(VOVworld) – Worshipping the Mother Goddess – Mother of the Universe - has been a time-honoured spiritual practice in Vietnam since prehistoric times. The ancient Vietnam people initiated the practice of communicating with the universe in the “going into a trance” ritual. Researchers call it a “living museum of Vietnamese culture”. Stay tuned for some insights from reporter Thu Huong.
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| “Going into trance” ritual in Phu Day temple, Vietnam. (Photo: Casablanca1911) |
It’s midday on a normal day in the 3rd lunar month in Phủ Dày (in the northern Nam Định province). A temple is well-decorated with a multi-level main sanctuary centrally located. A group of about 100 people are intensively watching a medium, well-dressed with a red turban and belt and green silk robe embroidered with dragons and phoenix. She dances passionately while slow and fast invocation songs are sung accompanied by traditional musical instruments. Four assistants sit by the medium to facilitate her incarnation of different deities and spirits. Trần An Đức Hạnh is known as one of the most popular mediums in Hanoi: “During the incarnation of deities and spirits, I am totally sober and able to control my behaviour. But when singers sing the songs about deities, I feel so touched that I can mimic their actions. For example, during the incarnation of a Deity, the medium simulates his actions by drinking liquor and fencing. This makes the participants at the ritual touched. I myself feel touched when I watch the video of the ritual but cannot figure out how I could act like that. I can’t repeat what I’ve done after the ritual”.
Đạo Mẫu or the Mother Goddess is a polytheistic religion. The ancient Vietnamese people believed that the Mother of the Universe is incarnated in more than 50 deities in a strictly hierarchical order. They protect and bless people’s health, happiness, luck, and prosperity. Unlike many other religions, the Mother Goddess religion does not promise human beings attainment of Nirvana or paradise after death. On the contrary, this religion aims to help ease people’s secular life while they are alive on earth. According to Professor Ngô Đức Thịnh, Director of the Vietnam Centre for Research and Preservation of Religious Cultures, the Mother Goddess religion is grounded in existentialism. His research shows that the Vietnamese began to practice the “going into a trance” ritual in the Mother Goddess religion in the 15th century at the latest. Mr. Thịnh: “Going into a trance” is the medium’s multiple incarnations of 50 to 60 deities. While doing this, the mediums are not themselves anymore but serve as a chair in which the deities sit. The medium first prays for good health for themselves because before becoming a medium, they often have suffered from incurable health issues or mental disorders. A complete “going into a trance” ritual consists of 36 sessions with different deities to reincarnate in the medium. But very few mediums conduct all 36 sessions. Each time a deity reincarnates, the medium covers her/his head with a square red-edge scarf. When the deity leaves the session, that scarf is used again to cover the medium’s head”.
The medium’s costumes are colourful but the colours are combined in a rule. Each colour represents a deity who manages a part of the universe. The deities in charge of the 4 elements of the Universe are distinguished with 4 different colours. The Heaven is red, the Earth is yellow, the Water is white and Forest is green.
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| “Going into trance” ritual in a temple of northern Vietnam |
“Going into a trance” is a ritual performance with its own audience. Through the medium, the participants petition the deities incarnated for favors. During the sessions, the medium grants them either money or a cup of liquor. The recipients receive the offer with their sincerity.
Unlike other shamanic rituals where shamans sing, dance and interact with deities, the mediums only incarnate the deities by acting like them with the help of traditional music and songs. According to the folk music researcher Bùi Trọng Hiền from the Vietnam Academy of Culture and Art, music plays a vital role in “going into a trance”. Music, exclusively used to induce in mediums is called invocation, which combines the essence of all Vietnam’s traditional folk music. Mr. Hiền: “Invocation music is a ritual music and an art that is able to represent different personalities of different deities. It evokes different emotions: cheerful, sad, serious, combining with dances to inspire people and build their trust for the spiritual world. Through generations, invocation music has turned into a great treasure, which inherits its predecessors, including Cheo opera, Tuong or Classical Theatre, and other traditional folk music of the northern region. Invocation music reflects the soul of the entire Vietnamese nation”.
Mr. Hiền again: “A standard trance singer must learn by heart all the ancient invocation songs and be able to sing the proper way. There are 13 basic tunes, which require the singer to be loyal to their rhythms and play correctly the castanets and the đàn nguyệt, a traditional Vietnamese plucked, fretted lute with a round body and two strings”.
The worshiping section dedicated to the Mother Goddess looks like a miniature of a folk culture exhibition, where sculpture, painting and cuisine are highlighted. The Mother Goddess followers do not follow a diet like Buddhists. Therefore, the votive offerings include specialties of various kinds. After the ritual is completed, these offerings are distributed among the participants as a gift from the deities.
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| A performance of “Going into trance” ritual in Hà Nội (Photo: vietbao.vn) |
For Vietnamese, going into a trance is a community activity, a belief and a culture. There is a Vietnamese saying that we commemorate the death anniversary for the father in the 8th lunar month and for mother in the 3rd lunar month. The father mentioned in this saying is General Trần Hưng Đạo, who 3 times defeated the Chinese-Mongolian invaders in the 13th century. The mother is Mother Liễu Hạnh, who is one of the 4 immortal figures. She is worshipped as a “Holly Mother – the Mother of the entire nation”. As Vietnamese consider the family as a base for social behaviours they believe that like a family, a society must have father, mother and ancestors.
Initiated by the King majority in Vietnam, the Mother Goddess religion also honours deities of the ethnic minority groups, including two animal deities, a tiger and snake. According to Professor Ngô Đức Thịnh, Director of the Vietnam Centre for Research and Preservation of Religious Cultures, the Mother Goddess religion reflects equality and solidarity between different Vietnamese ethnic groups. Furthermore, most of the deities in this religion are national heroes, some real some imaginary. Therefore, going into a trance ritual is an effective way to educate people about patriotism. But the philosophy of the ritual and the Mother Goddess religion is far different from regular nationalism. Mr. Thịnh: “For Vietnamese, the Mother Goddess is the Universe, the Nature that have been deified and feminized. Worshipping the Mother Goddess is worshiping the Nature, Heaven, Earth, Forest and Water. The human beings are now damaging their own Mother Nature. I think the Mother Goddess religion helps to protect our universe”.
Like other shamanic religions, going into a trance has its own myths or the extraordinary elements science is unable to explain. The Vietnam Centre for Research and Preservation of Religious Cultures has conducted a series of tests, which show that a number of people with mental disorders have recovered after going into a trance. Several mediums have extrasensory perception enabling them to seek the remains of dead people. The centre has gathered them to best utilize their talents for the society.