buddhas. There were two rooms off the back with about 10” x 8” porcelain jars with ashes of ancestors; I was advised not to bring bad luck to myself and photograph them. The ground floor has a number of shrines and as at the Jade Emperor temple, the fragrant incensed-filled areas enhance the experience of being there. It seems that this temple is not on the general tourist track as I was the only apparent foreigner there and the locals seemed quite amazed to see a Westerner respecting their traditions. I think this says more about us than it does about them.
Another temple complex that not many foreigners visit is one that should be more on the circuit, and includes the Tay An and Ba Chua Xu temples. The latter is at the foot of Sam Mountain and the former on the mountain. They are both Buddhist temples, but there are also some Taoist images in the mountain shrines. It takes a good two and a half hours from HCMC to get to Tay An (Black Lady), but it is well worth the trip. There is now a new cable car going up to the temples which whisks one up the mountain and provides an outstanding view of the fields below. Sam Mountain is the only elevation in the area so the views extensive. Once at the top of the cable car there are still a couple of staircases up to reach the first level of temples. The three main shrine areas on this level are packed with people, a huge bell that a nun pounds with a very large log to mark the time for prayer, and a free cafeteria for the worshippers. The next level has a few more shrines and a brand new white Parinirvana Buddha overseeing the temples and villages below. On the other side of the mountain from the Parinirvana, is another large temple complex with cave shrines and even some linga looking stones that are clearly worshipped by the gold cloth and flowers decorating them. Above this level are more isolated shrines. The summit is accessible only if one boulder hops as the stairs, or semblance of them, stops about ¾ of the way up. During the “American War” this area was a hotbed of activity with the VC hiding out in some of the caves that are now shrines.
After visiting the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, including Kuan Yin, Maitreya and the Treasure Buddha, one has a choice of going back with the cable car or taking the slide down. I took the slide, which meant I climbed into a little cart similar to the one on Mt. Gemu in Sichuan, and sped down the mountain (although I was more on the breaks during the turns than the people behind me wanted… oh well, the turns were tricky!). Once down, one can either return straight to the car or make a small detour to the park next door with the Ba Chua Xu temple, which has a large papier mache scene with baby Siddhartha, his father the King and his attendants in the middle of the park’s kids’ swingset. The temple itself has Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and local goddess-like figures, including Kuan Yin. This is a very new temple and still glistens from the recent paint. Even the few temples I was able to visit give testimony to the vibrancy of faith in this ostensibly communist, but very market driven, country.
Perhaps the absolute highlight of my brief stay in Ho Chi Minh City was to have the opportunity to meet and chat with Prof. Tran Van Khe, the grandfather of Vietnamese traditional music. This visit was arranged by Binh Duong University. Prof. Khe returned to Vietnam a few years ago after 55 years of teaching and working in Paris. At 94 he is still actively engaged in teaching young Vietnamese musicians about their traditions with the hopes of bringing it back to life. He was instrumental in making it possible for UNESCO to declare Vietnamese traditional arts as a world heritage culture. The ceremony for the induction was the evening of my meeting with him. During our discussion he sang, recited poetry and acted out some of the roles within the music. His voice modulated with the characters and, even though I cannot speak a word of Vietnamese, was able to understand what the music and texts were relating based on Prof. Khe’s interpretation. It was a remarkable meeting with a true musical master.
I was only able to spend three days in Ho Chi Minh City, but they were full of learning experiences. This is a city that is in the midst of reinventing itself as a modern Vietnamese economic hub, taking what seems good from the West and East, but making it distinctly their own. It is a city to return to.
