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Caodaism

Vietnamese monotheistic religion

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The full name of the religion is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ (chữ Hán: 大道三期普度 'The Great Faith [for the] Third Universal Redemption').

Adherents engage in practices such as prayer, veneration of ancestors, nonviolence, and vegetarianism with the goal of union with God and freedom from saṃsāra. Estimates of the number of Caodaists in Vietnam vary; government figures estimate 4.4 million Caodaists affiliated to the Cao Đài Tây Ninh Holy See, with numbers rising up to 6 million if other branches are added.

The United Nations found about 2.5 million Caodaists in Vietnam as of January 2015. An additional number of adherents in the tens of thousands, primarily ethnic Vietnamese, live in North America, Cambodia, Europe and Australia as part of the Cao Dai diaspora.

History

Officially called the "Great Way of the Third Era of Redemption" (Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ), it was originally founded in 1925 in Saigon as a Spiritualist club named AĂÂ by Cao Quỳnh Cư, Cao Hoài Sang, Lê Văn Trung and Phạm Công Tắc, a group of clerks working in the colonial government, to practice mediumship and ouija sessions. They were avid readers of medium writings of Allan Kardec, Victor Hugo and Flammarion.

During a séance in 1926, the group believed they had received a revelation message, predicting a future universal religion based on spiritist doctrines. The message gave the member Ngô Văn Chiêu a religious mission in life. This led to his signing of the “Declaration of the Founding of the Cao Đài Religion” on 7 October 1926, formally announcing the founding of Cao Đài, which soon grew into a religious movement.

Ngô Văn Chiêu, who is revered in Caodaism as the first disciple of the Đức Cao Đài, had never intended Cao Đài to become a mass organization. He disagreed with proselytization and wished to keep the practice esoteric. He declined the appointment as Pope and left the movement and eventually established an independent, esoteric branch known as Chiếu Minh, headquartered in Vĩnh Long, which still exists and only admits a limited number of committed adepts. Trung took the more exoteric approach, becoming the acting Pope (Quyền Giáo Tông). After Trung's death in 1934, the Venerable Phạm Công Tắc assumed the role.

During the 1930s, its leader criticized yet maintained good ties with the French colonial regime. This stance was controversial, and contrasted with the liturgy of dozens of "dissident" branches of Caodaism that followed a more Taoist model. By 1940, it had gathered over a million members and converting a fifth to a fourth of the population of Cochinchina and irked the French government From 1941 to 1946, Phạm Công Tắc and other Caodai leaders were arrested and jailed in French penal colonies in Madagascar.

During the First and Second Indochina Wars, members of Cao Đài (along with several other Vietnamese sects, such as Hòa Hảo) were active in political and military struggles against both French colonial forces and South Vietnamese Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm, who later became president.

Their criticism of the communist forces until 1975 was a factor in their repression after the fall of Saigon in April 1975, when the incoming communist government banned the practice of Caodaism. In 1997, Caodaism was granted legal recognition and unrestricted practice once again.

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