Temple of Caodaism

Caodaism (‘Cao Đài’) is a relatively new religion which is officially established in Tây Ninh, southern Vietnam, in 1926. ‘Cao Đài’ literally means "high place". It means the highest place where God reigns. It is also the abbreviated name for God, the creator of the universe, whose full title is ‘Cao Đài Tiên Ông Đại Bồ Tát Ma-ha-tát’ (高臺天皇大菩薩摩訶薩 in Chinese). The meaning for this is ‘High Place Great Heavenly Emperor Bodhisattva Mahasattva’. There are about a few millions of ‘Cao Đài’ adherents in Vietnam.


The temple was established in 1926 where the government of Vietnam grew in concern of religion influence since religions has a big power on the Vietnamese. In the past, there was a person who burned himself and later on many monks followed. In order to prevent it to happen again, the Vietnamese government allowed the temple to set up where several regions like the Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, etc. are combined into 1 religion which is the Caodaism for the people to worship.

In the temple, I could see that the followers are praying sincerely. All of them wore white except a group of people who wear in 3 different colours (blue, red & yellow). This is to represent that they are of a higher position in the religion.



The temple is built in a way that spirit invocation can be done in the temple. However, spirit invocation was banned by the Vietnam government to avoid misinterpretation.


There are 4 different colours that represent different religions:
• Blue: Taoism
• Yellow: Buddhism
• Red: Confucianism
• White: all religions


In this trip to the temple, I have learnt that religions have great influence to the Vietnamese and government of Vietnam has acted and reacted regarding this problem. And I think that the government has done well in this area.