Đạo Mẫu (, ) is the worship of

mother goddess A mother goddess is a goddess who represents a personified deification of motherhood, fertility goddess, fertility, creation, destruction, or the earth goddess who embodies the bounty of the earth or nature. When equated with the earth or th ...

es which was established in Vietnam in the 16th century. While scholars like Ngô Đức Thịnh propose that it represents a systematic worship of mother goddesses, Đạo Mẫu draws together fairly disparate beliefs and practices. These include the worship of goddesses such as Thiên Y A Na,

Bà Chúa Xứ Bà Chúa Xứ (chữ Nôm: 婆主處, ) or Chúa Xứ Thánh Mẫu (chữ Hán: , ''Holy Mother of the Realm'') is a prosperity goddess worshiped in the Mekong Delta region as part of Vietnamese folk religions. She is a tutelary of business, hea ...

"Lady of the Realm", Bà Chúa Kho "Lady of the Storehouse", and Princess

Liễu Hạnh Princess Liễu Hạnh ( vi, Liễu Hạnh Công chúa, chữ Hán: 柳杏公主) is one of The Four Immortals in Vietnamese folk religion, and also a leading figure in the mother goddess cult Đạo Mẫu, in which she governs the celestial re ...

, legendary figures like

Âu Cơ Âu Cơ ( Chữ Hán: ; ) was, according to the creation myth of the Vietnamese people, an immortal mountain snow fairy who married Lạc Long Quân (), and bore an egg sac that hatched a hundred children known collectively as Bách Việt, a ...

, the Trưng Sisters (Hai Bà Trưng), and Lady Triệu (Bà Triệu), as well as the branch

Four Palaces Four Palaces (Tiếng Việt: ; Chữ Hán: ) is a major denomination of the Mother Goddess religion, an indigenous polytheistic religion in Vietnam. This branch is popular in the North of Vietnam and has a profound association with the worship ...

Practices

Serving the reflections (hầu bóng)

The most prominent ritual of Đạo Mẫu is the ceremony of ''hầu bóng'' (), in which a priest or priestess mimics the deities by dressing and acting like them. Many people mistake that ''hầu bóng'' is a form of

mediumship Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or ghost, spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship o ...

ritual — known in Vietnam as ''

lên đồng Lên đồng (, votive dance, "to mount the medium", or "going into trance") is a ritual practiced in Vietnamese folk religion, in which followers become spirit mediums for various kinds of spirits. There is a common confusion between "lên ...

'' — much as practiced in other parts of Asia, such as

South China South China () is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context. A notable feature of South China in comparison to the rest of China is that most of its citizens are not n ...

, among the Mon people of

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, and some communities in India; however, that is not correct. Although some of the priests and priestesses of Đạo Mẫu are believed to have the ability of spirit mediumship, this is a different practice entirely. The priest is in full control of their body during ''hầu bóng''. A successful ceremony is one in which the priest feels the deities' essences but it does not mean the deities' spirits enter the priest's mortal body. As a religious leader authorised to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities, the ''thanh đồng'' in Đạo Mẫu is more of the equivalent of a priest rather than a medium or a shaman. The worshiping of the Mother Goddesses contributes to the appreciation of women in society. Recognized by UNESCO, this Vietnamese ritual was inscribed on Representative List in December 2016. Although the Vietnamese government had initially proscribed the practice of such rituals, deeming them to be superstitions, they relented in 1987, once again permitting their practice.

Denominations

Four Palaces (Tứ Phủ)

The most prominent form of Đạo Mẫu is

(Tứ Phủ), which worships a hierarchical pantheon of Vietnamese indigenous deities with a strong influence from historical figures, Taoism and Buddhism. Four Palaces is the most common in the North. Other forms in different areas have also developed an interference with other local beliefs. The name literally means "Four Palaces", which includes the four realms Heaven, Mountains, Water and Earth.

Holy Mothers (Thánh Mẫu)

Holy Courtiers (Thánh Chầu)

Holy Mistresses (Thánh Cô)

References

External links

Đạo Mẫu Việt Nam

Đạo Mẫu Đông A Phủ
Religion in Vietnam Vietnamese folk religion {{vietnam-stub