This magnificent looking structures standout beautifully in the province of Tay Ninh. The great temple of Cao Dia was built between 1933 and 1955. No visit to Tay Ninh would be complete without paying a visit to this unique temple of Southern Vietnam.

Cao Dia or Caodiasm is a mix of belief & philosophy comprising of some of the major religions of the world including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Hinduism, Genism as well as Taoism.

According to Tay Ninh Holy writings, it was Le Van Trung (Saigon) who form & lay the foundation of this religion. Religion name of Cao Dia was because it was Duc Cao Dai who requested the set of instructions.

Cao Dia belief and philosophy were largely influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism whereby it encourages followers to giveup materialistic values for their spiritual growth. They regard material world as distraction towards the attainment of enlightenment and have strong belief Karma.

Another one of more unique aspect of Cao Dia was its spiritual medium & channels. Somewhat similar to Taoism wereby guidances were taken from departed souls of famous wise men or close family members. Important leaders and thinkers of the western world including but not limited to Joan of Arc, Rene Descartes, William Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Louis Pasteur and Vladimir Lenin. (Chuck and Browns, 2004)

Hence Cao Dia includes not only multiude of religious concepts taken from varied group of religious teachings, it also incoporates different ‘cultures and cosmologies’ found across the globe.

If i remembered correctly, there were 3 prayer sessions (morning, noon, evening). When we reached the great Cao Dia temple, it was already nearing the noon prayer session. Hence we will quickly ushered around.

The holy symbol seems to be represented by triangle containing a holy eye. Interestingly, someone pointed that this symbol was also found on the US one dollar note.

Different dieties of Cao Dia.

The tiles design were also varied from simple squares to intricate patterns

The ceremony started with few strikes of the bell, and followed by high priests walking into position. The different colors of the cloths represent different religions. Afterwhich, the rest of followers dressed in white follows into position.

Which each strike of the bell, they take up appropriate position & direction in an military-like manner.

Prayers & chanting follows with sound from traditional musical instruments. I thought they sound like crossed between gregorian & buddhism chants. But they sounds so peaceful & melodious when coming out from beautiful voices of these young ladies.

The overall view of the ceremony& hall looks so grand & beautiful!

Another view from the ground floor.

We didn’t stayed throughout the ceremony as we need to go to cu chi tunnel after this. However, the ceremony, while interesting initially, seems to get boring as it drags on. I believe this is probably because there is no one to help us understand the meaning of each part of ceremony. That said, it’s STILL TRUELY a unique place-of-interest that warrants a visit when you are in HCMC.

Before we leave, I can’t help but notice these nice mini pagoda-like structures. Based on my guess-o-matic, it should be houses for the high priest of Cao Dia Temple. I might be wrong, but if anybody knows, appreciate you could help to point out.

And lastly, a framed picture showing one of the main principles of Cao Dia.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this visit if you are ever in HCMC.

Source: Cao Dia: An Introduction