Ba vị thánh trong các ngôi chùa tiền phật hậu thánh và tâm thức dân gian ở vùng châu thổ bắc bộ tt tiếng anh

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES KHUC MANH KIEN THREE SAINTS IN THE PAGODAS WITH THE BUDDHISTS IN FRONT AND SAINTS ON THE BACK IN THE FOLK CONSCIOUSNESS IN NORTHERN DELTA Discipline: Folklore Code: 22 90 41 SUMMARY OF DISSERTATION WITH THE MAJOR IN THE CULTURAL STUDIES HANOI - 2020 The dissertation is completed at: VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Supervisors: Associate Professor, Dr Pham Quynh Phuong Associate Professor, Dr Pham Thu Huong Reviewer 1: Associate Professor, Dr Le Quy Duc Reviewer 2: Associate Professor, Dr Bui Hoai Son Reviewer 3: Associate Professor, Dr Dang Hoai Thu The dissertation is defended at the academy level at INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE – VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES At… , date……, month , 2020 The dissertation can be found at: Vietnam National Library Library of Institute of Social Sciences INTRODUCTION Reason to choose the topic In the northern delta, a common form of pagoda has a special decoration structure and form of worship, called Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back This is a form of the temple as a whole is relatively similar in architecture to decorate the altar, the worshipping space, the object of worship, of religious practices, rituals, sacrifice, etc Subjects of the main worship in many Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back is the Zen Buddhists of Vietnamese Buddhism, who have merit, status and profile imbued with cultural marks of the Viet people in the northern delta The common point of worshiping the three saints in the mind today is that people worship them as benevolent spirits, a supreme spirits that people can pray to the saints for everything they desire such as for good health, healing, a career, promotion, good exams, study, good business, etc In these temples, not only Buddhist rituals are held, but also traditional festivals dedicated to the saints as in the folk beliefs in the Northern Delta In the consciousness, people come to these temples mainly for rituals and prayers for blessing, with little focus on praying for salvation Therefore, although it is a Buddhist temple, but in many temples, the worship of the saints is even more prominent than the worship of the Buddha The worship of the three saints has been interested in research works, the publications that mainly recorded the background, the legend and the values of archeology, architecture, culture and art of the Buddhists in the front and saints on the back There are also a few studies that considered these three saints/Zen masters as a cultural - religious - historical phenomenon, investigating the relationship between the three saints in an economic, ideological, political, religious mainstream context in the historical period, geographical region, and so on However, the author of this dissertation finds that no work has been systematically explained about the three saints from the folk consciousness,, as well as questioning the folk worship of the three saints of the Viet in relation to the market economy, policies and religious context in contemporary society The topic entitled "Three Saints in “Tien Phat hau Thanh” Pagodas (Buddhists in the Front and Saints on the Back) and Folk Consciousness in the Northern Delta" is to complement this research gap The research purpose and tasks of the dissertation 2.1 Research purposes The dissertation researches the sacred behavior and biography of the three saints Tu Dao Hanh, Duong Khong Lo and Nguyen Minh Khong at some Pagodas with Buddhists in the Front and Saints on the Back in order to explain about the folk mind of Vietnamese people in Europe The northern region in the process of economic, political, cultural and social development The dissertation aims to clarify the argument on cultural, social and religious life of the Viet in northern delta in the movement of history, trends deification, as well as the background of the existence and continuation of worship of the saints in contemporary society 2.2 Research tasks - Learn the status, sacred biographies of the three saints through historical sources, bibliographies, faculty texts, books, petition sheets, stories, stories and stories related to three saints from publishing works, transcripts of interviews, field notes and collected documents at the field sites - Analyzing the manifestations of the consciousness of worshiping the three saints in the pagodas of Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back through worshipping space, folk festivals, prayers, petition sheets, blessed texts, ritual texts, and experiences of the folk about the three saints - Explain the sacredness, the deification and their relationship with the magic power of the sacred biographies in the folk consciousness of the Viet in the northern delta - Discuss some issues affecting the mind of worshiping three saints such as religious syncretism, the trend of deification in Vietnamese culture, the impact of the market economy, policies and the religious market Subject and scope of the dissertation research 3.1 Research subjects The research subject of the dissertation is the representative Pagodas with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back dedicated to Tu Dao Hanh, Duong Khong Lo and Nguyen Minh Khong, focusing on biography, status, ritual practice and festivals, petition sheets, and people's conception about the worship of the saints 3.2 Research scope Space scope: The dissertation explores some the representative Pagodas with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back in some localities such as Hanoi city, Nam Dinh province, Thai Binh province, Ninh Binh province Time scope: The dissertation studies the appearance of the saints worshiped in the Pagodas with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back, their backgrounds, biographies, stories, histories, legends recorded from the fourteenth century to the fifteenth The study time in the dissertation is the consciousness of people today, in reference to the Renovation after 1986 Approach and research method 4.1 Approach - Interdisciplinary Approach to a cultural phenomenon: the dissertation combines operational research approaches of many related disciplines such as history, cultural studies, cultural anthropology, folklore, ethnography to synthesize, analyze data, and draw conclusions from the research - Approach from the perspective of an insiders: This approach aims to understand the mind of worship from the voices of practitioners 4.2 Research Methods - Gather and analyze secondary and collected documents at the field sites: Historical documents; ancient bibliographic sources, non-mainstream materials such as folk legends, petition sheets, worshipping texts related to the three saints; published research works - Participant observation: Observe ritual practices related to the three saints such as festivals, ritual for good luck, healing and praying for having children - In-depth interview: The dissertation interviewed monks, venerable, ritual masters, temple guardians, members of the Festival Organizing Board, the temple management board, and the people, businessmen, and public in general, people who go for a ritual at temples New scientific contributions of the dissertation - The dissertation recognizes the worship of the three saints as a cultural phenomenon in the long history of the traditional and contemporary Vietnamese society - The dissertation clarifies a number of theoretical views on the relationship between sacred biography, charisma and the empowerment of the saints - The dissertation explores the manifestations of religious practices through worship space, festivals honoring three saints on the occasion of saints‟ anniversary and deification at the representative Pagodas with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back, during the ceremony, sacrifice, and texts - The dissertation contributes to the identification of the general picture of the operation, transformation and multi-dimensional effects on a religious phenomenon Theoretical and practical significance of the dissertation 6.1 Theoretical meaning The dissertation results show the importance of the study of religious practices and beliefs in its entirety, from space, context to dimensions of culture, society, politics, economics, and specially, inseparable from religious practices related to other aspects of human life 6.2 Practical significance - The dissertation has practical contributions in policy making and cultural management related to religious practices, including the practice of worship, festivals at pagodas the representative Pagodas with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back - Completed dissertation is a useful reference in teaching and researching on religious practices, religious acts and folk consciousness The structure of the dissertation In addition to the Introduction (10 pages) and Conclusion (6 pages), the dissertation consists of chapters, namely: Chapter 1: Literature Overview and theoretical rationale (23 pages) Chapter 2: The context of forming a folk consciousness about the three saints in the northern delta (20 pages) Chapter 3: The statues of the three saints (19 pages) Chapter 4: The manifestations of folk consciousness about the three saints (34 pages) Chapter 5: The worship of the saints in northern delta: Some traditional and contemporary issues (30 pages) CHAPTER LITERATURE OVERVIEW AND THEORETICAL RATIONALE 1.1 Literature overview 1.1 Research on the folk consciousness of saints There are quite a number of research works on polytheistic beliefs, sacred worship, rituals of worshiping subjects in communal halls, temples, pagodas, thereby expressing the folk consciousness in the religious life of the Viet people The worship of spirits and saints include worship of historical figures, people with meritorious services to the people and country and then deified, mythical figures, or worship of natural deities, totem, and objects 1.1.2 Research on the three saints and related relics and festivals 1.1.2.1 Research on the biography of the three saints In the divine system of the Viet, the three saints of Tu Dao Hanh, Duong Khong Lo and Nguyen Minh Khong are considered as human beings in history Besides, there are quite a lot of studies written about each saint 1.1.2 Research on monuments and festivals in pagodas Buddhists in the front and saints on the back In the scope of the study, each temple worshiping three saints has many studies addressing each specific issue Some other works focused on the architecture of the temple The works on the traditional festival and the three saints in the northern delta region are quite diverse, with many similarities, but also many contradictions There has been no research to analyze biography and statue, as well as to place sacred biographies in the contexts of economy, politics, ideology, religion, social policy to determine the formation, development and change of the worship of the three saints, thereby understanding the folk consciousness of the saints in the northern delta The system of research works on folk minds worshiping three saints is not much, but mainly about worshiping spirit and saints in general This work inherits the research results of previous works, and at the same time, researches and analyzes more deeply and fully the aspects of folk consciousness through the three saints The dissertation partly fills the gap in the research on the minds of the people of the northern delta through the conduct and practice of the rituals of worshiping three saints in contemporary life 1.2 Theoretical rationale 1.2.1 Spirits, ancestor saints in the belief system of Viet people In the West, there are many expressions of god and god: God, Genie (god), Saint, Angel In Vietnamese religious culture, god is the concept of a sacred entity God is very powerful, can cause happiness, or curse for people and objects works Gods can be natural phenomena Gods can also be ordinary people who die at sacred hours capable of affecting people Gods can also be famous generals who have contributed to the country, or who have contributed to the villagers, after their death they were worshiped by the people The motif of the Viet people is always the character with special talents, magic, healing powers, warding off evils and saving people and country, supporting the business, creativity and skills As saints they have magic and become immortal The immortality manifests itself in the regular existence between everyday life in the form of spirits, descending to the world so that it can comprehend and resolve all earthly matters The pagodas with the Buddhists in front and saints on the back worship the ancestor saints who have magical powers, and most importantly, they enter the consciousness of the people 1.2.2 Folk consciousness In this dissertation, consciousness is perception, feeling within people, and sometimes in the mind, or somewhere in their thoughts, minds, or hearts It can be very profound or overflowed, but expressed through stories, acts, ritual practices, religious symbols, artifacts and places of worship In other words, people convey the inner mind to the outside through the system of cultural expressions in verbal and non-verbal language, by speech, in space and time as well as in kind associated with meaning and symbol 1.2.3 Charisma and sacred biography Charisma can be viewed from many angles, from a social, personal and spiritual perspective, to religion Charisma and favors for those with magical power, in the spirit of Buddhism, to be the Dharma or the Transcendent Reality, are a privileged personality and thus connected with the ultimate The concept of a person's magic power from a Buddhist perspective far exceeds that of an ordinary person, but it is associated with those who are enlightened and who are said to be sacred, have power Sacred biographies are connected with the magic power of historical figures and sacred masters The dissertation applies the concept of charisma by Weber and the sacred biography by Keyes to shed light on the biography and behavior of the three venerable Tu Dao Hanh, Nguyen Minh Khong and Duong Khong Lo The difference and extra ordinariness in their sacred biographies, their lives and their actions contribute to the magic power of Zen teachers 1.2.4 The theory of cultural areas A cultural area is a territory of similar natural circumstances, the inhabitants of which have long had historical origins, and similarities in economic development - society, between them took place the exchange, cultural influence back and forth Expressions of a cultural area can be expressed in lifestyles, production activities, forms of entertainment, as well as religious belief activities, festivals, and folk arts The thesis applies the theory of cultural areas to recognize the characteristics of the northern delta cultural region in producing and nurturing religious practices for ancestral monks The worship of the three Zen masters will be analyzed in reference to the natural, economic, social and historical environmental factors of the Northern Delta CHAPTER BACKGROUND OF FORMING FOLK CONSCIOUSNESS ABOUT THE THREE SAINTS IN THE NORTHERN DELDA 2.1 Natural and economic conditions 2.1.1 Natural condition The northern delta is the cradle of Vietnamese cultural, religious and belief practices This land is a gathering place of manifestations, acts and practices of worship of the three ancestors saints In terms of topography, the North Delta has relatively flat terrain compared to other regions on Vietnam's geographical territory, convenient for growing rice and crops The climate in the Northern Delta has factors associated with the production and development of the sacred worship of the saints 2.1.2 Economic conditions The northern delta has a geographical position and quite favorable natural conditions for agricultural development, cash crop and rice cultivation Abundant natural resources, diversity, densely populated, are favorable conditions for the development of productive labor industries from general to modern, bringing convenience to the life The density of population is high in the villages and towns, related to the needs and working environment, as well as collective cultural and religious activities and communitas Residents of the Northern Delta are residents living on wet rice cultivation, that is, agricultural work is the main labor Farmers extra work such as craft, from simple knitting, pottery primitive, the furniture, sericulture to the fine craftsmanship Currently, in the provinces of the Northern Delta , hundreds of different famous handicrafts still exist today The development of the handicraft contributing to and building upon the three saints became multi-career ancestor In the context of industrialization, modernization and urbanization, the economic fluctuations on the livelihood and composition residents have significant impacts to the practice of cultural villages, to organize, maintain and promote value in the contemporary context Changes in population composition, livelihoods, may have an impact on community-based cultural practices in villages and communes such as organizing traditional festivals, but the folk consciousness is maintained The mind of worshiping the ancestor saints still exists, changing to suit the thoughts and mind of the people in the context of their lives 2 Social and cultural conditions A basic cultural characteristic of the Northern Delta region is that the residents live in a village, a basic unit of administrative management, as well as a space that creates an entire village culture with customs, festivals, living practices, worship facilities and cultural conduct The village is the nucleus of Vietnamese society, and also the vitality and culture of Vietnam Today, when urbanization rural The traditional village culture such as festivals, sacrifices in the family, the temples still maintain in the neighborhood Village culture in the Northern Delta is typical through worshiping the village tutelary god and holding an annual festival Most notably are cultural and religious activities of Vietnamese people in the North with a polytheistic worship system The objects worshiped are diverse, be it a historical figure, a stone, an old tree, or a legendary figure The system of polytheistic beliefs is manifested in festivals, legends, forms of sacrifice, worship, prayers The pagoda with the Buddhists in front and saints on the back is a system of religious practices which is clearly manifested in the minds of Vietnamese people in the northern delta In the context of market economy, the worship of saints is not only weakened but also tends to revive and develop to meet the needs of spiritual life in the contemporary context 2.3 The formation of “tien Phat hau Thanh” (Buddhists in front and saints on the back) pagodas 2.3.1 Social and political context The political and social context of Vietnam in history is one of the foundations of the system of worship of Zen masters who were sanctified at Buddhist temples From the autonomy period, there is a lot of evidence that reflects the religious life, the relationship between politics and religion related to the birth of worship of Zen masters During the Mac Dynasty, Taoism received strong royal patronage Aristocracy, mandarins of the Mac dynasty were present in many religious activities The Mac dynasty advocated Taoism as the official religion, advocating agro-commercial development to replace society for agricultural development, with renovation policies, commercial development During this period, many large temples were built in both the inside and outside of the city with many horizontal buildings, including many new architectural units Due to the policy of encouraging the reclaiming of wasteland of the Nguyen Dynasty, many new lands were cleared and private land was recognized, creating a strong development motivation for economy in southern part Economic development has enabled people to develop merit of giving merit, expanding and building temples, temples and public works of the community more and more 2.3.2 The birth and development of the pagodas with Buddhists in front and saints on the back As we all know, during the Ly dynasty, Buddhism was very developed The Ly kings all worshiped the Buddha The temples are built a lot under the auspices of the state with three basic types: great and famous, small and medium In the northern delta, pagodas are sprouting everywhere, and pagodas erected in the former times are often restored An important factor for the birth of a Buddhist temple that both worshiped Buddha and saints at the same time was the Vietnamese way of thinking and worshiping Vietnamese people worship those who have superhuman abilities, who help the people and help the country Cultural heroes, national heroes, people with meritorious services to the country, and people with meritorious services to the creation are all worshiped and worshiped by Vietnamese people Some Vietnamese deities are incorporated into the three jewels of Buddhism, including saints, who are worshiped later, or equal, or before Buddha In these cases, worship is monks and Taoists, Zen masters with many tantric factors and Taoist influence The formation and development of the system of worshiping the three saints was the birth of a system of pre-Buddhist pagodas, showing the 11 empowered, the more attracted people, became a symbol of kindness and compassion, and humanity The three saints were also powerful national masters, who were religious instructors for the king They are the guardians of the religious rules, the royal religion, and gained merits for Buddhist ethics and philosophy All the privileges such as being born to the elite and outstanding, when ordained to become Buddhists, have access to the supper monks, or have an important role in building Buddhism as the state religion in the Ly dynasty, as well as magic, the three Zen masters were different from ordinary people and created a halo around them The admiration and reverence have been conferred by the people as sacred saints, worshiped and created with certain magical powers, pervasive with the nature of the blessed CHAPTER EXPRESSIONS OF FOLK CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE THREE SAINTS 4.1 Space to worship the three saints According to the survey, out of a total of 39 pagodas worshiping saints (separately worshiped and together worshiped) in provinces and cities, Tu Dao Hanh is most worshiped in Hanoi City with the number of 10/13 pagodas Nguyen Minh Khong is most worshiped in Nam Dinh province with the number of 12/16 pagodas; and Duong Khong Lo is worshiped the most in Nam Dinh province with the number of 8/10 pagodas This dissertation maps the distribution of pre-Buddhist pagodas that worship three saints in the provinces and cities of Hanoi, Hung Yen, Hai Duong, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh, Thai Binh provinces, and provides analysis chart on the relationship between the space for worshiping three saints in the Northern Delta 4.1.1 Characteristics of the pagoda with Buddhists in front and saints on the back The pagoda with Buddhists in front and saints on the back worships saints who only appear in the Northern Delta region due to the rugged terrain of this region, creating an appropriate area for the development of Tantras If the Red River is used as a demarcation boundary, the pre-Buddhist pagodas of the late Saints have more numbers on the right bank with dense pagodas in the lower section The pagodas are often built in charming feng shui land, on positive soil, meaning to gather water and happiness 4.1.2 The grounds and architecture of the pagodas dedicated to the three saints The architectural system and decoration in the temples worship the three saints are not the same and are a complex form In general, the relics of the worship of the three saints are more holy than the Buddhist temples The 12 monuments have a hundred space architecture, made according to the style of foreign internal The outer layer is the two gate layers that researchers call the three sides, but in fact it is the subject - the outer gate layer often found in the architecture of traditional temples Next is sugar, incense, high power Finally, the sanctuary The corridor of the holy relics always begins, connecting the three temples running all the way to the ancestor's house to form a closed corridor creating foreign and domestic architecture The most sacred, the most important area in the mind of the people is that the sanctuary is always built behind the pagoda at an altitude higher than all the other buildings in the temple, including the front line, the incense, the upper palace - where the temple is located The second type, if the sanctuary is not built into a separate building but built with the upper palace, the sanctuary is always built to the right of the temple, which is a sacred place in traditional architecture before going to the Three Jewels and the Other buildings follow traditional architecture The Vietnamese architectural works are always located on the axis of Shintoism, the three-dimensional buildings, the bell tower, the front line, the incense, the upper hallway, the dance are built on the opposite axis of the god Typically, the architectural ground of the pre-Buddhist temple of the late Saints has a sacred space for holy worship The space and architecture of the pre-Buddhist pagodas created a sacred space The examination of holy worship in these temples also shows the majesty, power and supreme 4.2 Rituals dedicated to the saints 4.2.1 Traditional festivals The festivities at the pagodas are more like traditional village festivals than Buddhist festivals Unlike the other Buddhist temples, festivals on the occasion of Buddha's birthday celebrated by the temple, the festival at the pagodas is the common festival of the whole village, the whole neighborhood The time to organize the festival on the birthday, the day of the saints, with the spring and autumn periods like many other traditional village festivals For the festivals, the celebrant's prayer always reads the saint's biography, merit and career, both to pay homage and to remind his children to remember the merit of the saint During the festival, there are also processions of palanquin procession and water procession typical of traditional village festivals The processions show symbolic meanings related to the visit of the village saint, or the holy go to sit, to adoration, to the patrol of the saint on the feast day Festivals are occasions where people can get closer to the gods and can "communicate" and report the events of the village, individuals and families Some of the rituals at the festival show the organization of the festival associated with the worship of the four patriarchs, produced from the 13 consciousness of wet rice farmers, the subject of traditional village festivals The ritual actions that wish for favorable rain and wind are the most important things to ensure a bumper crop and a prosperous life It can be seen that worship rituals, processions, folk shows, puppet shows, folk games, competitions in festivals at the pagodas are similar to the village festivals This shows the folk spirit put in organizing the festival to commemorate the merits of the saints, who have contributed to the villagers, and also an opportunity for them to sacrifice, pray for a season, bumper harvest, health, and warding off evils 4.2.2 Expressions of biography and legend of the three saints An outstanding feature of traditional village festivals is the consciousness of saints is the sacrifices, processions, and other rites describing the holy stories recorded in histories, histories, legends A number of activities and activities in the festival reflect the stories related to the biography and behavior of the three saints 4.3 Petition sheets and prayers 4.3.1 The conveyed message of petition sheets The petition sheets are used as a bridge for the naked people to bless them The sheet is a type of text written in Sino Nom script, used to present the requests and wishes of the lower people to the Buddha, the holy, and the expectation to be answered This can be considered as a document conveying people's wishes The grained leaves are applied in all kinds of prayers such as offering stars, praying for new houses, healing, praying for peace, etc Each ritual procedure must declare the petition sheet In certain cases, the sheets also show the nature and worship of the ancestors The sheets are spiritual texts for the consecration and conferring the message of the people to the invisible world 4.2.3.2 Message conveyed in prayers In worshiping, praying, there are basically prayers, and ceremony Prayers in Sino Nom: Along with the sheets, when going to pagodas, temples, pagodas, worshiping, people can put some money and ask the priests for help Ritual: The procedure of the worship has many articles from offering stars, worshiping the spirits, to the departments of offering, praying, exculpating, and pleading for specific jobs on business, trade, and education, the exam The important part of the ceremony, the ceremony, is a request to the Buddha, the holy help 4.3 Awareness and experience of the people about the three saints 4.3.1 The benevolent three saints 4.3.1.1 Pray for talent, fortune, and peace 14 In folk consciousness, most of the worshiped saints are blessed, the supreme deity that people can pray for, waiting for the protection and assistance of the gods whenever they encounter difficulties or diseases, disasters in the way of life 4.3.1.2 Pray for having children For the temples, the shrine of the three holy saints, prayers are quite typical In the pagodas, there are families with few children, people rarely come to pray for children, or have children, but difficult to raise, they pray for their health Children born on their own will often be sold to the Buddha, to protect them Prayer is quite common among couples who are infertile and have no sons This reflects the burning desire to have children of Vietnamese families and so it is also reflected in the religious acts of self-reliance in sacred temples and temples 4.3.1.3.Pray for examination and study Normally, when coming to the Buddha's door, the people pray for what they want, including the expectation of parents about the education of their children, especially when the children study in preparatory classes, University exam Among the Buddhist pagodas, Keo temple worships Duong Khong Lo in Hanh Thien village, a famous place for people to pray and study The relative demand for study and examinations in the current context reflects the reality of education as well as the learning tradition of Vietnamese families Traditionally, Vietnamese parents are very interested in their children's education and expect their children to study well and pass the university entrance exam Among the pre-Buddhist pagodas at Keo pagoda in Hanh Thien village, the most typical prayers for academic examinations and examinations 4.3.2 The three saints as healing gods Zen masters are multi-talented, flexible magicians Not only through biography and behavior but now, at some pagodas, they are still considered as medical gods Healing is an intrinsic need for oneself, for everyone Money, status, reputation and then passed away when people no longer have health and died The request to the three saints for healing, on the one hand reflects the general situation of the Vietnamese when praying, on the other hand also reflects the consciousness of the three saints and has a connection to the miraculous healing of the king by the legendary saints 4.3.3 The three saints as craft ancestors 4.3.3.1 The puppetry ancestor Besides being a Zen master of enlightenment, a talented Dharma master, Tu Dao Hanh is also worshiped as a puppetry ancestor 15 4.3.3.2 Forging craft ancestor Among the three saints, Nguyễn Minh Khong is worshiped as a forging craft ancestor in general In the minds of businesses in Tong Xa, Nguyen Minh Khong is highly regarded as a craft ancestor The worship of the ancestor is the consciousness that "drinks water and remembers the source" The worshiping craft ancestors is somewhat different from the worship of other spirits in the temples in the current context when there is a "trade-off" and "buying a holy spirit" CHAPTER THE WORSHIP OF THE SAINTS IN NORTHERN DELTA: SOME TRADITIONAL AND MODERN ISSUES 5.1 Deification and syncretism in the folk consciousness of the Viet 5.1.1 Deification and charisma of the saints Deification is a fairly common custom of some ethnic groups who worship the polytheistic spirits, bestowing people and things into a sacred worshiping saint In Viet Nam, historical figures, after death, they have been worshipped of the people and gradually entered the people's minds as a holy saint Besides, many other legendary characters, many imaginary characters, many objects and animals are also turned into gods, forming a system of saints as the worshipping subjects of religious practices The people who have created the crafting works, the ancestor saints are also called saints These are people who have merit in teaching people how to farming, transplanting rice, teaching people about casting, forging, silk weaving, kneeling, etc These ancestors were canonized and worshiped and they still support people in production and making products, such as ancestor forging craft naemd Nguyen Minh Khong in Tong Xa village (Nam Dinh province) In folk consciousness, historical figures, legends, Zen masters, ancestor Zen masters are deified as a long process of folk-building and creation, becoming a powerful and sacred character They are enriched by the people with many thrilling details, vividly expressed in various forms such as stories, legends, scriptures, Nom stories, poetic narratives, etc and are expressed in worshipping spaces, festivals, offerings, and rituals The trend of deification is also supported and orthodoxly supported by the monarchs, canonized to honor and encourage people to worship During the dynasties, the worship of the saints was conferred by the king, for the construction and restoration of the worshipping space, for collecting and rebuilding the royal annals genealogy, granting the annals, making a memorial 16 stele Villagers worship and organize sacrifices all year round to enjoy the incense-burning regime, set a precedent by granting rice fields The trend of deification is still an ongoing process and the system of objects of worship is still being built up, incessantly, to see that this trend is a way of thinking that has gone into the depths of the consciousness, the soul of Vietnamese people Many historical figures have been deified, reflecting the trend of deification in Vietnamese culture Folk still admire those who sacrifice for the nation and honor them as "saints" in the afterlife to continue protecting and assisting them with immeasurable strength and power The tendency of the deification in Viet folk consciousness has its own characteristics When Vietnamese people worship saints, they are not entirely spiritual, but they focus on the mind and faith The saints, whether they are Zen masters, tutelary gods or Mother Godesses, are "true saints" who protect people and villages They could be the generals, the bureaucrats, or the people who served the country or had merits with the people with the country In the consciousness of Viet people, the image of a saint is a fantasy of a supernatural force, people who, after everyday life, after death, being deified, become a legendary and powerful figure, the power that people pray for and the things they can't achieve or they want to achieve The people of virtue in the earthly world, then in their other lives they still shined, full of power Thereby we see the Vietnamese view on saints based on the practical thinking of life and their incarnations into the afterlife, and "the mundane world is also the supernatural world." In the folk consciousness, the three ancestor saints also immersed themselves in the common flow of the trend of deification, becoming the divine on the other supernatural world of the temporal world People in the earth, need peace, prosperity, happiness, and the saints on the other side, show kindness to charity, eliminate the evils, bring good things to people to have a fulfill life It is the ideal of goodness, blessedness, humanity, and also reflects the Vietnamese people's constant dream of a good life 5.1.2 The religious syncretism in the folk consciousness Religious syncretism, so to speak, is a phenomenon of the Vietnamese consciousness The establishment of the pagoda system with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back in order to worship the three saints has reflected the Vietnamese custom of worship of the Viet in the Northern Delta It is a practice that is not pure and clear, coherent, that is the syncretic phenomenon with many elements combined together, including the forms of folk Buddhism with architecture, statues, altars, Buddhist teaching and text, salvation and karma, along with worship the real deified figures in history 17 The deification is also a feature of polytheism, deifying real historical figures, people with meritorious services to the people and the nation The worship of three saints Tu Dao Hanh, Duong Khong Lo, Nguyen Minh Khong is regarded as the syncretism, or in other words the mixture of Buddhist, Taoist elements and folk beliefs that create the representative worshipping system in northern delta Taoist elements: Belief in the three saints has a profound influence of Taoism Taoism was introduced into Vietnam with two basic schools of magic and hermetic practice for immortality The magic school was in conformity for the intellectuals, upper classes, and the sorcery school with the magic rituals, calling for wind and rain suitable for folk beliefs Prayer at the pagodas Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back or at the holy temples is also full of Taoist witchcraft, charms, mantras, dispelling ghosts, healing with holy water, and exorcisms ghosts, ritual procedure, magic rituals, charms, healing requests to the power of the saints Tantric Buddhist elements: Tantric Buddhism is quite suitable for development in the context of polytheistic religion in Vietnam when the life of the peasantry in the beginning of the country faced risks, droughts, floods, and sacred forests with poisonous water, along with customary tattooing to avoid evils Strange and mysterious stories are always woven up in the context of life and continue to grow and disseminate and transmit to this day Folk elements: In legends and myths handed down many mysterious, supernatural, supernatural details of folk beliefs associated with the life and talents of Zen masters Worship of the three saints also clearly shows the belief of worshiping sacred spirits, worshiping real figures in history, ancestor worship The worship of the three saints also demonstrates the Viet people's mind about polytheism, mixing many elements of culture and folk beliefs 5.2 Religious and belief policies The existence of the folk consciousness and the worship of the three saints, and the rise of traditional practices and festivals on the one hand is due to the open-door policy of the Party and the State, the market economy, and the practical policies on the other hand there are policies that support the spiritual life of people That is to mention the political and economic changes in Vietnam since 1986 and specifically the directives, resolutions, circulars, and typically the 2004 Ordinance on Beliefs and Religions 18 An important event taking place in the religious and spiritual life of Vietnamese people is the Ordinance on Beliefs and Religions adopted and promulgated by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly in 2004 Most recently, the Law on the belief and religion is approved by the 14th National Assembly, 2nd session on November 18, 2016 and come into effect from January 1, 2018 The law has added a chapter on freedom of belief and religion that basically represents the State's policy to respect and protect everyone's freedom of belief and religion Thus, from 1990 up to now, in the field of religion and belief practice, the Party and the State have issued a series of regulations, decrees, directives and circulars on the spiritual domain to meet the needs for the spiritual life of Vietnamese people Thanks to the new open policies and religious belief laws, religious practices have been limited in the past such as Len dong ritual, and religious practices at temples are freely performed In the contemporary period, the State's open-door policy of preserving and developing the traditional culture of the nation has led to the "explosion" of religious belief activities nationwide In many localities, the process of organizing festivals, many customs and beliefs have been restored, including the festival of worshiping the ancestor saints Due to the needs of the diversidied spiritual life, the people are increasingly diverse The ceremony is from South to North, from urban to rural areas of all ages, social statues, farmers, workers, office workers, managers, researchers, police, soldiers, students, merchants attend the spring festivals and ritual, such as going to temple dedicated to the general Tran Hung Dao on the night of the 14th day of the first lunar month to exorcise, land protection and pray for good luck Thanks to the state policies and guidelines, the National Target Program on Culture has been implemented for a long time from 2009 to 2015, in which many festivals are restored, supported in organizing, and temple renovations Among the works are invested by the national target program on culture, many worshiping places are ranked national and special national relics such as Co Le Pagoda, Dai Bi Pagoda, Keo Pagoda (Nam Dinh province) and Keo Pagoda (Thai Binh province) were restored 5.3 Market economy Market economy is an open form of economy, adhering to the laws of movement and regulation of the market, respecting freedom of competition, creating opportunities for all economic entities to participate in the market The fact that it takes place in the current context shows that developing a market 19 economy with the business freedom of individuals, unions, companies, leading to disparities in income, and thus the increasing gap between rich and poor While one group of people get rich quickly, another group works as hired labor, unable to compete in the market mechanism The market economy, on the one hand, brings prosperity and development, creating conditions for a prosperous life, modern facilities in both material and spiritual terms On the other hand, the market economy is bringing about many inadequacies such as the moral degradation of a part of adolescents, increasing social evils, embezzlement, environmental pollution, school violence, and lust The uncertainty of modern life has led many people to seek spiritual relief and to seek risks and insecurity In today's market economy, uncertain business, many unstable jobs, as well as the consequences of environmental pollution, epidemics, natural hazards, make a part of people go to church Psychology of Vietnamese people, whenever uncertainty, business is not smooth, people "go more often to temples for worshipping" After the renovation period, with the open-door policy, the market economy has brought about the revival and development of religious practices, festivals, and sacred worship at the precursor pagodas and temples, communal halls We witness the rise of religious practices, such as the ritual for good luck and warding off evile, lavish rituals dedicatred to ancestors and rituals to meet the needs of the people The dignitaries, religious groups, associations, pilgrimages gradually formed and operated vigorously with different characteristics and purposes, attracting participants, as customers In the context of market economy, the trend of commercializing folk beliefs is inevitable With the needs of the people attending the ceremony, many services also follow the business of all kinds of services Messy things to benefit from the religious practices of the people are not evident in the pagodas with Buddhists in front and saints on the back The sanctuary is always built to the right of the temple, which is a supreme scared place in traditional architecture In the sacred space and feeling the holiness of the saint, people make the sense of the powerful saints, and yield by the power and sacred of the saints, as well as the virtue and compassion of the saints In this place, acts of inhumane, profiteering, commercializing, as well as prayers contrary to moral conscience Some rituals in the form of "less offerings and hearted devotion" have tended to change to "good offerings, easy to make petition" with offerings up to hundreds of millions dongs to spend on burning votive goods and fortune- 20 telling The concept of "such a mundane world as the hell" is a matter of folklore, blowing into rituals and practices The point here is that the price of the worshipers, ritual masters, monks like the story at Ba Vang Pagoda For those "mindful", willing to spend a large sum of money for a ritual that wishes for something good But in many cases, the "lavish food trays" made them impoverished, as well as defiling the elegant offerings to the saints with "hearts" rather than material wealth These costly rituals seem to take place in temples dedicated to Mother Goddesses rather than in the pagodas with Buddhists in front and saints on the back Worship of the three saints seems quieter in a market economy, but it is also affected in no small way In a market economy, expanding business hubs, people casting metal in Tong Xa have many opportunities to sign contracts, establish business relationships, and distribute products They still only have a ceremony of thin devotion, incense, fruit, and confectionery to pray for blessing for their business Business activities at the place of worship of the ancestor saint like the casting Tong Xa village are somewhat different from other places by the mind, the virtue and the principles of the craft village Market economy, business scams, fragmentation, competition for markets, etc somewhat restricted by the traditions and ethical traditions practiced by his father These ethical issues, following the philosophy of the craft village, as well as spiritually, have helped the Tong Xa craft village to thrive in a contemporary context 5.4 Religious market Along with the development of a market economy and the openness of religious and religious policies, the beliefs of the three saints/Zen masters also have to face the competition of different forms of religious beliefs In a multicolored religious market there are many options The theory of religious markets arises from the application of the fundamentals of economics to the analysis of religious organizations Like commercial economies that include a market where different companies compete, the religious market is also competitive Different religious organizations must also find ways to attract and retain customers The theory of religious markets has been developed to explain why and how religions change, expand and develop With the openness of religious policies as well as the development and explosion of services and products, along with the formation of associations, societies and religious freedom of each individual, religious life in Vietnam in 21 recent years has risen, even there are outbreaks As a rule, like the rule of the economic market, when people have the right to choose their own spiritual, belief and religious forms, the religious market will appear, that is, according to the the "supply" and "demand" rules as in economics It can be seen in Viet Nam that there has been a religious market, where religious forms of religion such as hundreds of times raced, many of which are increasingly organized and strategic to attract followers, compete with other faiths This is evident in both the rise of many forms of religion and traditional beliefs in Vietnam, even in the new religions that are rooted in traditional religious or Buddhist religions In the contemporary context of a marketoriented economy, as well as with the openness of religious policy with the effect of the Law on Beliefs and Religions, many religious practices, including worship of the saints in Vietnam reviving and developing in many new directions In a free market, or pluralistic religious market, many religious organizations exist and seek to attract certain segments of the market Organizations in a free market cannot rely on the rule of law to get "resources", so they have to compete for the participation of practitioners and religious consumers In the context of religious revival, religious groups, fractions, and pilgrimage groups seem to stick together not only in the faith and religious activities, but also include the colors of everyday life like forming a network, forming groups that share faith, form groups that business, services, and exchange goods The current religious market formed on the basis of the revival of traditional practices tends to flare up a number of phenomena In the competitive religious market, the worship of three saints "quieter" than the outbreak of the Mother Church, as well as the outbreak of hell money in Ba Chua Kho temple in the years after the Renovation, to have a stamp from the sacred Tran Hung Dao spirit, or compared to the pilgrimage, the worship and pray for fortune, fame and promotion The saints/Zen masters in the pagodas with Buddhists in front and saints on the back seem to have difficulty competing with the Mother Goddess Lieu Hanh, Ba Chua Kho Goddess, etc In the context of a market economy, religious competition is somewhat tied to the economic value that religion brings Likewise, temples of the Mother Goddess are often more vibrant than those at pagodas with Buddhists in front and saints on the back In the transformation of economic production, with the influx of cheap goods from China and the narrowing of the production of handicraft villages, the craft saints also seem to lose some of the role of 22 yourself in the spiritual world of the local residents The popular mind about the three saints may be more profound in areas where craft still exists such as the Tong Xa village, and may be more faded than elsewhere However, the faith in the magic of the saints is not lost, but is transformed by adding new spiritual functions to the saints to support the present life which is full of worries and risks The three saints are still involved in the contemporary religious life of the people of the Northern Delta CONCLUSION In terms of methodology, the dissertation considers that studying religion and beliefs from the practice of believers, people have given a clear picture of their spiritual and spiritual life Doctrinal, canonical, or moral issues, sometimes not yet put into practice in religious activities and acts, and not yet reflect the mind, and imagination, heart and devotion of believers The study of folk consciousness from the practice of worshiping three saints has shed more light on the folk consciousness of the Viet people The consciousness is not so deep in the dark things of religion such as liberation, rebirth, not so important about life after death or religious escape, but basically they expect the holy spirits that helps the earthly world, helping the earthly people to achieve what they long for Basically, the Viet people look forward to a supernatural world out there, but it is close, friendly, where they can pray, express their desire for their lives to be better such as praying for good fortune, blessing, and for health In the contemporary context, the folk consciousness of worshiping the three saints is not only weakened, but it is further fostered and brought with new forms suitable to contemporary life, and the fulfillment of the expectation of human This is reflected in the holiness and the charisma that the people foster to the saints The three saints are sacred worshipping subjects in the common flow of the trend of sanctifying real characters in history Saints have charisma and magic power thanks to their birth background, elitism, extraordinary talent The dissertation has pointed out that the sacred and charisma increase the power of worshiping subjects as the powerful, supreme, and the divine beings The more sacred they are and the more powerful their magic power is, the more people believe in and worship as powerful gods serving the purpose of the people's petition with the desire to have a good life in the world The Vietnamese polytheistic belief system is a complex, integrating the religious elements of Buddhism, Tantra Buddhism, Taoism and the 23 indigenous belief system The dissertation analyzes the manifestations of folk minds in various forms, including architectural space of worship (material), festival (performance), worship, weed leaves (text), words (oral language) constitute a system of folk knowledge The folk consciousness about the three saints in the Buddhist pagodas is not the same in different localities This consciousness manifests very differently for each saint in different temples, localities and in relation to human life The system of temples both worship the Buddha and at the time worship the saint, therefore, the worship in the temples in the localities is not the same due to the influence of village culture, regional culture, and partly due to the management board, the monks, the venerables, the ritual masters Some temples prefer to worship the Buddha, some temples are more focus on saints, but at the end, people who come to the pagodas with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back prefer to pray to the saints The consciousness that worships the three saints is not necessarily immutable, it is a fossil that is constantly born and recreated through time and space That consciousness is deeply ingrained in the minds of Vietnamese people regardless of the context of the economy, politics or society Although it is a product of wet rice farmers, in contemporary life, under the impact of a market economy, open cultural policies, as well as the competition of the religious and spiritual markets consciousness still exists silently It is not as noisy as the worshiping practices that have a time prohibition such as the worship of the Four Gods, or it is not a practice that flourishes for a period of time and then settles down , like the votive money borrowing at Ba Chua Kho temple (Bac Ninh province) That mind is quietly in the minds of the Vietnamese people, exists, transforms and still accompanies a large number of people in contemporary life Although it is not about freezing the consciousness, the consciousness on the worship of the saints has been still changed in the prayers, petition sheets, prayers to suit the psychology, emotional thinking, as well as the breath of contemporary life In the context of the religious market in contemporary society, based on the principle of "supply" and "demand", services, forms of religious practice and holy worship are constantly developing, constantly being created At the pagodas Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back, the practitioners and the lay people who go for worshipping refer to hearts devoted to the saints rather than materiality in exchange for spirituality, divine trafficking with clear manifestations of the open market economy 24 With the complex system of worship the saints in the temples with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back, the dissertation just an initial study unveiled the mysterious veil of a layered system of cultural accretion of thousands years and is being practiced at some typical pagodas such as Thay and Lang temples dedicated to Tu Dao Hanh temple Lang pagoda, Dai Bi temple dedicated to Duong Khong Lo , two Keo pagodas in Nam Dinh and Thai Binh provinces, pagodas in Nam Dinh and Ninh Binh provinces dedicated to Nguyen Minh Khong The practice of worshipping the saints as well as pagodas with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back is a quite broad topic, requiring more works or research topics from religious practice in these temples to explore and comment further about the folk consciousness of the Viet people in the North Delta The research in depth of three saints worship would help us understand more about the Viet people in the northern delta LIST OF PUBLICATION THE AUTHOR'S PUBLISHED RELATED TO THE DISSERTATION Khuc Manh Kien (2012), “Giá trị lịch sử - văn hóa chùa Keo làng Hành Thiện, Nam Định” (Historical - cultural value of Keo Pagoda in Hanh Thien village, Nam Dinh), Journal of Cultural Heritage , No (39) Khuc Manh Kien (2015), “Thánh Từ Đạo Hạnh lễ hội chùa Đại Bi” (Tu Dao Hanh Saint and Dai Bi pagoda festival), Journal of Culture and Arts , No 372 Khuc Manh Kien (2019), “Tiểu sử linh thiêng ba vị thánh tổ chùa tiền Phật hậu Thánh” (Biography sacred about three saints in pagodas with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back), Journal of Art and Culture , No 418 Khuc Manh Kien (2019), „Tâm thức dân gian ba vị thánh Từ Đạo Hạnh, Nguyễn Minh Không Dương Khơng Lội tín ngưỡng tập tục thờ cúng người Việt” (Folklore about the three saints Tu Dao Hanh, Nguyen Minh Khong and Duong Khong Lo in Vietnamese beliefs and worship practices) Journal of Folklore , No (182) ... ba vị thánh tổ chùa tiền Phật hậu Thánh (Biography sacred about three saints in pagodas with Buddhists on the Front and Saints on the Back), Journal of Art and Culture , No 418 Khuc Manh Kien... Manh Kien (2019), Tâm thức dân gian ba vị thánh Từ Đạo Hạnh, Nguyễn Minh Không Dương Không Lội tín ngưỡng tập tục thờ cúng người Việt” (Folklore about the three saints Tu Dao Hanh, Nguyen Minh... Manh Kien (2015), Thánh Từ Đạo Hạnh lễ hội chùa Đại Bi” (Tu Dao Hanh Saint and Dai Bi pagoda festival), Journal of Culture and Arts , No 372 Khuc Manh Kien (2019), “Tiểu sử linh thiêng ba vị