Cu Chi Tunnels & Cao Dai Temple

--> Previous
--> Next
--> Home
--> More Adventures
--> vietnam Index

April 13th, 2005:
Today was another great day. Cristel and I went to Cao Dai temple which is this temple, dedicated to this invented Vietnamese religion that combines all the best elements of the other religions, such that they worship everyone from Shiva to.... now get ready for this... Victor Hugo. I am not entirely sure why him, but he is a main figure. The temple is amazing. It is a tribute to kitsch. I guess they didn't hire interior decorators... but it is so extreme that it works somehow.

Above & Right: Cao Dai followers waiting for the noon ceremony. As people bike by, they remove their conical hats in respect.

History of Cao Dai:
Founded in 1926, was created in an attempt to develop the ideal religion through the fusion of secular and religious philosophies of the East and West. Ngo Minh Chieu, the founder, was widely read and active in seances. Through these seances he received the initial revelations of Cao Dai. Within a year of its foundation, there were over 26,000 followers. By the fifties, nearly 13% of the Vietnamese were Cao Dai followers.

The Cao Dai also played a significant political and military role in South Vietnam and even had its own army.

Merging elements of Buddhism, Taoists, and Confucianism, the goal is to escape the cycle of reincarnation by the performance of certain duties including, first and foremost, the prohibitions against killing, lying, luxurious living, sensuality, and stealing. There are two principal deities, the female mother goddess and the male god. This duality complicates the supposed belief in "one god only" But oh well.

History of Cao Dai:
According to Cao Daism, history is divided into three periods of divine revelation: From Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Mohammed, Jesus, Moses, etc. However, these messages were corrupted because of human frailty.

The third and final revelation is through Cao Dai, which avoids the problem of human frailty by communicating directly to spirits in seance.

They also talk to other people... Evidently they are still publishing "posthumous works" by Victor Hugo as his official postumous editors and possibly others. I was thinking of being a posthumous editor for Dorothy Parker.

Some of the other spirits that have been contacted include: Renee Descartes, Shakespeare, Louis Pasteur, Lenin... and more.

Left: During the ceremony, the Cao Dai priests sit and pray while people play instruments and a group of the priestesses sing.

Above: A little boy near the temple. Is every child in Vietnam adorable? I think so.

Cu Chi Tunnels: Built over a period of 25 years that began in the 40s, the tunnels were built by a poorly equipped peasant army in response to the "high-tech" enemy that they faced. The first tunnels were built during the struggle with the French colonial powers and were used for communication between villages. These tunnels were built with three levels and sniper dugouts, and escape routes into the rivers and the jungle.

Journal Continued:
Next on the agenda were the cu chi tunnels. That was just insane. We crawled through these tiny, cramped, airless tunnels from one entrance to the next, we looked through sniper holes, and commander dugouts. We went down to about 2 of the 3 levels of tunnels that were around cu chi. Going through these elaborate tunnel systems, you really came to understand that soldiers were fighting people that they couldn't see.:

They weren't there. AND the tunnel entrances were so tiny; there was no rushing into one of those things. It makes the movies seem silly, because, I am not entirely sure that the giant American soldiers could even fit in the entrances. There was a medium sized guy and he even had trouble. Plus, that must have been certain death to follow somebody in there. It

Journal Continued:
was an amazing experience that I am glad that I did. At the end, they demonstrated how several of the booby traps worked... and I definitely would not like to be on the receiving end of one of those things. From that, you really got the feeling that it was technology against the village ways... and the village one, temporarily at least. Each one of the booby traps was more gory than the next, with spikes that went through and punctured the legs, the torso; fell on your head, etc. It was described psychological warfare, as if you saw one of your friends meet their end that way, everyone was more scared afterwards.:

Journal Continued:
The other interesting thing was that they had a film, mostly propaganda, made just after the war that talked about the evil invaders, their ruthless bombs, so on and so forth. Still, you learned that they would gather all the leftovers and used weaponry from the US, and recycle them into weapons against the enemy. They were down in those tunnels making weapons out of our weapons.

So, following that experience, Cristel and I decided to splurge and get a massage. We got an hour long full body massage for... $4. The girls were giggling the whole time. I am not sure why. But they walked on and popped our backs and generally provided a cross between torture and sheer pleasure. So, I guess you get what you pay for.

Above: Cristel about to descend into one of the "hospital" entrances of the tunnels

Right: Rachel hopping into a typical hidden entrance.

--> Previous
--> Next
--> Home
--> More Adventures
--> vietnam Index