We took a day trip NW out of Saigon to a famous temple called Cao Dai Grand Temple in Tay Ninh Province. This temple or more specifically, the religion of Cao Daism is a relatively recent religion created in the 1920s, integrating several religions together - Confucionism, Buddhism, Taoism, Vietnamese spiritualism (apparently involving seancey-type stuff to contact the spirit world!) and Catholicism (a gift from the French). The church building itself is striking with lots of bright, happy colours. At the centre of each window (as you can see in the picture), the front facade, and the altar inside, is a single eye: apparently, the founder of the religion saw it in a vision! You make you're own mind up! The people pray 4 times a day and we were lucky to arrive just in time for the mid-day ceremony. The men and the women pray on different sides of the temple, and they are dressed mostly in white
ao dai - (long tunics and trousers, if you remember). Others dress in different colours according to their original doctrine: yellow for Buddhism, blue for Taoism, red for Confucianism. The praying mainly consisted of chanting along to some basic musical rythyms. It was very interesting to watch and they didn't seem to mind spectators. Perhaps if anything, it's a good way to spread word of their religion. The cyclops-style single eye is a bit freaky though! *Mush
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