Vietnam's unusual church

A cocktail of the world’s faiths and beliefs has more than two million people in Vietnam believing they have found the perfect religion. Bev Malzard was dazzled by the divine.

Doing the Cao Dai shuffle.

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) always astounds me. Every time I visit, I expect it to have calmed down, have organised chaos on the roads and perhaps a bit more peace and quiet on the streets. Ha!

It gets madder and more marvellous every time. Riding in a small bus and caught in the crossfire of six lanes of traffic merging from four sides (yes) and watching around 200 motor scooters (of all denominations) jostle for a place to make their move had me covering my eyes, but leaving enough light to actually see if we were all going to survive. Of course we were – this is Saigon.

I only spent a little time in the city this trip but enough time to see that changes continue. Prosperity is gilding this lily and there are more ‘newer’ bikes, a few more cars, more smart, designer shops and cafes with a cosmopolitan edge showing up.

On the evening we arrived it was across to the old Rex Hotel, which is the stuff of legend. Not the flashest pub on the block but it has character.

Its obvious kitsch is its charm, and it’s all about the rooftop bar. This is the place to enjoy the balmy air and breathe in the scent of Saigon. There is live music and you never know what you’ll get. Our experience was to enjoy the rooftop’s host belting out a few Tom Jones songs. The singer is Greek, speaks Vietnamese and is a local! After a couple of drinks crowded with fruit and umbrellas we left the bar chilled out and blessed with goodwill towards the world – it’s that kind of place.

Next day, rather than cover old ground in Saigon, we upped and headed out of town to go to church.

We were going to attend a midday service at the Cao Dai temple at Tay Ninh 95km south of Saigon. Driving to Tay Ninh we passed through Trang Bang, an innocuous regional town that has a claim to fame that shocked the world. Seared on our minds from 1972 is the image published around the world of children running down a road, their bodies scorched by napalm.

Maybe it’s the relatively low guest rate that lures them – the train takes just 32 passengers – or perhaps it’s the amazing scenery swishing by, although the staff miss the off-train excursions which we enjoy.

Tay Ninh is the heartland of Vietnam’s most interesting religion, Cao Daiism. The Cao Dai Great Temple at the sect’s Holy See is an extraordinary building that almost defies description. It is a confection, an anomaly, a rococo rebel, a mishmash of design elements that suggest a Chinese pagoda, a French cathedral, the old Tiger Balm Gardens of Hong Kong and a paint chart. It made me smile, the cheerfulness of the building is infectious.

The name Cao Dai means ‘high tower’ or ‘palace’ and the religion is the culmination of a concept to incorporate many beliefs to create the perfect religion: Buddhism, Confucianism, with a dash of Taoism, Christianity, Islam and Vietnamese spirituality. From its beginnings in 1926 it grew within a year to boast 26,000 followers and by the 1950s one in eight south Vietnamese was Cao Dai and the world was taking notice too because of the flamboyance of the sect.

In the Cao Dai temple at Tay Ninh, Vietnam.

The Cao Daiists aren’t pacifists nor do they shirk military matters and their 25,000 strong army was incorporated in the South Vietnamese army during the war.

They would not support the Viet Cong during the war and after Reunification the sect’s lands were confiscated and four members were executed. But in the mid 1980s the Holy See and 400 temples were returned to Cao Dai.

The temple complex houses administrative offices, residences for officials and wardens, and a hospital practising traditional Vietnamese herbal medicine.

Prayers are conducted four times a day and we were there to attend the noon session. We entered the main door with its divine eye set over the front portico.

Priests and male and female clergy were assembling in the main hall. Observers climbed the stairs to watch the ceremony from a balcony that runs around the rectangle of the huge temple.

Dozens of white robed men and women took their places in unison to kneel in neat rows and the priests began to enter – some dressed in bright blue robes and tall headdresses, some in yellow and some in red. I’m sure the colours denote the hierarchy but to which end I don’t know.

The sect, or religion, is complicated but it seems to be inclusive and generous. There’s a lot of communing with spirits and many westerners have been contacted including Joan of Arc, Louis Pasteur and Victor Hugo!

All temples observe four daily ceremonies held at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight. The church dignitaries all wear colourful ceremonial dress and offer incense, tea, alcohol, flowers and fruit. The temples’ altars have the divine eye above them, which is the religion’s symbol after founder Ngo Minh Chieu saw it in a vision.

And the entire experience of the Cao Dai noon ceremony was a vision of splendour and cheerful spirituality – and the robes were absolutely divine.

Getting there: Vietnam Airlines fly from Australia daily to Vietnam. Visit: www.vietnamairlines.com

Stayed at: The Caravelle, a very posh hotel in an excellent location with possibly the best breakfast spread this writer has ever seen and eaten. The hotel was full of Aussie travellers, most of them Get Up & Go vintage.

Visit: www.caravellehotel.com

Read: Lonely Planet's Vietnam