New York based photographer Tewfic El-Sawy (Photo: VOV/Dieu Ha)

Q: Hello Tewfic, thank you for joining us on air. You just published a photo book about the practice of hầu đồng and became the first-ever non-Vietnamese photographer to do so. I think the book is fantastic and very informative. Why did you decide to focus your project on hầu đồng?

A: Hầu đồng attracted me because it combines a lot of elements such as fashion or theatre. I call hầu đồng a spiritual theatre. It brings in the Gods into the temple and uses dance, music, sacred songs, costumes, colors, fashion, and spiritual ideas to the whole performance. That’s why it is totally different from the other religion of the world. It’s a happy and joyful religion.

When I accidentally found out about hầu đồng, I went back to New York city and researched everything I could about hầu đồng and Đạo Mẫu. I googled and looked at books, but I found that no non-Vietnamese photographers have ever done a documentation about hầu đồng. I found many, many beautiful pictures from many talented Vietnamese photographers but nobody from the US, Europe or even Asia. So I decided to take pictures of hầu đồng as many as I could to make into a book and introduce hầu đồng to the West. I want to tell them that hầu đồng is a very important cultural tradition and a very important religion to the people in Vietnam. And perhaps the book will help Vietnam to get UNESCO to approve the inclusion of Đạo Mẫu to its list of heritages.

A female medium was doing some ritual pratice before starting a hầu đồng session. (Photo: Tewfic El-Sawy/Dieu Ha)

Q: The practice of hầu đồng and Đạo Mẫu is so complicated that not every Vietnamese can understand it. How can you conduct such a detailed project into this ceremony?

A: I read a lot of books by Vietnamese professors and scholars which was translated into English, and also books by American professors about Đạo Mẫu. The other difficulty is the language because I don’t speak Vietnamese so I don’t understand everything but after attending 30-40 ceremonies, I started to understand its meanings. I learnt that a lot of the Gods in hầu đồng are historical figures or national heroes. Hoàng Bảy, for instance, is real. He existed. He was in Lao Cai province and when the foreign invaders came to invade Vietnam, he pushed them back. So I think it’s the essence of Vietnam and the nationality of Vietnam.

Lê Thị Tâm, a former actress in chèo (Vietnam's traditional popular opera), is now a master medium. (Photo: Tewfic El-Sawy/Dieu Ha)

Q: When joining a hầu đồng ceremony, can you really immerse into the surrounding environment?

- Not really but what I felt a lot is the music. I joined in by the music. I think it’s the music that grabbed me in and made me feel happy. The act of spirituality itself did not impact me. But as one medium told me, maybe because I’m not Vietnamese, I can’t feel it. In fact, I don’t believe in any religion. That’s what I am. But again, the music is fantastic.

Tewfic is the first non-Vietnamese photographer to publish a book about hầu đồng in English. (Photo: VOV/Dieu Ha)

Q: As a traveling photographer, you must have been to many different places around. Have you seen any similar ritual practice like hầu đồng in other countries?

A: Like hầu đồng? No. There are other ceremonies in other religions but they are not like hầu đồng at all. They are very different. I went to India and went to a ceremony but it was more severe and not happy. It was a little bit scary. Hầu đồng in Vietnam is otherwise, it is fun. I think it’s the happiness of the audience that is striking to me. And I think whenever the medium noticed me, he or she usually were generous to acknowledge my presence and said thank you. Those moments were when I felt a lot of appreciation for the people in the people who accepted me, told me to come in and join them. I felt the sense of community with the audience, with the Vietnamese people. I’m not Vietnamese but I felt like a Vietnamese and happy.

A big thank to Tewfic for sharing with us about his book and experiences with the practice of hầu đồng in Vietnam.