University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Religion of a different color: Vietnamese Catholic and Caodai U.S.-Cambodia ties in comparative perspective

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Religion of a different color: Vietnamese Catholic and Caodai U.S.-Cambodia ties in comparative perspective

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RELIGION(OF(A(DIFFERENT(COLOR(
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Vietnamese(Catholic(and(Caodai(U.S.>Cambodia(Ties(in(Comparative(Perspective(
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Dissertation!
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June!22,!2013!
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NINH,!Thien7Huong!
ninh@usc.edu!
Department!of!Sociology!
University!of!California!
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TABLE(OF(CONTENTS(
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Chapter!1!
CONTEXTUALIZING!THE!STUDY:!Research!Significance,!Outline!of!the!Dissertation,!
Theoretical!Context,!Methodology,!and!Background!……………………………………….1754!
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Chapter!2!
“MARY,!OUR!VIETNAMESE!BELOVED!MOTHER”:!Connections!Between!Vietnamese!
Catholics!in!the!U.S.!and!Cambodia………………………………………………………………557101!
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Chapter!3!
FOLLOWING!GOD!AND!ANCESTORS:!Vietnamese!Catholics!in!Cambodia!and!their!
Relationships!with!Co7religionists!in!the!U.S……..……………………………..…………1027143!
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Chapter!4!
THE!CAODAI!MOTHER!GODDESS!IN!A!GLOBALIZING!WORLD:!Mediation!Between!
Religious!Universalism!and!Transnational!Ties!Among!Vietnamese!American!
Caodaists………………………………………………………………………………………………….1447184!
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Chapter!5!
GOD!NEEDS!A!PASSPORT:!The!Struggle!of!Vietnamese!Caodaists!in!Cambodia!for!
Religious!and!Ethnic!Recognition!Across!Borders……………………………………….1857209!
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Chapter!6!
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………………………2107222!
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APPENDIX:!Figures………………..………………………………………………………………….2237229!
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REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………………………2307251!

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 1
CHAPTER 1

CONTEXTUALIZING THE STUDY:
Research Significance, Outline of the Dissertation, Theoretical Context, Methodology,
and Background

There has been a resurgence in the number of religious communities that are segregated
by ethnicity and maintained by transnational connections among co-ethnic members (Warner and
Wittner 1998; Kurien 2004; Carnes and Yan 2004; Yang and Ebaugh 2001). This phenomenon
has been observed for religious traditions imported from the country-of-origin as well as those
that have been popularly practiced locally in host societies (Hinnells 1994). It has challenged the
prediction among scholars that, over time, religion will be more important than ethnicity for
coalescing group identity (Kurien 2001; Hinnells 1994; Warner and Wittner 1998). These
researchers have argued that religion, as a sacred source of identity legitimacy, has more efficacy
than ethnicity for ethnic minority followers to negotiate with their migration experiences and
reconcile with the spatial disjunctures between the homeland and host society. As McCloughlin
(2010) has claimed, “because religion, backed by the sacred authority of the past, has such great
potential for articulating distinctiveness in its own right, this can open the way for other potential
markers of ethnic identity to become more negotiable as time passes” (572).
This dissertation engages with this discussion about the significance of religion -- in
terms of beliefs, practices, and institutions – for facilitating cross-border relations among ethnic
co-religionists. Under which conditions and at which moment does religion become a catalyst
for developing, cultivating, and preserving ties among co-ethnic followers dispersed in different

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 2
countries, especially when these cross-borders ties have been ruptured or have never been
established? The study examines how, after decades of isolation from each other, religion has
connected (or not connected) ethnic Vietnamese religious followers in the U.S. and Cambodia
and, in turn, aim to understand their motivations for religious participation. These countries have
the largest (1.6 million)
1
and second largest (600,000)
2
Vietnamese population outside of
Vietnam, respectively. They also have two of the largest overseas Vietnamese Catholic
3
and
Caodai
4
populations.
The study juxtaposes two religions of contrasting relations with Vietnamese ethnicity: 1)
Catholicism, a religion from the West that was introduced to Vietnam during the 16
th
century and
further expanded since the 17
th
century, and 2) Caodaism, a Vietnamese “indigenous” religion
born in 1926 which has its Holy See in Tay Ninh, southern Vietnam. This cross-religion
perspective systematically “controls” for ethnicity, and traces the ways in which different
religious traditions interact with it to mediate transnational exchanges.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study investigates three questions: (1) How do ethnic Vietnamese Catholic and
Caodai co-religionists initiate, institutionalize and maintain cross-border exchanges between the

1
Based on U.S. Census 2010 data published in 2011.
2
According to the U.S. CIA’s The World Factbook website last updated in 2013.
3
Thirty percent of Vietnamese Americans are Catholics (Pew 2012). In Cambodia, however, the proportion is much
less due to the history of religious persecution, war, and anti-Vietnamese hostility in the country (approximately
16,000 of the Vietnamese in Cambodia are Catholic). France has the third largest number of Vietnamese (250,000),
but is estimated to have a greater number of Vietnamese Catholics than Cambodia (French National Assembly
2001). A survey shows approximately 28% of young French people with Vietnamese ancestry grew up in Catholic
households (Blanc 2004).
4
The U.S. has nine out of the total 44 Tay Ninh Caodai temples outside of Vietnam, the most among all other
countries and is followed by France with two temples. Although Cambodia has only two Tay Ninh Caodai temples,
it arguably has a larger Caodai following than France and the U.S. because it often receives large migration from
Tay Ninh, Vietnam (which borders the country and has the largest Tay Ninh Caodai population in the world).

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 3
U.S. and Cambodia? (2) How do they create forms of collaboration and negotiate with conflicts?
(3) How are these transnational religious ties shaped by local and global conditions?

CONTRIBUTIONS

My dissertation seeks to shine light on three significant themes of social inquiry: (1) the
impacts of different religious institutions and traditions on facilitating cross-border relations
among ethnic co-religionists; (2) the asymmetries and competition of power between ethnic
minorities and nation-states, particularly their host societies and the country of origin; (3) the
benefits, challenges, and significance of cross-border religious ties as survival strategies for
ethnic minorities.

OUTLINE OF THE DISSERTATION

The dissertation is organized into six chapters. In the remaining part of Chapter 1, I
present the theoretical orientation of my study, the research design, and backgrounds on my
ethnographic topics within national contexts (Vietnam, the U.S., and Cambodia). In the next four
chapters, I analyze U.S.-Cambodia symbolic, material, and structural exchanges among ethnic
Vietnamese co-religionists. In other words, my “unit of analysis” is transnational religious ties:
Catholic and Caodai.
Because one of the project’s aims is to understand how different religious traditions
shape the trajectory of ethnically defined cross-border ties, I have divided these four empirical
chapters by religion. While Chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to ethnic Vietnamese Catholics,

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 4
Chapters 4 and 5 are focused on their Caodai counterparts. These coupled chapters are meant to
complement each other. In Chapter 6, I summarize findings to my research questions and
contemplate on their theoretical implications and the future of religion-based ethnic Vietnamese
transnational ties.

THEORETICAL CONTEXT

Classical Studies on the Religious Practices of Ethnic Minorities and Immigrants

Early studies on the religious lives of ethnic minorities in the U.S. did not focus on
transnational religious ties. Instead, they were mostly engaged in debates about immigrant
integration. They challenged the claims of eugenics such as Davenport (1911) that religion
cannot change innate racial characteristics and therefore be a venue toward assimilation. They
mainly focused on Protestants, Catholics, and Jews of European descent. In her study of
European immigrants in New Haven, Kennedy (1944) found that religion is a significant
determining factor in inter-racial marriages across generations. Meanwhile, ethnicity gradually
becomes less important with each succeeding generation born in the U.S. She referred to this
phenomenon as a “triple melting pot,” a pattern in which immigrants and their descendants
structurally assimilate within the confines of the three major religious groups. Her analysis
further built upon Robert Park’s (1930) assimilation paradigm. In his conceptualization,
ethnicity is a proxy to evaluate the progressive, inevitable, and irreversible, and transformative
process in which immigrants gradually join mainstream American society. Although Park (1930)
conceptualized his framework based on collaboration with Anglo-American European

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 5
missionaries in Asia and Asian American converts, he did not consider religion as a significant
factor (Yu 2001). Kennedy’s (1944) integration of religion within the assimilation paradigm
rectified this oversight.
Later, Herberg (1960) complicated Kennedy’s “melting pot” thesis. He found that while
immigrants and their descendants strategically assimilate into American society (e.g. speaking
English), they also “transmute” their ethnicity into religion. Within religiously plural American
society, he observed that religion is a conduit for ethnic expressions and mitigates the pressures
of complete acculturation without being seen as “un-American.”
Herberg’s analysis was a basis for Gordon’s (1964) Assimilation in American Life: The
Role of Race, Religion, and National Origins. Gordon discovered that structural integration is
distinct from cultural assimilation. He contended that a group may be culturally but not
structurally assimilated due the different impacts of religion, class, and ethnicity. This was most
evident for black Americans. As a result, he maintained that there are four melting pots: three for
each of the major ethnic/religious groups that Kennedy (1944) and Herberg (1960) studied and
one more for blacks.

Assimilation Perspective: Transnational Exchanges are Shaped and Motivated by Shared
Ethnicity

Within the last ten years, research has examined cross-border religious ties and builds
upon Herberg’s (1960) study with the post-1965 immigrant population and their children, most
of whom migrated from Asia and Latin America (Cadge and Ecklund 2007; Ebaugh and Chafetz
2000; Espinosa and Garcia 2008; Min and Kim 2001; Yoo 1999). In general, the research is still

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 6
in the “infancy” stage, particularly within Pacific Island and Asian American communities
(Busto 2003:10). Nearly all of these studies have concentrated on homeland relations but not
with co-ethnic migrants in other countries. Moreover, the data have been overwhelmingly drawn
from one field site (often a congregation in an ethnic enclave) and East Asians who practice
Christianity. This has limited comparison across religious groups and regions (Cadge and
Ecklund 2007).
In general, scholars have contended that religion-grounded homeland cross-border ties
constitute a form of social capital that promotes ethnic group and individual adaptation precisely
by revitalizing and reaffirming ethnic identity (Leon 1998; Lin 1999; Suh 2003; Yang and
Ebaugh 2001). They have observed that ethnic minorities who are marginalized and dispersed
throughout their host societies face challenges of building a network of support and resources.
However, by collectively building homeland ties mediated through their congregations, ethnic
minorities could establish a cohesive and resourceful community stemming from solidarity and
trust.
As a form of resource and strategy of adaptation, these scholars have argued that
transnational religious involvements lead ethnic minorities toward fuller inclusion into the
mainstream (Ebaugh and Chafetz 2000; Yang and Ebaugh 2001). Nevertheless, the researchers
have generally emphasized that today’s assimilation does not entail completely drifting away
from ethnic particularities but contributing “selective” distinctions into American mainstream’s
multicultural synthesis (Alba and Nee 2005). They have further stressed that, with the trends of
U.S.-born descendants of immigrants departing away from their parents’ ethnic congregations
and the growing visibility of pan-ethnic congregations, this trajectory of incorporation is moving
away from ethnic apartness and toward greater inter-ethnic universalism. Their contentions echo

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 7
scholars who have recently expanded the assimilation framework to consider transnational
engagements as constitutive of activities toward integration (Guarnizo, Portes and Haller 2003;
Kivisto 2001; Portes 1998; Portes 1999; Portes, Guarnizo and Landolt 1999). As Portes (1999)
has maintained, transnationalism is not a process separate from assimilation but an “antidote to
the tendency towards downward assimilation” (471).
Huynh (2000) has observed that a Buddhist center in Houston forms a space for
Vietnamese immigrants to “recreate a Vietnam.” It serves as an important channel for
exchanging resources and religious practices between Houston and Vietnam, such as for
Vietnamese Americans to send financial support and receive monks from the homeland.
Moreover, the Buddhist center promotes and preserves ethnic identity, such as celebrating
Vietnamese holidays and customs and teaching Vietnamese language to the younger generation.
The author has emphasized that this community solidarity, built and sustained by transnational
linkages at the temple, enables Vietnamese in Houston to transcend internal differences and live
with few interactions outside of the confines of their ethnic group. However, despite this ethnic
isolation from the larger U.S. society, he has contended that the Buddhist temple facilitates the
adaptation of Vietnamese followers.
In her follow-up study, Ha (2002) has compared the Buddhist center’s transnational ties
with those of a local Vietnamese Catholic church. She has echoed Huynh’s (2000) findings that
these religious institutions connect Vietnamese in Houston to their homeland on the basis of a
shared ethnicity. However, in contrast to Huynh’s (2000) suggestion that these homeland
relations will not change because of their significance for ethnic cohesion for adaptation, Ha
(2002) has argued that they fluctuate over time and across generations. She has pointed out that
homeland relations at these religious institutions were non-existent during the early years of

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 8
resettlement because of political conditions that make such relations difficult. They only
emerged over the years as the Houston’s Vietnamese developed community liaisons and became
interested in pooling resources to aid their religious counterparts in Vietnam. With the
succeeding U.S.-born Vietnamese generations, Ha (2002) has predicted that they will be less
concerned with maintaining the Vietnam connection as their ties to ethnicity wanes.
These studies have argued that, regardless of the religious tradition, cross-border
religious ties are grounded in the commonality of ethnicity. This observation may also be
extended to the second generation, who has emphasized the preservation of ethnicity in religious
life and therefore may be expand this further into transnational exchanges in the future. For
instance, Chong (1998) has found that second-generation Korean Americans see their Korean
traditions as legitimate, acceptable, and sacred through their religious involvements. As Suh
(2003) has argued, this ability to embrace their cultural backgrounds through religious
involvements, such as taking pilgrimages to their homeland and engaging in cultural rituals, is
important for negotiating the feelings of belonging and alienation as ethnic minorities. Yang
(1990) has further contended that this pattern of ethnic resiliency is also apparent in religious
traditions that are not popularly practiced within the ethnic group, such as the preservation and
intensification of ethnicity among second-generation Chinese Christians. In turn, the
intensification of ethnicity through religious life buffers children of immigrants from juvenile
delinquency and facilitates upward mobility, as Bankston and Zhou (1995; 1996; 1998; 2000)
have observed among Vietnamese Catholic adolescents in New Orleans. Thus, since second-
generation Asian Americans have centralized ethnic cohesion in their religious practices, they
will most likely broaden this emphasis to transnational exchanges with co-religionists when they
engage in these involvements in the future.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 9
However, a growing number of studies have pointed out that religion does not always
perpetuate ethnicity but redefine it, and therefore, by extension, have undermined the claim that
transnational religious ties are grounded in a common ethnicity. This has been evidenced by the
pattern of second-generation Asian American faithful leaving the ethnic congregations of their
immigrant parents. The second generation may participate in the ethnic religious congregations
of their parents in their early ages but then would gradually depart from these centers in later
years (Alumkal 2001; Kurien 2004; Min and Kim 2005). These studies have maintained that the
main reason for this separation is the second generation’s feeling of not being included in their
parents’ religious communities, particularly due to intergenerational differences in language
preferences and religious views.
These patterns have suggested that religious and ethnic identities are not attachments to
priori or embedded meanings (Jeung 2005 and 2002; Kurien 2004; Min and Kim 2005; Park and
Ecklund 2007). Kurien (2004) has discovered that second-generation Indian American Christians
re-articulate religious affiliation as a personal choice, disagreeing with their parents that it is an
identity ascribed by birth. Because of these inter-generational differences, her participants have
decided to leave the ethnic-religious congregations of their parents. Cadge and Davidman (2006)
have found similar patterns among second-generation Thai Buddhists and Jews who have re-
defined religion as a choice rather than an ascribed association.
Similarly, Min and Kim (2005) have contended that second-generation Asian Americans,
unlike their parents, separate religion from culture. Based on a survey of Korean American adults
in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, the researchers have found that children of
Korean Protestant immigrants regularly visit second-generation congregations as frequently as
their parents attend theirs. However, unlike the congregations of their parents, their Korean

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 10
English-language churches lack “Korean cultural components” in worship services and social
activities, such as the absence of cultural holiday celebrations. These studies on second-
generation Asian American religious life have suggested that, because of its separation from
religious identity, shared ethnicity may not be the foundation for grounding and motivating
cross-border religious ties.

Diaspora
5
Framework: Cross-Border Relations are Inspired by Religion

Although the meanings of diaspora have not been settled (Baumann 2000; Cohen 1995;
Safran 1991; Tololyan 1996; Vertovec 1999), most scholars have generally accepted it as a
community in which members or their communities: 1) have been dispersed from a specific
original homeland to two or more other areas; 2) maintain a collective memory, vision, or myth
about their homeland; 3) are alienated and insulated from the host land; 4) idealize and wish to
return to their homeland; 5) are committed to the safety and prosperity of their homeland; and 6)
sustain an ethno-communal consciousness and solidarity based on continuing relationship with
their homeland (Safran 1991).

5
Advocates have generally embraced “diaspora” as an alternative and more promising paradigm than nation-
bounded ones — such as nation, race, and ethnicity — for studying groups (Anthias 1998). “Diaspora” is a Greek
word that means “to scatter,” “to spread” or “to disperse,” and, historically, was used exclusively to refer to the
dispersion of Jewish people among many nations (Baumann 2000). However, since the 1950s, many African
American intellectuals have deployed the term --- more specifically, alongside with the adjective “black” or
“African” --- to account for black transnational formations (Baumann 2000; Gilroy 1991[1987]; Hall 1990;
Shepperson 1968). By the 1990s, academics from different disciplines have popularized and expanded diaspora to
denote a wide array of populations that are living far away from their ancestral or former homelands. With the
landmark launching of journal Diaspora in 1991, this inclusive definition was accepted and institutionalized
(Tololyan 1991). Most recently, in 2007, Parrenas and Siu (2007) have advocated “Asian diasporas” as a promising
theoretical concept for understanding Asian migrants scattered throughout the world, all the while emphasizing the
plurality rather than the singular pan-ethnic Asian diasporan experience. However, a number of scholars have
warned that its popularity has blurred and confused its meanings (Baumann 2000; Tololyan 1996). Echoing Safran
(1991) and R. Cohen (1995), Vertovec (1999) has cautiously reminded, “The current over-use and under-
theorisation of the notion of ‘diaspora’ among academics, transnational intellectuals and ‘community leaders’
alike….threatens the term’s descriptive usefulness” (277).

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 11
Diaspora scholars have differentiated transnational religious involvements of diasporas
from those of non-diasporic ethnic groups (Baumann 1995; Kokot, Tololyan and Alfonso 2004;
Smart 1987; Sokefeld 2004; Tweed 1997; Vertovec 1999; Vertovec 2000). They have
emphasized that different forms of migration and resettlement produce varied patterns of
transformation, interpretation, and perpetuation of transnational religious ties. In doing so, they
have highlighted the permeability of religious institutions and religious life beyond the confines
of congregations, such as identity politics and community formation that cross national borders
(Fortuny-Loret de Mola 2002; Leonard et al. 2005; Sandoval 2002; Vasquez and Marquardt
2003).
Often based on cross-regional and cross-group comparisons, diaspora researchers have
complicated the assimilation paradigm’s assertion that ethnic minorities engage in transnational
religious activities because they want to preserve their ethnicity and achieve assimilation. They
have contended that this might be the trajectory of groups based on involuntary markers such as
ethnicity and race (with the exception of blacks). However, diaspora researchers have maintained
that ethnic groups that participate in cross-border religious involvements could reconstitute
themselves into a diaspora motivated to keep their religious aspirations alive. These groups are
able to resist assimilation into their host societies because religion, as a voluntary association,
requires them to “do considerable ideological work” (Tololyan 1996:17) in order to rally their
shared mission and maintain their de-territorial identities without returning to their homelands.
Thus, through the “complementary disinclinations” (Sheffer 1996:44) of neither belonging to the
homelands or host societies, diasporas have created their own community of belonging through a
religion-grounded mission.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 12
The diaspora
6
framework has generally stressed religion as a key catalyst for coalescing a
scattered diasporic group into an imagined community that transcends national boundaries
(Baumann 1995; Kokot, Tololyan and Alfonso 2004; Smart 1987; Sokefeld 2004; Vertovec
1999; Vertovec 2000). In addition to identity cohesion, religion is uniquely important for
diasporic formation because of its transcendental characteristic. As Vasquez (2010) has
elaborated, “Cosmization - the irruption of the absolute time and space of the sacred into history
and geography — represents one of the most distinctive and significant contributions of religion
to the diasporic experience…what makes religion unique is the dimension of supra-historical or
trans-historical transcendence. Very often, religion adds a powerful utopian, millenarian and
even apocalyptic dimension to diasporas, imagining a radical, perhaps even violent, inversion of
the present, a rectification of all the traumas and unfulfilled longings in being homeless, and a
return to a time-less state of grace” (131-132). Being able to transcend geographical and
temporal borders, religion can create and sacralize an alternative political and moral order
powerful enough to mobilize diasporic formations, such as the “Black Atlantic” (Gilroy 1993) or
“African diaspora” religious coalitions. Likewise, Kim (2003) has contended that diaspora in
itself has the “religious impulse” (327) because “liberation or emancipation [is] one of the
normative concerns” attached to it (329). Members experience the “conversion of consciousness”
(Johnson 2007:51) or “diasporized heart” (Fernandez 2003) as they collectively embrace religion
to sacralize a new collective identity. As Johnson (2007) has contended, “diasporization makes
religions” (43).

6
It is important to note that the term “diaspora” is a noun but has been morphed in various forms to be used as a
verb and adjective. In this review, I focus on “diaspora” as a noun and religion as a descriptor of this group and its
members. This is different from “diasporic religion” (Johnson 2007), which describes a religion as a being diasporic
because it has left its place of origin and has become dispersed and transplanted into other places.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 13
Furthermore, the diaspora perspective has asserted that the transnational dimension of
religion is efficacious for forming a diasporic community (Tololyan 2007 and 1996). The
universal worldview of religion accommodates the simultaneous multi-locality and global
orientation of diasporas. It maintains cohesion despite the “multiply different” (Joshi 2006:217)
and "betwixt and between” (Phan 2003) positions of members that often create uneven,
“polycentered” (Vertovec 2007:651) or “polycentric” (Vasquez 2010:129) cross-border relations.
For example, religion is meaningful and supportive in facilitating transition to a new country
(Rutledge 1985; Zhou and Bankston 1995 and 1996), maintaining ties to the homeland (Hoskins
2011; Tweed 1997; Hinnells 1994), reconstructing cultural traditions (Iwamura 1996), and re-
tracing lost history (Gilroy 1993). As Mccloughlin (2010) has claimed, “Indeed, the prioritisation
of religion over custom, especially for those with most invested in new contexts, can facilitate
adaptation and acculturation, while all the time retaining a sense of pride in distinctiveness and
rejecting outright assimilation” (572).
Dorais (2001; 2005) has argued that overseas Vietnamese in Quebec, Canada are not
becoming diasporic. He has found that overseas Vietnamese organizations based on religion,
politics, and culture do not significantly promote or preserve transnational ties. He has
contended that most homeland relations are personal family ties that do not reflect collective
awareness of a shared identity. Although these connections aim to transmit Vietnamese culture
and traditions to the younger generation, Dorais has maintained that memory and commitment to
homeland issues will wane with each succeeding Vietnamese generation born overseas. Thus, he
has concluded that the overseas Vietnamese community has not become diasporic. Instead, it has
been transformed into “ethnic collectivities” (Dorais 2001: 23) that will inevitably assimilate into
their host societies.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 14
However, Dorais’ (2005) analysis has not considered phases of diasporization over time
(Anthias 1998; Butler 2001; Christou 2006; Schiller and Fouron 1999; Smart 1987). As Hoskins
(2005) has suggested, diasporic social formation could be delayed by the traumatic impacts of
coerced displacement and early stages of resettlement but reactivated and intensified at a later
time. She has observed that, upon arriving to the U.S., many Vietnamese American Caodaists
were not primarily concerned with maintaining ties to Vietnam but rebuilding their lives on a
new territory. They converted to Christianity because they felt obligated to express their
gratitude to their Christian sponsors. Meanwhile, they had to secretly practice their homeland-
originated religion at private homes. However, as they gradually re-established and created
networks with other followers, they began to make conscious efforts to revitalize their religion.
Within during the last ten years, overseas Vietnamese have been able to pool enough resources to
construct public Caodai temples (Hartney 2004; Hoskins 2006). Meanwhile, as their religion
becomes more visible and established in their local mainstream religious landscape, overseas
Vietnamese Caodaists also have related to followers in the homeland who share their anti-
communist orientations (Hartney 2004; Hoskins 2006 and 2008; Hoskins 2011).

Race-Based Perspective: The Racialization of Religion within Cross-Border Ties

Race scholars have argued that religion does not homogenize and normalize asymmetries
of power within transnational exchanges among co-ethnic followers, as suggested by both the
ethnic-based and diaspora paradigms. Applying Said’s (1979) concept of “orientalism”
7
and

7
Said (1979) has conceptualized “orientalism” as the Euro-centric prejudice against the East as inferior to the West.
Said has argued that orientalist assumptions are used to justify Western colonial and imperil ambitions.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 15
Omi and Winant’s theorization of “racial formation”
8
(1994 [1986/1989]), they have examined
the socio-historical process and conditions by which racial categories take on meanings by
making particular religious narratives, practices, and spaces possible (Alumkal 2004; Iwamura
1996; Iwamura 2001; Prashad 2001). In other words, they have emphasized that religion does
not exist in a vacuum and it is a highly contested realm (Vasquez 2005). It acquires its
“truthfulness” amidst competing racial discourses.
Race researchers have contended that embedded within religion is a racial hierarchy that
has conflated Christianity with whiteness despite the fact that racial minority Christians are
resurrecting and breathing new life into the declining influences of Christianity in the West
(Hinnells 1985). Christianity has often been used as caliber of progress within models of
immigrant integration, presupposing that Christian affiliation is a sign that immigrants and their
descendants are shedding their ethnic characteristics and joining the mainstream (Hein 2006).
However, research on Asian Americans has demonstrated that religion can be a site of inter-
racial and inter-ethnic tensions and segregation rather than collaborative exchanges (Alumkal
2004; Chen 2002; Kurien 2004).
In his study of Asian American evangelicals, Alumkal (2004) has argued that, through
religion, whites have turned a blind eye to racial inequities while asking for forgiveness for the
legacy of racism. He has maintained that the development of racial reconciliation theology
emerged as a solution to the crisis of white identity. It enables white evangelicals to see racism
as an individual spiritual problem while granting them the license to oppose race-based
governmental programs, such as affirmative action. Furthermore, Alumkal has maintained that it
creates a space for whites to repent through the assertion of a universal identity beyond racial

8
Omi and Winant (1994:55) has defined “racial formation” as “the sociohistorical process by which racial
categories re-created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed.”

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 16
categories. However, he has emphasized that this universalism also gives whites immunity from
seriously engaging with the lingering white hegemony.
The hegemony of whiteness has rendered Asian American ethnicities as “incongruous”
(Chen 2002:232) with Christianity even though Christians constitute the largest religious group
among Asian Americans (Lien and Carnes 2004; Pew 2012). At the same time, as Christians,
they cannot be like their non-Christian ethnic members and assert an exotic appeal touted within
multiculturalism (Chen 2002). As a result, and paradoxically, Christianity has insulated Asian
Americans within their ethnic and racial boundaries despite its universal religious teachings and
global orientation (Kwon 2003; Chen 2002; Yang and Ebaugh 2001; Kurien 2004; Thangaraj
2003). The pattern echoes Joshi (2006)’s argument that, while the Christian faith presents itself
as a possible “entrance to whiteness,” the results of racialization for each ethnic groups have
resulted in different entry points. Irish, Italians, and Jews are exemplar ethnic groups who have
become “meltable” through faith. However, this option is not available for Asian Americans
(Joshi 2006:214). Because of their race, they are “heathens” who need be saved.
The “rampant racism and xenophobia” (Chen 2002:218) encountered by Asian American
Christians are constructed in relations to the racial barriers that confront their ethnic non-
Christian counterparts. While Asian Americans remain faceless within Christianity, their
ethnicity and race are conflated with non-Christianity (Ghaneabasiri 2010; Singh 2003; Joshi
2006). Joshi (2006) has called this “the religionization of race” (218). The effect extends beyond
stereotyping the Asian other as “not merely non-Christian(s) — they (are made to belong to) the
villainous, anachronistic religions of the East” (Joshi 2006:217). Their religions are celebrated
within multicultural paradigms (Chen 2002; Kurien 2004 and 2006; Yang and Ebaugh 2001) and
forced to undergo “Westoxfication” (King 2010:300), the transformation of religious practices

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 17
and beliefs according to Christian-based models. In other words, according to these scholars of
racialized religions, the experiences of racialization has forced religious leaders of religions from
Asia to highlight similarities to a Christian model of what a religion is in order for their
congregations to be tolerated within the American religious landscape (Yang and Ebaugh 2001;
Chen 2002; Kurien 2004).
Scholars have argued that these oppositional and concurrent Orientalist processes protect
white supremacy within Eastern religious life (Iwamura 2010; King 2010; Joshi 2006). As
Iwamura (2001) has observed, modern technology and media outlets have hyper-visibilized
Eastern religious traditions in the form of “virtual orientalism.” In this matrix of global media
production and exchanges, the “oriental monk” image has become constructed and perpetuated
as representative of Eastern religions that are oppositional to Western secularism. While this
binary construction creates distance between the East and West, Iwamura has argued that it also
gives white Westerners the authority and choice to cross that gap - to repackage and de-
historicize Eastern religions to meet their tastes and demands. Consequentially, whites are
rewarded and extolled for their religious conversion and cosmopolitanism (Cheah 2011;
Iwamura 2001). In contrast, minorities belonging to Eastern religions are seen as
“dehumanizing” and “demonizing” (Joshi:2006: 218) because of their ethnicity, which they
cannot disclaim (Cheah 2011).
Prashad (2001) has argued that this orientalization of Eastern religions has also
aggravated tensions among Asian and black Americans. Paralleling W.E.B. Du Bois’ question
“How does it feel to be a problem” (1989: vii) asked more than a century earlier, Prahsad’s
question “How does it feel to be a solution?” contemplates on the karma of South Asian
Americans as a “model minority” for blacks. By gazing to the East for solutions for Western

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 18
secularism, he has maintained that the West racializes Asian Americans of South Asian descent
as the source of spiritual “answer” to the “problem” of blacks. Prahsad has argued that these
Asian Americans are seen as having spiritual capital that enables them to work hard and achieve
upward socio-economic mobility. He has maintained that this racialization of religious
experiences has rewarded Asian Americans a superior position than blacks although they remain
inferior to whites. As a result, it has intensified Asian American-black animosity while
misconstruing the role of whiteness in racism. Thus, despite voluntary participation in religion
that teaches tolerance and non-violence, Prahsad’s (2001) findings have illustrated that Asian
Americans cannot escape their positionality within a “racial triangulation” that fluctuates
between whites and blacks (Kim 1999).
The racialization has manifested in the different resources that Christianity and non-
Christian religions have for members to engage in cross-border activities. Research has generally
found that Christian groups have much stronger institutional support that expands globally and
therefore could easily facilitate transnational exchanges among members. As Mooney (2009) has
discovered, Catholic churches in Miami, Toronto, and Paris are important “institutional
mediators” that channel resources from host societies to recently arrived local immigrant Haitian
Catholics. Although ethnic Christians have to make structural re-adjustments in their new host
societies, they could receive guidance from other Christians to transplant their religious
institutions and re-connect to the homeland (Gonzalez and Maison 2004). Locally, these
religious sites function as a “home away from home” or a religious community that substitutes a
family left in the homeland (Kurien 2004; Gonzalez and Maison 2004). Among Cuban Catholics
in Miami, for example, Tweed (1997) has observed that they have created a “transtemporal and

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 19
“translocative” space at their Church of the Lady of Exile, where they can reinterpret their
experiences of exile and envision a future in which they would return to Cuba.
In contrast, non-Christian religious traditions usually do not have as much institutional
resources in Western host societies as in their homelands. As research has shown (Peche 2011;
Truitt 2009; Padgett 2007), non-Christian Vietnamese followers usually have to practice their
faith at home. They maintain and perpetuate these activities as they continue to look to Vietnam
for inspiration. Over time, often through the word of mouth, they may become connected to other
co-religionists and form an informal community that meets at a private home. As the community
gradually expands and grows, they may move into a detached garage or rent a separate home for
religious functions. These early phases of “indigenization of religious life” (Thangaraj 2003 246)
are usually underground, without a public face. As Vasquez (2005) has contended, these forms
of non-congregational religious life challenge mainstream Judeo-Christian American religious
exceptionalism.
An exemplary case of a non-congregational religious community is that of overseas
Vietnamese following the spirit-possession religion called the Way of the Mother Goddess (Đạo
Mẫu). As Fjelstad (2013; 2006) has found, they do not form stable congregations. Rather, they
constitute lose and closed networks of followers based on friendship and family ties. They
perform and attend religious ceremonies at private home altars or “temples” that are not readily
accessible to outsiders. However, despite being loosely institutionalized, this religious
community continues to actively maintain and perpetuate ties to Vietnam. Members regularly
visit their homeland to conduct religious ceremonies and reconnect to local faithful.
As these non-Christian religious communities become stronger and gradually more
visible to the public, they usually confront many barriers and hostilities toward further

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 20
development from the mainstream society. As Breyer (1993) has shown, when Vietnamese
Buddhists in California built their first home temples during the 1980s, they encountered
hostilities from neighbors who evoked zoning ordinances and building codes to close down the
religious centers. As the author has suggested, American legal codes pertaining to religious life
are built upon the Christian model; they assume that religious centers should not be in residential
neighborhoods because they mainly fulfill religious and not social needs. Although the U.S. is
one of the most religiously and culturally diverse countries in the world (Eck 2002), it is still not
very tolerant of embracing new non-Christian religious institutions. Singh (2003) has reminded
us that, similar to the case of Vietnamese American Buddhists two decades earlier, Indian
American Sikhs faced hostile resistance from local residents when they proposed plans to
construct a gurdwara in an affluent neighborhood in northern California. The religious
institution, like many other ones that belong to non-Christian religions, was seen as an
“incongruous eyesore” in the “Orientalist mindset” of the neighbors (Singh 2003:102).
Even with non-Christian religions that have gained general popularity in the U.S., such as
Buddhism, Cheah (2011) has argued that they mainly serve the privileges of white converts —
“the racial ideology of white supremacy” (134) — but not the needs of ethnic followers and their
communities. This is why ethnic non-Christians continue to face barriers to transplant their
faiths. For instance, when ethnic minorities are at the forefront of plans to construct their non-
Christian religious institutions, as with the case of the Taiwan-imported Hsi Lai temple in
southern California, Lin (1999) has shown that stereotypes and racist ideologies were behind
local residents’ opposition to the project (e.g. unfamiliar clothing of Buddhist monks and nuns,
animal sacrifices on the temple site, and religious cult). In conjunction with the pressures to
convert to the main religion of host societies as a strategy for adaptation, it is no wonder that

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 21
ethnic minorities and recent immigrants are often pressured to relegate their religious life to
underground — a “Buddha is hiding” phenomenon that Ong (2003) has observed among Khmer
American Buddhists who have converted to Mormonism.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Multi-sited Transnational Field of Data Collection

My research design integrates a transnational field of data collection in order to trace the
impacts of displacement, resettlement, and homeland reconnection on the cross-border lives of
ethnic Vietnamese religious followers in the U.S. and Cambodia. Thus, while the study situates
religious lives within local socio-political conditions in the U.S.
9
and Cambodia,
10
it also deepens
the temporal analytical depth by understanding the networks among religious communities
across oceans and to their homeland (Clifford 1997; Tweed 2002). My analysis developed by
using semi-structured interviews and participant observation. It is tied to a methodology which:
(1) unpacks and teases out the meanings of ethnicity by contextualizing them within religious
particularities and geographical and sociocultural conditions; and (2) re-situates them within a
long cultural history by linking them to their homeland and co-ethnic co-religionist members in
other countries.
By investigating U.S.-Cambodia cross-border exchanges within religious settings, my
dissertation seeks to address the limitations of “methodological nationalism” (Wimmer and
Schiller 2002) in many studies of ethnic minorities. As I have noted, research on the religious life

9
A relatively recent destination for Vietnamese immigration since 1975.
10
A country with a history of more than four centuries of receiving Vietnamese.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 22
of ethnic minorities has been predominantly focused on relations with host societies for the
purpose of analyzing immigrant integration. Even when cross-border relations are examined,
studies have generally been based at a site in the U.S. and have often emphasized homeland
relations and not ties with co-ethnic co-religionists in other countries (e.g., Guarnizo et al. 2003;
Yang and Ebaugh 2001; Huynh 2000; Ha 2002; Itzigsohn et al. 1999).These parochial lens have
privileged the center-periphery (host society-homeland) perspective and undermine the
circulation and mobility within and across transnational religious ties (Azria 2008; Yu 2003;
Gilroy 1993).

Moreover, within the sociological study of religion, Cadge and her colleagues (2011)
have faulted the “provincializing the U.S.” for centralizing “Christiancentricism” and
overlooking other forms of religious practices, beliefs, and rituals. As Altinordu (2013) has
further explained, “Western and Christo-centric assumptions lead not only to the naturalization
of concepts derived from the history of Western Christianity but also to assumptions of radical
incommensurability between Western Christianity and other religious traditions” (4). As a result,
a number of scholars have advocated for cross-religious and cross-regional comparisons in order
to “generate reflexivity against the universalization and naturalization of categories that have
been derived from specific contexts” (Altinordu 2013:69). Others such as Levitt (2001) have also
pressed the need for more in-depth ethnographies that are attentive to the multilayer of religion-
based exchanges among migrants in different countries and between migrants and non-migrants.
These approaches analyze religion not as a static and nation-bounded identity category
but a phenomenon that is “on the edge” (Cadge et al. 2011) and “on the move” (Adogame and
Sahnkar 2013). They render relational powers and conflicts as a relevant component rather than
an aberration to religious life within the transnational context (Nagel 2001; Vasquez and

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 23
Marquardt 2003; Cheah 2011). Simultaneously, the comparative and multi-sited transnational
methodology is open to new ways of viewing religion by allowing the object of the study “to
project its structures onto the theoretical approach” (Busto 2003:24), what Faure (1993) has
referred to as “performative” scholarship.
For two years between 2009 and 2010, I conducted my fieldwork in California (home of
the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam), Phnom Penh (a Cambodian city with the
largest Catholic and Caodaist centers), and Ho Chi Minh City (location of the largest Catholic
archdiocese and non-denominational Caodaist research center in Vietnam, which were the
institutional bases for my research). As in Vietnam, ethnic Vietnamese religious communities in
the U.S. and Cambodia have been centered around religious institutions, which have also
functioned as a community center for language classes, cultural events, and exchanges of news.
As a result, I used churches and temples in each country as my primary sites although I also
traveled to other public places and private homes as necessary. I also conducted archival
research on Catholics in Rome and France. I have incorporated some of these data but they are
not central in this dissertation.

Open-ended Interviews: Family History and Personal Narratives

I conducted semi-structured interviews in English and/or Vietnamese with 50 Vietnamese
within the Catholic and Caodai communities in the U.S. (primarily Orange County), Cambodia
(primarily Phnom Penh), and Vietnam (primarily Ho Chi Minh City). Thus, I have 150
interviews total for each religious group and a total of approximately 300 interviews for the
dissertation. Depending on permission from the interviewees, these interviews were either tape-

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 24
recorded, collected through note-taking, and/or recalled from recollection. I had previously
established relationships with a number of followers in California for my master’s thesis
research. Through these informants, I asked for the contact information of other potential
interviewees in the U.S., Vietnam, and Cambodia.
Although I employed a prepared interview guide, I incorporated Rubin and Rubin’s
(1986) “responsive interviewing model.” This approach emphasizes qualitative interviewing as
“a dynamic and iterative process” (15) in which I actively engaged with my interviewees by
expressing sensitivity to their responses, adapting to their personalities, and allowing them to
share issues important to them. This open and fluid style was necessary for me to negotiate with
my insider/outsider status as a Vietnamese American researcher who is not affiliated with any
religion but grew up in a Catholic household. At the same time, I was aware of Brigg’s (1986)
contention that the interview data are not discrete facts but knowledge that emerges during the
interviewing process.
I supplemented these interviews with personal publications, such as memoirs,
biographies, and websites. From listening to my participants’ voices and reading their writing, I
aimed to retrieve, re-examine, and reconstruct their personal and family history before and after
migration. As Espiritu (1997) and Iwamura (1996) have urged, this hermeneutical lens is
necessary to “recover” the subject lost and ruptured by different modes of power and social
configurations.

Participant Observation

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 25
During the time frame that I conducted the interviews, I also collected data from
participation observation. I attended religious activities such as ceremonies, rituals, public
gatherings, cultural festivals, and meetings. I also immersed myself in informal interactions and
developed individual relationships to cultivate my cultural sensibilities. Although I am aware
that a neutral position is difficult to maintain (if not possible), I agree with Emerson and his
colleagues (1995) that there is more than one “truths” and participation observation can shine
light on the “multiple truths” that exist at the research site.

Timeline

May to June 2009 (2 months), I surveyed field sites in the U.S. July to
September 2009 (3 months), I visited Caodai and Catholic congregations in Vietnam and
conducted 20 interviews in each religious group. October 2009 to April 2010 (7 months), I
continued data collection in the U.S. May to August 2010 (4 months), I collected data in
Cambodia. September to November 2010 (3 months), I returned to Vietnam for data collection.
December 2010-March 2011 (4 months), I completed fieldwork in Cambodia.

ETHNIC VIETNAMESE CATHOLICS AND CAODAISTS: BACKGROUND ON THEIR
RELIGIONS AND DEMOGRAPHICS

Catholicism

Vietnam

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 26

Portuguese missionaries were the first Europeans to introduce Catholicism to Vietnam
during the 16
th
century. However, their expedition did not achieve impressive inroads into the
Confucian-oriented society that emphasized ancestral veneration and rituals. Instead, French
missionaries, who began arriving a century later, were most successful in attracting Vietnamese
converts. Much of this success was indebted to Father Alexander de Rhodes. He created a
Roman-based Vietnamese language system that could be easily learned by Vietnamese people
across socio-economic status (particularly in comparison to the difficult Chinese-based system at
the time) and therefore served as an instrumental vehicle in transmitting Catholic teachings. This
writing system is still in use today and is known as quốc ngữ (the national language).
However, despite the significant French influences on Vietnamese society, Vietnamese
Catholics never enjoyed full integration and acceptance in Vietnam except while under French
colonialism (Hansen 2009; Chu 2008; Cooke 2008; Ramsay 2008; Ramsay 2004). Vietnamese
leaders often suspected them as collaborators with foreigners mainly because of their religion’s
foreign roots. As a result, Vietnamese Catholics suffered a long history of religious persecution,
as many as 300,000 Catholics were persecuted because of their faith during the 50 years before
1883 (Phan 1991). This explains why, during this period, Vietnamese had established a system
of chrétienté (họ đường or họ đạo) (Keith 2012; Hanson 1978).
11
These were tight-knit religious
communities in remote areas in which villagers protected each other from religious persecutions
and non-Catholics (lương). Although the organization of each chretiente was primarily
concerned with religious life, it also penetrated into filial and civic spheres as blood families
became connected to each other through shared ancestral history and local ecclesiastical
leadership.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 27
Conditions greatly improved for Vietnamese Catholics when Vietnam was under French
rule between 1887 and 1954. They practiced their faith freely and, for many of them, used their
religious affiliation to obtain employment within the French colonial government. Meanwhile,
the Catholic Church flourished with the land and greater authority given by the French rulers. It
built schools, churches, and medical centers, many of which have remained today but many of
which have become nationalized.
However, the strength of the Catholic Church suffered in 1954, when French colonial
rule ended and the communist party gained control of North Vietnam (Chu 2008). Before the
mass exodus of Vietnamese Catholics from the north to the south in 1954, there were 1, 114,000
Catholics in the North and 480,000 in the South (Phan 1911:6). Within one year, the political
upheaval propelled 676,348 Catholics (76.3% among these refugees) to move to the South while
many others were unable to escape (Hansen 2009:180). This is equivalent to approximately 60%
of the northern region’s Catholic population (Pham et al. 2003). As a result, by the end of 1955,
there were twice as many Vietnamese Catholics in South Vietnam as in North Vietnam (U.S.
Navy Chaplains Corp Planning Group 1967).
Under communism in the north, Catholicism was severely suppressed by Vietnamese
communists. Meanwhile, in the south, it was enjoying “twenty years of freedom (1955-1975)”
(Pham et al. 2003). In 1965, the Catholic following was 1.6 million or approximately 10.6% of
the region’s population (U.S. Navy Chaplains Corp Planning Group 1967:40). In 1974, less than
ten years later, the number had jumped to 2.7 million (Phan 1991:6).
In 1975, tight control over religious practices extended to south Vietnam when the
communists in the north gained full control over the region. In particular, the communist regime
systematically discriminated against the Catholic Church and many Catholics because of their

11
Direct translation: “religious family”

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 28
close ties to the former Catholic-controlled Ngo Dinh Diem government of south Vietnam. And
yet, as Chu (2008) has argued, the Vietnamese state did not consider the Church as “the
ideological foe that it was in the Soviet bloc countries” partly because “the tension between
religion and communism is institutional” and the Catholic population is relatively small (181).
Consequentially, it “has wavered between subtle control and overt repression” toward the
Church (Chu 2008:182).
Beginning in 1986, following policies of economic liberalization (Đổi Mới),
12
the
Vietnamese state slowly lax its control over religious life (Fjeldstad 2013; Taylor 2004 and 2001;
Hansen 2005; Phan 1991). This became more rapid during the late 1990s. However, this has not
guaranteed absolute but “qualified” religious freedom (Hansen 2005). In 2005, the Vietnamese
government sponsored an exhibit at the Museum of Ethnology on the “Vietnamese Catholic
culture” and advocated Catholicism as “a part of Vietnamese culture” (một phần văn hóa Việt
Nam) (BBC News 2009). This was certainly a great leap from the religion’s “strong foreign
profile” in Vietnam (Pelzer 1992). Ironically, church’s property continued to be confiscated by
the government, even right in the heart of the country’s capital, Hanoi (Dang 2008; UCAN
2011). In 2009, based on official statistics (Vietnam Census 2010), Catholicism has a following
of approximately seven million (8% of Vietnam’s 86 million population) and, like Caodaism, is
heavily concentrated in the southern region of Vietnam.

The U.S.

Large numbers of Vietnamese Catholics became scattered throughout the world
beginning in 1975, when southern Vietnam fell under the control of communists. According to

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 29
several records during the 1970s, Catholics constituted 30-40% among Vietnamese refugees at
different refugee camps (Chandler 1975; West and Burke 1975). This over-representation of
Catholics in the refugee community – nearly four times the respective proportion in Vietnam –
was likely due to the fact that many feared religious persecution under communism. Moreover,
many of the refugees converted to Catholicism during the processes of flight and resettlement,
especially those resettled by Catholic relief agencies (Hoskins 2006).
The Pew Forum on Research and Public Life (2012) has estimated that, among today’s
1.6 million Vietnamese Americans, 30% are Catholics. This would make Catholics the second
largest religious group within this population, following Buddhist (43%) and followed by the
unaffiliated (20%) and Protestant (6%). This Vietnamese American Catholic representation is
comparable to its estimates during the 1990s (Bankston 2000; Lien and Carnes 2004). However,
it is much lower than the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop’s 2009 estimate, which
approximated that more than half a million of the 1.3 million Vietnamese-Americans were
Catholics (New York Times 2011).
Nevertheless, in general, this proportion of Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. is
significantly much greater than its respective representation in Vietnam. Furthermore, Bankston
(2000) has suggested that Vietnamese Catholics can be in greater percentage in Vietnamese
ethnic enclaves. For example, the Vietnamese community in Versailles, New Orleans is made
up of primarily the 1980s and 1990s migration waves and came from Catholic fishing villages in
south Vietnam. In his 1994 population survey of the community, Bankston (2000) has found that
87.3% of the Vietnamese are Catholic. Moreover, relative to other Asian American groups, the
Vietnamese community is the second most “Catholic” population, behind only Filipino
Americans (65%). Considering the growing trend of conversion toward Protestantism among

12
This means “renewal” or “change.”

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 30
Filipino Americans (21%), it is arguable that Vietnamese Catholics are more religiously devout
and adherent to their faith.
While Orange County, California has a comparatively higher proportion of Catholics than
other counties in the U.S., with approximately one in three individuals claiming Catholic
affiliation, it also has the largest Vietnamese Catholic community outside of Vietnam. In 1982,
there were approximately 7,000 Vietnamese Catholics in Orange County (Vietnamese Catholic
Center 1998:191). By 2010, the size of the community had multiplied ten times to nearly 70,000,
such that Catholics constituted 40% of the total number of Vietnamese in the region, according
to the secretary of the Bishop of Orange.
13
The Vietnamese population is the largest Asian
Catholic group in Orange County, representing nearly 6% of the region’s 1.2 million Catholics.
Although the Vietnamese Catholic population is proportionally smaller than the percentages of
Anglo (55%) and Hispanic (35%) Catholics in Orange County, Vietnamese Catholics make up
nearly 30% of the religious professionals (priests, brothers, and nuns) in the Orange Diocese.
14

Given this strong representation, it is not surprising that Orange County was where the
Vietnamese Catholic community has been able to mobilize their representation to a global scale.

Cambodia

Vietnamese Catholics lived in Cambodia as early as the mid-17
th
century, before French
colonialism (Ponchaud 1990). Although the population was probably small, they most likely
made up nearly the whole Catholic community in Cambodia (more than 95%), which was
predominantly Theravada Buddhist. The community grew during the mid-19
th
century under

13
Msgr Pham Quoc Tuan, Interview, February 1, 2010, Marywood Center, Orange, CA.
14
ibid.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 31
French control, when more Vietnamese Catholics sought refuge in the country from religious
persecution in central Vietnam (Ponchaud 1990). Vietnamese Catholics constituted between
seven and eight percent of all Vietnamese in Cambodia by this time (Ponchaud 1990). In 1914,
before World War I, there were 32,500 Vietnamese Catholics of the total 36,000 Catholics in
Cambodia (Ponchaud 1990:87). They also made up a significant number within the religious
vocations. For example, by this time, there were thirteen Vietnamese Catholic priests in
Cambodia, which was equal to the number of foreign missionaries.
Up until 1970, the Vietnamese Catholic population continued to grow and constituted the
majority of the Catholic population in Cambodia. As of this year, before the violent massacres
and expulsion of Vietnamese to Vietnam, at least one account reported that Vietnamese
continued to make up more than 90% of all Catholics in the country or 56,000 out of the total
65,000 Catholics (Phan 2011).

Within the next ten years, the percentage of Vietnamese Catholics
was reduced to nearly zero. The Lon Nol regime (1970-1975) expelled more than half of the
400,000-member Vietnamese population (Kiernan 1990) and with it went 2/3 of the Catholic
population in Cambodia (Ponchaud 1990). Within the next three years under the Khmer Rouge
government, the Vietnamese Catholic population was reduced to nearly zero.

Since the 1980s, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics have been slowly returning to Cambodia.
In 1989, when Father Thomas Dunleavy returned to Cambodia as the first openly known priest to
enter the country since 1975, he observed that more 90% of the Catholic population was
Vietnamese.
15
They numbered approximately 1,000 while their Khmer counterparts counted up
to only 30 persons, according to his estimate. Today, although the size of the Vietnamese group
in Cambodia has remained unclear (U.S. Department of State 2009), Catholic leaders believe
that, within this group, there are approximately 22,000 Catholics or two thirds of all Catholics in

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 32
the country (Bishop Destombes 2007).
16
While Vietnamese constituted the majority among all
Catholics in Cambodia, their proportion has been significantly reduced due to the Catholic
Church’s strong efforts to convert Khmers.

Caodaism

Vietnam

Caodaism emerged within the context of French colonialism in Cochinchina (the
southernmost colony of French Indochina) during the early twentieth century. Its founders
worked for the French colonial government and had learned Asian and European forms of spirit
communication. In 1920, Ngo Minh Chieu became the first disciple to receive séance messages
from the Caodai God while he was posted as a district administrator by the French colonial
government on the Phu Quoc Island in the Gulf of Siam. Coincidentally, five years later in
Saigon, three younger French colonial servants — Cao Quynh Cu, Cao Hoai Sang (Cu’s
nephew), and Pham Cong Tac — also received messages from the Caodai God, urging them to
establish a new religion uniting Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism with elements of
Christianity. The four men met in early 1926 and began formulating plans to propagate the
religion. On October 7, 1926, they submitted an official declaration of Caodaism to the Governor
of Cochinchina, along with the signatures of 27 Caodai leaders and 247 members (Gobron 2007).
They never received a reply from the Governor, but nevertheless proceeded to hold an inaugural

15
Father Thomas Dunleavy, email correspondence, May 6-16, 2012.
16
This statistics were also echoed by two of the most influential priests in Cambodia, Father Thai and Father
Ponchaud. Father Thai, interview, October 20, 2010, Buddha’s Village, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Father Francois
Ponchaud, interview, July 5, 2010, Cambodia Catholic Cultural Center, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 33
ceremony on October 18, 1926 in Tay Ninh Province, approximately 100 kilometers northwest
of Saigon and near the Cambodian border.
Cao Đài in Vietnamese literally means “high palace,” referring to the Supreme Palace
where the Venerable Caodai God reigns. Caodaists emphasize that their religion originated in
direct séance communications from God and not through human intermediaries (Do 1994). They
often told me that God’s representation in the form of the Left Eye is not distinguishable by race,
gender, and class. As such, Caodaism encompasses teachings of tolerance that are aimed at
creating universal harmony between Western and Eastern philosophies, traditions, and rituals.
Caodaists believes that all religions have one same divine origin, which is God, the Supreme
Being. They also worship a pantheon of religious teachers that includes Confucius, Jesus Christ,
Ly Thai Bach, Buddha, Laotzu, and the Boddhisattva Kwan Yin. Its saints include Chinese
revolutionary leader Sun Yat Sen, French philosopher Victor Hugo, and Vietnamese poet
Nguyen Binh Khiem.
The Tay Ninh Holy See (Toà Thánh Tây Ninh) is the religious headquarters for Tay Ninh
Caodaism, the largest branch within Caodaism. It was built between 1931 and 1947 in a once
deserted jungle area of the French-established Cochinchina state (Cao Dai Tu Dien 2012). Its
official grand opening was on February 1, 1955, coinciding with the Caodai God Annual Festival
(Đại Lễ Vía Đức Chí Tôn) on the 9
th
day of the first month in the lunar calendar in which the
birthday of the Jade Emperor is celebrated.
Since its founding, it has attracted thousands of new inhabitants, the faithful and non-
faithful alike, who flocked in large numbers to the religious center to receive not only religious
blessings but also to seek safety from political and social unrest (Edwards 2007). According to
many Caodaists, the Holy See’s eclectic and colorful architecture is a manifestation of their

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 34
religion’s culturally multifaceted and universally encompassing teachings. Its impressive
structure and design have been replicated by Caodai temples throughout the world to underline
the connection with the original temple and as an expression of submission to the Holy See’s
central authority (Hoskins 2009; Jammes 2009; Hartney 2004). The Holy See oversees all
religious activities connected with the religion, from text publication to membership registration
and religious ordination.
Before 1975, leadership structures within the Tay Ninh Holy See were based on the
Religious Constitution of Caodaism (Pháp Chánh Truyền), which was given to Caodai leaders
by the Caodai God through séance messages in 1926. There were three administrative branches:
(1) the Council of the Great Spirits (Bát Quái Đài), the celestial seats of the Caodai Supreme
God and saints who had lived moral human lives; (2) the Legislative Body (Hiệp Thiên Đài),
which is headed by the Law Protector (Hồ Pháp) and represents the Council of the Great Spirits
through its jurisdiction and control; and (3) the Executive Body (Cửu Trùng Đài), which is
headed by the Pope (Giáo Tông) and is responsible for all administrative and missionary
activities. These three administrative branches worked together to maintain harmony within the
religion. Each earthly body — the Legislative Body and the Executive Body — had its own
religious hierarchy, with specified roles for functionaries and with sometime a limited number of
dignitary positions. Nominations to higher positions and promotions must gain approval from the
Caodai God through séances.
Outside of the Holy Land, the Caodai community was organized into five structural
levels of provincial administration:

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 35
1) Religious Region (Trấn Đạo): the highest and largest organization below the Holy
See, consisted of three to five religious provinces, under the authority of one of 72
bishops (Holy See-appointed Giáo Sư).
2) Religious Province (Châu Đạo or Tỉnh Đạo): headed by one of 3,000 priests
(Giáo Hữu)
3) Religious District (Tộc Đạo): led by a religious district representative (ordination
by the Holy See is not necessary). He or she may be a student priest or master of
ceremonies trained by the Tay Ninh Holy See (Lễ Sanh).
4) Religious Community (Hương Đạo or Xã Đạo): under the supervision of the
Executive President of the Pastoral Committee (Chánh Trị Sự).
5) Religious Village (Ấp đạo): headed by an Executive Vice President (Phó Trị Sự)
and/or a Community Relations Representative (Thông Sự) within a temple-level Pastoral
Committee. These leaders are “sub-dignitary” in the sense that they do not have to be
ordained by the Tay Ninh Holy See.
However, since the 1975 communist takeover in Vietnam, the Caodai congregational
structure forcibly reorganized by the new government (Jammes 2009). Caodai religious leaders
who resisted were sent to re-education camps (Kitazawa 2012). Beginning in 1977, the two
earthly branches of governance (collectively known as the Sacerdotal Council or Hội Thánh)
were no longer the highest seats of earthly authority. The Religious Committee (Ban Tôn Giáo)
had established the Management Council (Hội Đồng Chưởng Quản) in which all candidates for
leadership positions must be appointed by, or must have approval from, the Vietnamese
government (Jammes 2009). It has remained as the highest organizational body and all other
religious units have been reduced to simply a Caodai temple (thánh thất). Between 1975 and

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 36
1981, all Caodai temples had to report directly to the government and not through the
ecclesiastical hierarchy. Since then, the government has allowed the pastoral committee of each
temple to work directly with the Management Council, which in turn must report itself to the
state.
During the 1990s, as a part of its agenda to pursue economic globalization, Vietnam had
to observe international mandates of human rights protection, including religious freedom.
Consequentially, the government loosened its restrictions on religious practices and
institutionalized a transparent system of certification that protected “legitimate” religions while
suppressing all “superstitious” activities (mê tín dị đoan) (Roszko 2010). Following these
changes, the Caodai Holy See rewrote its religious charter (Jammes 2009). It endorsed and
reaffirmed modifications in Caodai religious practices that the Vietnamese government had
already enforced, including state involvement in religious ordination and the prohibition of
“superstitious” religious practices such as séances.
In 1997, two years after relations with the U.S. were normalized, Vietnam recognized
Tay Ninh Caodaism as a religion. The provincial administrative was recovered and organized
around four instead of five levels. It merged the lowest level, religious village, with the religious
community. This organizational structure paralleled with that of political administrative divisions
(country, province, district, and city).
Since recognition, Tay Ninh Caodai life has been much more publicly visible but some of
its important traditions are also on the brink of disappearance. One notable characteristic of the
religious community is its involvement in charity work, which has also been advocated by the
Vietnamese government (Kitazawa 2012; Pham 2007). Meanwhile, the number of Caodai Tay
Ninh temples has also grown drastically, from 191 in 1998 to 400 in 2010 (Kitazawa 2012). Tay

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 37
Ninh Caodai religious leaders have put the 2010 number as high as 800 among the total 1,300
Caodai temples in Vietnam.
The Executive Body has become the most powerful body, with its cardinal position
holding the highest religious and administrative rank. It also has a very large number of
dignitaries. There were 732 dignitaries in 1998, and this number more than tripled (3,046) by
2010 (Kitazawa 2012). In contrast, the Legislative Body (College of Spirit Mediums) is dying
because it has been unwilling to make changes according to the Vietnamese government’s
wishes. Without séances, which the Vietnamese government has prohibited, the Legislative Body
has not been able to replace and fill its ecclesiastical positions. There are now only 11
dignitaries, in comparison to 85 in 1976 (Kitazawa 2012). According to the 2009 Vietnam
Census, there are 807,915 Caodaists in a country of approximately 86 million people. This count
is much lower than a 2007 government-sponsored publication (Pham 2007), which has claimed
that Caodaism has 3.2 million followers and, among them, 70% of 2.2 million of whom are Tay
Ninh Caodaists.

The U.S.

In 1975, Caodaism first arrived in the U.S. as a result of the large influx of Vietnamese
refugees. In 2010, Mr. Kham V. Pham estimated that there are about 44 Tay Ninh Caodai
temples outside of Vietnam, nine of which are in California.
17
The majority, five of the nine
temples in California, are affiliated with Tay Ninh Caodaism: the Chestnut Caodai Temple, the
California Caodai Temple, the San Jose Caodai Temple, the San Diego Caodai Temple, and the

17
Kham V. Pham, email correspondence, May 10, 2010.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 38
Sacramento Caodai Temple.
18
Two other California temples are Tay Ninh-led but are non-
denominational: the Anaheim Caodai Temple and the Pomona Caodai Temple. Only the temples
in San Jose (northern California) and on Chestnut in Westminster (southern California) have
altars of the Mother Goddess. According to email exchanges with Kham V. Pham (2010), the
highest-ranking religious leader of the Religious Province of California, there are approximately
1350 Tay Ninh Caodaists in California, constituting nearly 90% of all Caodaists in the country.
19

Connecting this estimate with the 2010 Census showing that California has 38% of the
Vietnamese American population (U.S. Census 2011), then the Tay Ninh Caodai following in the
U.S. is approximately three times higher than that of California alone or 4,000 adepts.

Usually, Tay Ninh Caodai temples have at least three religious leaders who do not work
and devote most of their time to religious life at temples. In addition, about 10% of the followers
are lay volunteers. As a result of this high level of involvements, the head of the Religious
Province of California believes that “Caodaism is blossoming all over the world.”

Cambodia

Before Caodaism became an official religion in 1926, it already had a following in
Cambodia, most notably in Phnom Penh. By 1927, there was already a sizable group of
Caodaists engaged in missionary activities in country (Edwards 2007:201). The religion attracted
Vietnamese and Khmers alike. However, today, it is mostly made-up of Vietnamese. Caodaism

18
Non-Tay Ninh Caodai temples in California are located in Westminster, Perris, San Bernandino, and San Martin.
19
His estimate that Tay Ninh Caodaists make up 90% of all Caodaists in the U.S. is much higher than their
respective proportion in Vietnam, which is around 70% of all Caodaists (Pham 2007). Kham V. Pham, email
correspondence, May 10, 2010.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 39
has approximately 2,000 followers in Cambodia.
20
Caodaists informed me that most of their co-
religionists in Cambodia attend the Kim Bien Temple because of its central location. There are
approximately 200 families who regularly attend temple activities (The Wires 2008). However,
this number is probably fluid because of the continual flow of migration to and from across the
border with Vietnam. Interviews with respondents reveal that most current active members at the
Kim Bien Temple are either returning Vietnamese who fled to Vietnam during the 1970s or more
recent Vietnamese immigrants who have now permanently resettled in Cambodia. Irregular
members constitute the majority of the congregational membership. Most of them either live in
Vietnamese ethnic enclaves far from Phnom Penh or frequently travel back and forth between
Vietnam and Cambodia for mainly business. In addition to KBT, there is another Tay Ninh
Caodai Temple near the border with Vietnam.

POLITICAL RECEPTIVITY OF ETHNIC VIETNAMESE BY HOST SOCIETIES

The U.S.: Refugee Status and Political and Cultural Integration

Most Vietnamese who arrived in the U.S. received political protection as “refugee” or
“political asylum” because they were fleeing from the 1975 communist takeover of South
Vietnam. They were permitted to resettle in the U.S. through a 1965 amendment to the
Immigration and National Act of 1952 (Campi 2005). This policy defined “refugee” as
individuals who were fleeing from communist countries and authoritarian regimes in the Middle
East. Even though their large influx exceeded the limit of 17,400 individuals annually,

20
Mr. Ngo, interview, June 15, 2010, Kim Bien Temple, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 40
Vietnamese were permitted to resettle through the parole authority, which was created in 1952 to
admit large groups of refugees beyond the quota (Kennedy 1981:141).
In 1975, about 125,000 Vietnamese arrived in the U.S. (Zhou and Bankston 1998). Most
of them were socio-economic and political elites who departed by planes.
In 1980, five years later, this population had doubled to approximately 245,000 as a result of the
second group known as “boat refugees,” who were mostly businessmen, Chinese, and middle-
class families who fled by boats that left from ports along the southwestern coast of Vietnam
(Zhou and Bankston 1998; Tran 1994:299-323). About one million or at least 50% of these boat
refugees did not survive their flights (Coughlan 1998:175-201; Robinson 1998; Tran 1997).
While some survivors have suppressed their memories, others continued to recall terrifying
accounts of deaths, pirating, rape, dehydration, and starvation (Freeman 1989).
Between July 1979 and September 30, 1994, an Orderly Departure Program (ODP)
permitted another approximately 600,000 Vietnamese refugees, many of whom were Vietnamese
former detainees, immigrants, parolees, and Amerasian children and their family members
(Campi 2005). This program was arranged under the auspices of UNHCR (the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees). As the ODP name implies, it aimed to stop the “disorderly”
departures of Vietnamese by collaborating with the Vietnamese government and countries of
resettlement (the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, and Canada).
Between 1996-2003, the Resettlement Opportunity for Vietnamese Returnees (ROVR)
resettled another 20,000 Vietnamese refugees in the U.S. They were Vietnamese who were held
at asylum camps or had returned to Vietnam. As a result of these U.S. refugee policies and
programs, approximately 750,000 of the 1.2 million Vietnamese in the U.S. had arrived as
refugees by 2000 (Southeast Asian Resource Action Center 2004). They were eligible for

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 41
monetary assistance, medical benefits, and a wide range of social services that were established
by the Refugee Act of 1980 in order to facilitate the resettlement process (Kennedy 1981:148).
In addition to the legal recognition as refugees, Vietnamese arriving in the U.S. were also
encouraged to integrate culturally. Initially, they were intentionally dispersed throughout the
country by policies of resettlement in order to avoid “another Miami,” a large and expanding
Cuban enclave that had raised anxiety among the American public by the mid-1970s (Rumbaut
1995, cited in Zhou and Bankston 1998:295). Contrary to the anti-Vietnamese environment in
Cambodia, these concerted efforts of integration on the side of the U.S. reflected a view that
refugees and immigrants such as Vietnamese could gradually become “Americans” (or
hyphenated Americans) by shedding their ethnic characteristics.
However, Vietnamese had voluntarily re-congregated into ethnic communities through
secondary migration during the late 1980s and 1990s (Zhou and Bankston 1998, 295). They have
built several Vietnamese “Little Saigon” enclaves throughout the U.S., notably in Orange County
(which has the largest number of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam), San Jose (the second largest
Vietnamese American community), and Houston. These self-mobilized ethnic concentrations
have been essential to the resettlement process of Vietnamese in the U.S. They are able to tap
into supportive social networks, employment opportunities, rebuild ties with old family and
friends, and mobilize responsive political representation.
Today, the Vietnamese American population has been relatively stabilized and has
become the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. Its growth is mostly due to U.S.-
born children and Vietnamese who arrive through family unification programs. As of 2010,
Vietnamese in the U.S. constitute 1.6 million, making them the fourth largest Asian American

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 42
group (U.S. Census 2011). They have highest concentrations in California and Texas, which
constitute 38% and 14%, respectively.

Religion

Since their arrival to the U.S., religion has constituted a visible presence within both the
domestic and community life of ethnic Vietnamese. In his 1980 survey, Rutledge (1985) has
found that more than 2/3 of ethnic of 200 Vietnamese refugees in Oklahoma City regarded
religion as “extremely important” or “very important.” Religion has been one of the most
important avenues for ethnic Vietnamese to cope with the challenges of migration and
adaptation, particularly by creating liaisons and sharing resources with their ethnic faithful
(Bankston and Zhou 1996; Burwell, Hill and Wicklin 1986; Camda and Phaobtong 1992; Dorais
1998; Dorais 2007; Dunning 1982 and 1989; Fjelstad 1995; Hoang 2006; Hoskins 2005; Huynh
2000; Lewis, Fraser and Pecora 1988; Nguyen 2001; Phan 2003; Phan 2006). At home,
practitioners of all religious traditions have often set up altars devoted to gods, spirits, and
ancestors (Huynh 2000; Peche 2012; Phan 2005). In the community, ethnic Vietnamese often
have gathered on a regular basis to celebrate their religion and preserve their ethnic heritage,
such as teaching Vietnamese language classes and celebrating cultural festivals (Bankston and
Zhou 1996; Dorais 2007; Hoang 2006; Phan 2003; Zhou, Bankston and Kim 2002). Since the
late 1990s, many of them have rebuilt ties with co-religionists in Vietnam as the country opens
its borders to economic liberalization.

Civic Engagement

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 43

As a result of their traumatic exodus, Vietnamese-American civic involvements have
continued to be concerned with Vietnam while also engaging in the politics of their new
permanent home in the U.S. (Ong and Meyer 2004). Despite language differences and their
recent arrival, many studies have shown that they have an exceptionally high naturalization rate
and level of political activism in comparison to other immigrants (Collet 2000; Vigdor 2008;
Zhou and Bankston 1998).
With regards to homeland politics, Vietnamese Americans have regularly stage protests
against socio-political abuses in Vietnam and those who sympathize with the Vietnamese
communist government (Valverde 2012). This homeland political orientation has been
increasingly heightened since the mid-1990s as Vietnam opened its borders to international trade
and diplomatic exchanges.
Vietnamese Americana have been particularly concerned with religious freedom in
Vietnam. After the communist takeover in 1975, many religious institutions and properties were
confiscated while practices and rituals were severely restricted by the Vietnamese government.
Although Vietnamese politicians have gradually loosened restrictions toward religion in order to
meet international standards for religious freedom, many Vietnamese Americans have pointed
out that these changes have continued to harbor many forms of government-backed religious
suppression, such as the house arrests of Father Nguyen Van Ly and the Venerable Thich Quang
Do. In 1999, a group of Vietnamese across different faith presented their concerns regarding
religious freedom in Vietnam to the US Congress. As a result, in 2004, the U.S. State
Department designated Vietnam as one of the “countries of particular concern” because of its
violations of religious freedom (U.S. Department of State 2004).

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 44
In addition to homeland issues, Vietnamese Americans are also heavily involved in U.S.
politics. They are not only mobilized to raise the unique concerns of their ethnic community but
also to work together with other Americans in political advocacy and alliances. A sign of
political maturity is evidenced by the increasingly greater number of elected and appointed
Vietnamese officials in the U.S. In 1992, Tony Lam became the first Vietnamese American
elected official when he joined the Westminster City Council. Today, there are many Vietnamese
Americans directly involved in politics and they know how to appeal to their culturally diverse
constituent population in order to climb the political ladder. For example, in 2007, John Tran
became the first Asian American mayor of Rosemead. A year later, Joseph Cao surprised many
Americans when he was elected into Congress by a predominantly African American district in
New Orleans.
Another sign of Vietnamese American political success is the campaign for recognition
of the former South Vietnamese flag as the “Vietnamese American Heritage and Freedom Flag.”
At least 113 city and 11 state governments have recognized the flag. As with nearly all overseas
Vietnamese in other countries, Vietnamese Americans consider the flag of Vietnam as offensive
and have organized mass demonstrations to remove it. For example, in 1999, a month-long
candlelight vigil of 15,000 people was held in front of a Westminster video rental store that hung
the flag of communist Vietnam and a photo of Ho Chi Minh.

Cambodia: Perpetually Stateless and Politically Unprotected

Political Status in Local Context

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 45
Unlike their counterparts in the U.S. who could become citizens, most Vietnamese in
Cambodia are stateless, legally excluded from obtaining citizenship in Cambodia and Vietnam
(Tarr 1992:33-47). Most are descendants of Cambodian-born Vietnamese who were brought to
Cambodia under the French colonial government between the mid-19
th
and mid-20
th
centuries
(Ponchaud 1990; Kiernan 1990:64). Under the French, Vietnamese were able to become
Cambodian citizens under various legal codes, including the 1934 Nationality Law. However,
since 1954, when Sihanouk returned to power, they have been stripped of their citizenship rights.
The exclusion has been grounded within a racialized ethnic typology in which Vietnamese are
seen as “unassimilable” and foreign (Erhentraut 2011:784). The 1993 Constitution restricted
citizenship to “Khmer,” which is ambiguous because it could refer to a race or ethnicity or all
people of Cambodia. While marginalized in Cambodia, Vietnamese have also been excluded
from Vietnamese society because they do not have documented paperwork tracing their ancestry
to Vietnam. Neither the Cambodian nor Vietnamese governments have granted them citizenship,
and the international community has also been ambivalent about their status.
Since the end of French colonialism in 1954, anti-Vietnamese rhetoric has remained
central to nationalist discourse and rhetoric across the political spectrum (Edwards 1995).
Vietnamese are perceived by Khmers as having a long history of territorial invasion, since all of
southern Vietnam was once part of the Khmer kingdom. Their presence is seen as a threat to the
country’s post-colonial nation-building project (Edwards 2007). Maps showing the southern
region of Vietnam as a part of Cambodia continue to be displayed at many public sites, including
the Royal Palace and the National Library in Phnom Penh. Moreover, many streets (most notably
Kampuchea-Saigon Boulevard) have been renamed “in an attempt at reasserting Cambodia’s
rights on Lower Kampuchia, i.e. the Mekong Delta, now part of Vietnam” (Frings 1995).

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 46
Meanwhile, ethnic Vietnamese are still called by the derogatory racial epithet “youn” (similar to
calling blacks in the U.S. as “nigger”) to reinforce their perpetual outsider status even if their
families have lived in Cambodia for as many as four generations (Tarr 1992:41).

The Impacts of International Politics on Political Status

In addition to the denial of protection by Cambodia, the political exclusion of ethnic
Vietnamese has further made them vulnerable to international political maneuverings through the
twentieth century. This has been particularly evident in the arena of international migration and
its politics of classification and humanitarian assistance. Under the U.S.-backed Lon Nol regime
between 1970 and 1975, ethnic Vietnamese from Cambodia who fled to Vietnam was seen as
part of a “repatriation” program orchestrated by the Vietnam and Cambodia. These countries
were held in obligatory relationships to each other due to mutual alliances with the U.S. in its
war against communism (Poole 1974:329-330; Tran 1979:83-87). Approximately 300,000 of the
estimated 400,000 ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia fled to Vietnam within six months (Berman
1996),
21
not including thousands of ethnic-motivated Vietnamese casualties in which many
bodies were dumped into the Mekong River (Jordens 1996; Amer 2010). Many of remaining
ethnic Vietnamese, especially in the northern part of the country around Tonle Sap, was trapped
in Cambodia because there were no facilities help them migrate to Vietnam (U.S. Hearing
Subcommittee on Refugees 1971).

21
This number is much higher than the one in a 1971 report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations,
which states: “By the end of 1975, 150,000 of the repatriated ethnic Vietnamese had been resettled, with a 60,000
remaining in camps in Vietnam. Most of the remaining 150,000 ethnic Vietanmese in Cambodia were classified as
refugees and interned outside of Phnom Penh” (U.S. Foreign Affairs Division Congressional Research Service
1971).
⁠

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 47
The “repatriation” label further misconstrued the political statelessness of ethnic
Vietnamese from Cambodia by referring to their migration as a return to the “country of origin,”
based on the United Nations’ definition of the term (United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees 1996). First, it assumed that they continued to affiliate with South Vietnam as their
“country of origin.” However, in reality, many of them did not have any ties to the country and
their ancestors had been in Cambodia for many generations. They fled to South Vietnam not
because of political or cultural ties but because it was the only choice of destination in this
repatriation program. Second, the “repatriation” label hid the fact that ethnic Vietnamese were
forced to flee from the anti-Vietnamese attacks of the Lon Nol regime in Cambodia. Thus, they
should in fact be classified as “refugees” by international laws and received the appropriate
political and humanitarian assistance. Third, because the political category “repatriation”
presupposed ties to Vietnam as the country of origin, it concealed political statelessness of ethnic
Vietnamese and further perpetuated their status as foreigners in Cambodia. Many of them came
from families with a history of living in Cambodia for several generations and, based on
anecdotal accounts, related to the country as their homeland (quê hương)
⁠ (Tarr 1992, 40; Poole
1974:327).
22
This is a part of the reason why many of them returned to Cambodia during the
1980s, after the country was more politically stable (Chandler 1993:273).
This politics of migratory classification also occurred between 1975 and 1979 under the
U.S.-backed Khmer Rouge government. Much more violent and pervasive than the previous
regime, the Khmer Rouge leaders exterminated nearly all remaining Vietnamese in order to
rebuild Cambodia under communism and a pure Khmer race (Kiernan 2002:251-312; Chanda
1986, cited in Kiernan 2011:586). Amer (1994:218) specified that 170,300 ethnic Vietnamese
were expelled and the remaining 30,000 died of starvation, diseases, or executions by the end of

22
This was also the case when I spoke with many Cambodia-born Vietnamese in 2010.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 48
1978. Ethnic Vietnamese who sought refuge in Vietnam were not classified as refugees. They
did not receive international humanitarian assistance from agencies such as the UNHCR because,
by 1975, South Vietnam had come under communist control and was isolated from the
international community. However, the “refugee” designation was applied to ethnic Vietnamese
from Cambodia who had fled to Thailand. They received support from the UNHCR at camps set
up between Cambodia and Thailand, which had invited the agency to enter the country in 1975
(UNHCR 2012).
Even when UNHCR was allowed to enter Vietnam in 1979, it did not consider ethnic
Vietnamese from Cambodia as refugees. As it reported in May 1979, “UNHCR only considers
the 2,945 ethnic Chinese – and not the 13,000 ethnic Vietnamese – to be refugees, because they
view the ethnic Vietnamese to be locally integrated and self-sufficient" (U.S. Committee for
Refugees and Immigrants 2012). As with the international politics under the Lon Nol and Pol Pot
regimes, UNHCR assumed that ethnic Vietnamese from Cambodia belonged to Vietnam and
denied them humanitarian assistance.
23
Meanwhile, ethnic Chinese from Cambodia received
special treatments and protection as refugees.
Between 1979 and 1989, when Vietnam was under Vietnamese occupation, the
international community’s portrayal of ethnic Vietnamese as collaborators with Vietnam further
obscured their lingering statelessness (Cima 1999; Tarr 1992:40; Jordens 1996). About 300,000
ethnic Vietnamese originally from Cambodia and new Vietnamese immigrants re-entered
Cambodia after the Vietnamese military halted the Khmer Rouge rule in 1979 (Chandler
1993:273). UNHCR has reported that it is “ extremely rare” for refugees to return to the country
from which they had fled (UNHCR 1994). However, ethnic Vietnamese did not have many

23
It was not until the 1990s that UNHCR intervened to help ethnic Vietnamese who had fled from Cambodia to
obtain citizenship in Vietnam (UNHCR 2006).

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 49
options. My informants shared with me that they were struggling to survive in Vietnam, which
was experiencing triple-digit inflation in the aftermath of war, and they were isolated in rural
areas (Tran 1979) that did not complement with their urban-skilled backgrounds (e.g.
construction, plumbing, mechanics, electrician, etc.). Even though returning to Cambodia was
traumatic and risky, they were willing to take the chance to rebuild their lives. At least in
Cambodia, they said that they had access to plenty of fish in the river and did not have to fear
starvation. In addition, many returnees and recent Vietnamese immigrants saw more economic
opportunities in Cambodia than in Vietnam. The Khmer Rouge regime had killed many educated
and skilled Cambodians, leading to an employment vacuum as Cambodia tried to rebuild itself.
As a result, they could easily find jobs in sectors such as construction and plumbing, which have
continued to be occupational niches of Vietnamese in Cambodia even today.
However, within the context of the Cold War, when the U.S. had just failed to stop
communism from overtaking south Vietnam during the 1970s, international players
misconstrued the presence of Vietnamese as an expansion of Vietnamese communist rule
without differentiating between returning ethnic Vietnamese and newly-arrived economic
migrants (Jordens 1996). This further perpetuated the assumption that ethnic Vietnamese
originally from Cambodia were loyal to Vietnam and denied their lingering political
vulnerabilities. In 1983, the United Nations publicly announced that it was concerned that the
growing number of Vietnamese in Cambodia was imposed by Vietnamese “foreign forces” onto
Kampuchea (Amer 1994). Even after the 1984 Vietnam-Cambodia accord was signed to
systematically facilitate the migration of Vietnamese into Cambodia, the U.S. vilified it as a
“policy of colonization” and a form of “silent ethnocide.”
24
This was an agreement mutually
beneficial for Vietnam and Cambodia. The former would be alleviated of the ethnic Vietnamese

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 50
population that it was having difficulties integrating in the post-war period. Meanwhile, the latter
could take advantage of their professional skills. As a result of the negotiation, Cambodia was
wiling to grant ethnic Vietnamese residential status without identification documents, which the
Cambodian government could not demand because most Cambodians in general had lost their
legal papers during the Pol Pot years. This agreement also allotted a parcel of land to ethnic
Vietnamese, who usually chose to resettle in areas near the site of their communities before they
fled to Vietnam.
During the early 1990s, the international community was complacent toward anti-
Vietnamese Khmer attacks as it, ironically, shepherded Cambodia toward “democracy.” Even
though the Vietnamese government halted the Khmer Rouge genocide in 1979, Cambodian
parties across political spectrum resurrected fears about cultural annihilation under the hands of
the Vietnamese in order to compete for votes (Ehrentraut 2011:787; Edwards 2007:56; Jordens
1993). This included circulating stories that precipitated bitter memories about Vietnam’s
occupation. For example, one of the most well known stories is about a group of Vietnamese
soldiers who killed three Cambodian men and used their heads as stands for a stove. Another
strategy was exaggerating the size of the Vietnamese population in Cambodia. Cambodian
leaders claimed that there were between one and four million Vietnamese in the country (Owsley
1995:377-416). This was much higher than United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
(UNTAC)’s 1993 count of 500,000 Vietnamese or 5.5% of Cambodia’s population (Economist
Intelligence Unit 1993). Meanwhile, Kiernan (1990:64) estimated that there were 200,000
Vietnamese in 1990, less than half of the group’s population during pre-1970.
As a result of the anti-Vietnamese Khmer nationalism, hundreds of ethnic Vietnamese
were massacred while approximately 13,000 ethnic Vietnamese were forced to flee to Mekong

24
The online digital archive is currently shut down. I will cite this later. ###

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 51
Delta provinces in Vietnam (U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants 2002). Even with the
new democratic constitution accepted in 1993, Vietnamese were excluded from obtaining Khmer
citizenship because of their ethnicity. Meanwhile, other ethnic groups such as Chinese have
been able to shed their foreign status and gain full Cambodian citizenship (Ehrentraut 2011; Tarr
1992).
The international community was aware of the anti-Vietnamese violence. UNTAC was in
the country to protect and guide Cambodia toward a newly democratic government. However, it
chose not to be directly political involved in the Vietnamese issue. It believed that the new
government of Cambodia should take the matter into their hands (Jordens 1993). Similarly, the
U.S. was unwilling to “take any assertive action to protect these ethnic Vietnamese” in
Cambodia because American foreign policy in Indochina still suffered from the loss of the
Vietnam War (Owsley 1995:406). As a result, the anti-Vietnamese attacks continued without
much intervention from the rest of the world. As Owlsey (1995) has argued, “Unless powerful
nations like the United States begin to promote human rights over foreign policy, ethnic
cleansing whether in Bosnia or Cambodia, will continue to occur. Moreover, Vietnamese
refugees from Cambodia risk not even having their plight known to much of the world because,
it is considered geopolitically insignificant” (Owsley 1995:416).

The Impacts of Political Status on Socio-economic Opportunities

Despite their long history in the country, ethnic Vietnamese do not have hyphenated
identities like their ethnic counterpart in the U.S. They are either Vietnamese or, if they could
conceal their ethnic background, Cambodian. The former group has continued to refer to

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 52
themselves as Việt Kiều (overseas Vietnamese). Without political recognition and protection,
they have faced barriers to education, employment opportunities, and access to public service
that further perpetuated their poverty (Tarr 1992:33-47, Berman 1996:817-874). Many
Vietnamese children abandon their education at around thirteen years old in order to start
working. At the very most, they make about $5 per day or $60-$70 per month.
25
Young boys
often accompanied their fathers to do jobs such as collecting recycle bottles and other odd end
jobs. If they are lucky, they could become trained in construction. Teenage girls, for the most
part, work as a waitress in coffee shops, which are usually also easy gateways to prostitution.
26
If
they have some financial means, they could pay for training to become a hairstylist, manicurist,
or seamstress.
From their average incomes, ethnic Vietnamese could barely their cover food expenses,
which is increasingly more expensive partly because they can no longer self-provide from the
nearly depleted fish population in the Mekong River. My interviewees said that they often cannot
afford to pay for unexpected incidental costs and large expenses, such as hospital care.
Consequentially, Vietnamese Catholics often have to pool their financial resources to help each
other. Meanwhile, their poverty is further perpetuated across generations because of their lack of
access to social services (Tarr 1992:33-47).

Impacts of Cambodia-Vietnam Relations Since the Late 1990s

Vietnam had often publicly expressed its concerns over anti-Vietnamese attacks in
Cambodia, but it did not pursue a concrete course of action until the two countries improved

25
Father Thai, interview, October 20, 2010, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 53
relations. In 1998, Vietnam and Cambodia established a joint border committee to resolve one of
the most contentious issues between the two countries (Amer 2010). This partly paved the way
for Cambodia’s acceptance into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the end
of December 1998 in Hanoi, effectively ending its isolation from its neighbors. As the bilateral
relationship progressed, the Vietnamese government gradually became much more involved in
Cambodia’s internal affairs concerning the well-being of Vietnamese in the country. It replaced
the leadership of the Overseas Vietnamese Organization (Hội Việt Kiều) in Phnom Penh and
transformed the group into an arm of its embassy. This caused internal rifts within the
organization and forced many members to distance themselves from it, including several ethnic
Vietnamese Caodaists at the Kim Bien Temple. A Caodaist shared with me that only former
Vietnamese soldiers who had worked for the Vietnamese government during its occupation of
Cambodia could hold leadership positions. This is indeed the background of the current president
of the organization in Phnom Penh, who stayed in Cambodia after the Vietnamese military
formally withdrew in 1989, and married a local Cambodian woman. In 2003, the organization
registered itself with the Cambodian government as the Organization of Cambodian People of
Vietnamese Ancestry (Hội Người Campuchia Gốc Việt Nam), although it has continued to be
informally referred to by its former name, Overseas Vietnamese Organization (Nguyen 2011).
In an interview, the current president of OCPVA in Phnom Penh denied any ties to the
Vietnamese government. However, my conversations with local Vietnamese and a Web search
of its activities revealed that the organization had received a significant amount of charitable
funding from the Vietnamese government (Vietnam News Agency 2010 and 2004). The group
had used the support to establish Vietnamese-language schools, to distribute food to local

26
Frere F, interview, March 14, 2010, Lasan Vietnam Overseas/De La Salle Brothers Residence, San Jose,
California.

Chapter 1 Contextualizing the Study NINH 54
Vietnamese, and to provide assistance for business-related activities. Moreover, according to its
president, OCPVA not only serves and represents Vietnamese who have become permanent
residents of Cambodia, but also temporary Vietnamese migrant workers. As such, its role is
expected to become increasingly significant in facilitating Vietnamese-Khmer relations as the
border between Cambodia and Vietnam becomes more porous.
27

27
In 2008, Vietnam and Cambodia signed a visa exemption agreement. On April 27, 2001, the state-run Vietnamese
News Agency reported that Vietnam planned to open ten more auxiliary gates in the Tay Ninh province, bordering
the Svay Rieng and Kompong Cham provinces of Cambodia. To date, these provinces have two international gates,
four main gates, and ten auxiliary gates (ASEAN Affairs 2010; Vietnam News Agency 2011).

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

55
CHAPTER 2
“MARY, OUR BELOVED VIETNAMESE MOTHER”:
Connections between Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. and Cambodia

“Just as Our Lady of Fatima had saved Russia from communism in 1989, so too will she
save Vietnam,” said a priest in his Sunday Vietnamese mass sermon at the 2011 Annual Marian
Festival in Carthage, Missouri. On the altar next to him and facing toward more than 5,000
thousand attendees were statues of Our Lady of Fatima in a white robe and Our Lady of Lavang
1

as a Vietnamese woman dressed in áo dài, a Vietnamese traditional costume. This was no
ordinary Catholic event. The three-day festival attracted more than 700,000 people. They were
mostly Vietnamese Catholics who drove from the two coasts of the U.S. to this small town of
approximately 15,000 residents. Many also flew in from other countries, including Vietnam,
Canada, France, and Australia. They described themselves as the children of Mary who have
been dispersed throughout the world, isolated from each other, and recently reconnected through
her. They had come together to pray for her blessings to heal the historical wounds that have
dispersed their community throughout the world and placed their country-of-origin under
communism.
Throughout the 20
th
century, Vietnamese Catholics were at the center of political
violence in Vietnam by virtue of their faith (Keith 2012). Events including the decline of French
colonialism and American military involvement in the Vietnamese civil war had spill-over
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1
“La Vang” has two meanings. First, it is a colloquial term that refers to a yelling (“la”) that echoes (“vang”),
which usually occurs in remotes areas. Second, it refers to a leaf (“lá”) that is a type of herb (“văng”). The
archdiocese of Hue believes that the second meaning is more likely partly because local villagers have had the long
tradition consuming a local herbal plant for treating illnesses. Local villagers had expressed that this practice was
shown to them by the Lady of La Vang. Today, pilgrims and visitors could purchase these herbal leaves in La
Vang.

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

56
effects that touched not only neighbouring Cambodia but also countries further afield, including
the U.S. Beginning in 1975, Vietnamese Catholics fled to the U.S. in large numbers to escape
from communism in Vietnam. Vietnamese Catholics have been living in Cambodia for a much
longer period, having moved as early as the mid-19
th
century as a result of French colonial
recruitment (Ponchaud 1990). However, they immediately became targets of anti-Vietnamese
Khmer nationalism that was fomented by the end of French colonial rule in 1954 and cemented
by the following decades of U.S. aggressions in Vietnam (Edwards 2007; Tarr 1992; Ehrentraut
2011; Amer 1994).
Over the course of the past ten years, Vietnamese Catholics in Vietnam, the U.S. and
Cambodia have been building cross-border ties with each other, in part to collectively reconcile
with their long history of religious persecution. This process is visible in Vietnamese Catholics’
shared devotion to Mary or “Marianism,” manifested in terms of beliefs, practices, and
visualization.
2
Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the U.S. and Cambodia between
2008-2011, this chapter examines how Our Lady of Lavang – a representation of Mary – has
mediated ethnic collectivity between ethnic Vietnamese living in the U.S. and Cambodia. First, it
provides the historical context of religious persecution in which Our Lady of Lavang appeared in
Vietnam and was symbolized as a European woman. In the following section, the chapter
illustrates that, within the context of multiculturalism in the U.S. and the Catholic Church,
Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. have visually re-imagined Our Lady of Lavang as a
Vietnamese woman. This is an effort to preserve their distinctive form of Catholicism, one that is
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2
For additional readings on devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, see: Peter C. Phan, 2005, “Mary in Vietnamese
piety and theology: A contemporary perspective,” Ephemerides Mariologicae 51: 457–472; Deirdre de la Cruz,
2009, “Coincidence and Consequence: Marianism and the Mass Media in the Global Philippines,” in Cultural
Anthropology 24:3, 455-488; Michael Duricy, 2008, “Black Madonnas: Our Lady of Czestochowa,” The Marian
Library/International Marian Research Institute, available from
http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/olczest.html; Sara Horsfall, 2000. “The experience of Marian
apparitions and the Mary cult.” The Social Science Journal 37(3):375-384.

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

57
intermittently linked to their history of religious persecution and displacement from Vietnam.
This image has been introduced into Vietnam and has become a global icon of Vietnamese
Catholicism. However, as the next section reveals, this Vietnamese-looking Mary has not been
transplanted into Cambodia due to anti-Vietnamese hostility in the country and “ethnic
purification” efforts by the local church hierarchy. Instead, Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia
have been worshipping a gray, oxidized cast-iron statue of Mary (Our Lady of the Mekong
River). She represents their unique history of religious erasure in Cambodia and has attracted
sympathy from Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. and other countries.

OUR LADY OF LAVANG: HER APPARITION AND EUROPEAN IMAGE AS OUR
LADY OF VICTORIES
3
(1798-1998)

According to an oral tradition, in 1798, the Virgin Mary appeared in a small village
named Lavang, 60 kilometers north of Hue, the former capital of Vietnam (Tran 2009). She
comforted several Vietnamese Catholics of the nearby Co Vuu parish had fled to the village to
escape anti-Catholic persecutions under the order of King Canh Thinh (1792-1802). The king
feared that Catholics would support one of his opponents, Nguyen Anh, who had received
support from the French to re-establish his dynasty. One evening, while Vietnamese Catholics
were praying, the Lady appeared under a banyan tree with the baby Jesus in her arms and two
saints standing on her sides. She comforted them and said, “My children, have faith and be
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3
A photo in a 1961 publication about Our Lady of Lavang pilgrimage shows that the statue of Our Lady of Lavang
was that of Our Lady of Victories. This has been confirmed by Phan (2005). There is also a photo in color of Our
Lady of Victories and printed words “Our Lady of Lavang, 1978-1998” on Dan Chua USA
(http://danchuausa.net/images/lavang.jpg). I did not see this original statue during my two visits to the Our Lady of
Lavang sanctuary in 2009 and 2010. The statue was most likely sculpted in Paris, the home of Our Lady of Victories
Church and Bishop Casper’s missionary group, Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris/Foreign Missionary Paris
(MEP).

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

58
brave. I have heard your prayers. From now on, I will grant the wishes of all who come to me”
(Tran 2009). The Lady appeared again several more times until Nguyen Anh’s reign (1802-
1820), which allowed Catholics to freely practice their religion and built the first chapel for Our
Lady of Lavang on the land where she appeared.
The chapel gradually became popular as a sacred land and drew visits from Catholics and
non-Catholics alike in large number. However, it was abolished under King Minh Mang’s (1820-
1840) anti-Catholic rule. Thereafter, according to one popular oral account, Buddhists built a
pagoda with the statue of Buddha on the land where Our Lady of Lavang had appeared (Phan
2005). One evening, three local Buddhist leaders dreamt that Buddha requested them to replace
his statue with one of the Lady. On the following day, they had the same dream. Soon after, they
donated the pagoda to local Catholics.
The second chapel for Our Lady of Lavang was converted from the pagoda and lasted
until 1885, when it was burned down by anti-Catholics (Tran 2009). Afterward, during the same
year, Catholics built the third chapel on a nearby ground. As the political climate became more
peaceful by 1886, Bishop Louis Casper led the construction of the first church for the Lady of La
Vang on the site where she had appeared. The project was completed in 1901 on the occasion of
the first annual Lavang Convention that concurred with the Feast of the Assumption. At this
historic event, Bishop Casper placed a French-modeled statue of Our Lady of Victories (Notre-
Dame des Victoires) in the new church (Phan 2005). For nearly than a century, this statue of a
Western-looking Mary was associated with Our Lady of Lavang. Since then, approximately
every three to four years, Catholics throughout Vietnam re-congregated at the chapel for the

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

59
Lavang conventions.
4
In 1928, a larger chapel was built to accommodate the growing larger
number of visitors (Tran 2009).
Although she gradually grew in popularity, Our Lady of Lavang was not as widely
known among Vietnamese Catholics as Vatican-endorsed Marian figures such as Our Lady of
Fatima and Our Lady of Lourdes until 1954 (Hansen 2009). This was when communist North
and anti-communist South Vietnam were divided at the 17
th
parallel, about twelve miles north of
the Our Lady of Lavang sanctuary. As more than 50% of the Catholic population in the north
fled to the south, many of them migrated by foot to escape communist surveillance. Among these
individuals, a few resettled in the Lavang area between 1954 and 1956 (De Jaegher 1962, 8).
They rebuilt their religious communities and often renamed them after Our Lady of Lavang.
Moreover, Vietnamese Catholics’ devotion to Our Lady of Lavang was further bolstered
by the reinvigorated Marianism within the global Catholic Church. The Holy Father had declared
1954 as a Marian Year, the first of its kind in the history of the Church. He encouraged the
faithful throughout the world integrate Marian initiatives into their religious and social life. In
1958, four years later, the Catholic Church celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes to
commemorate the centenary of Our Lady’s apparitions. Although their country was still in a civil
war and in chaos, most Vietnamese Catholics in southern Vietnam were able to participate in the
Marian spirit because of the Catholic-friendly Diem regime. As a result, by the end of the Feast
in February 1959, Vietnamese Catholics organized the historic National Marian Congress in
Saigon that was visited by a cardinal representative from the Vatican.
Six months after the Congress, Our Lady of Lavang pilgrimage center was consecrated as
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4
The only exception is during the 1970s. The 17
th
La Vang Convention was held on May 29-31, 1970. However,
the “Summer Red Battle” (Chiến Thắng Mùa Hè Đỏ) of 1972 killed many villagers and delayed the 18
th
La Vang
Convention until 1978 (Tran 2009).

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

60
a national shrine (Tran 2009).
5
As the first Vietnamese institution to hold such a rank in one of
the most heavily bombed areas of Vietnam, Our Lady of Lavang was further solidified as a
source of comfort, solace, and resilience for Vietnamese Catholics who had become refugees in
their own country. As published by a Our Lady of Lavang English-language booklet, an entry
highlights this significance with reference to an oil painting hung at the Our Lady of Lavang
church: “Mary is holding the child Jesus clad in a light yellow robe, on a dark background
depicting the forests. The Vietnamese refugees – already existing – encircle them on their knees”
(No Name 1961:34). Furthermore, she was a symbol of unity among Vietnamese Catholics
caught in a violent civil war involving the Americans. As published in the same pamphlet, the
Our Lady of Lavang church is “the expression of the fervor of two million Catholics – proclaims
to the sky the desire for national reunification” (28).
Within the context of a civil war, Vietnamese Catholics’ claim for unity through Our
Lady of Lavang was gradually aligned with the latter. As Nguyen (2010) has claimed, under the
Catholic-controlled regime of the Republic of South Vietnam, Our Lady of Lavang sanctuary
was “(turned) into an outpost against communism” (64). At the 1961 grand celebration,
Vietnamese Catholics directly linked Our Lady of Lavang to Our Lady of Peace (Nữ Vương Hòa
Bình). A photo shows that there was a large “Our Lady of Peace” sign on the main stage at the
event (No Name 1961:12). This was the same title that the Vatican gave to Our Lady of Fatima
in 1952, calling her to protect Russia from communism.
The title also alluded to the French-made granite statue of Our Lady of Peace statue
centrally located in Saigon (Ngoc 2005). The statue had an engraving of “Queen of Peace, Pray
for Us” (Elegant 1970) to pray for the end to the war in Vietnam. It was first displayed to the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5
It was the fourth national shrine in Asia. The first one was in the Philippines (Basilica of San Sebastian, 1890),
followed by national shrines in China (Basilica of Our Lady Help of Christians, 1942) and India (St. Thomas
Cathedral Basilica, 1956) (Gcatholic.org 2013).

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

61
public upon the 1959 National Marian Congress in Saigon.
6
At the event, Vietnamese Catholics
first recited the “Prayer to the Holy Mother to Ask for Peace in Vietnam” (Kinh xin Đức Mẹ cho
Việt Nam được hòa bình) that soon became very popular.
7
Among the attendees at the ceremony
included the Catholic President of the Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, and Cardinal
Agagiania, a representative from the Vatican (Ngoc 2005).
From Our Lady of Lavang to Our Lady of Peace and Our Lady of Fatima, Vietnamese
Catholics stood side-by-side with co-religionists around the world and the Catholic Church
against communism. As the war was being fought in their country, they became the crucible of
the Church’s testament of faith. Consequentially, in 1961, the Vatican established the dioceses in
Vietnam and Our Lady of Lavang church became the home of the Archdiocese of Hue. During
the following year, it was consecrated as a minor basilica (Tran 2009). Our Lady of Lavang
church became the most important and highest-ranking church in Vietnam.
Partially because of its association with anti-communism in an area close to communist-
controlled North Vietnam, Our Lady of Lavang center became a prime target of violent
aggressions as the war escalated during the 1970s. The “Red Summer Battles” (Chiến Thắng
Mùa Hè Đỏ) of 1972 nearly destroyed the sanctuary and killed many Vietnamese Catholics in
the area while forcing others to flee (Tran 2009). The only church structures that survived were
statues of three banyan trees that were part of the Our Lady of Lavang shrine. This immediately
halted the important annual tradition of the Lavang Convention that concur with the Feast of
Assumption.
After South Vietnam fell into the hands of communists in 1975, Vietnamese Catholics
continued to worship Our Lady of Lavang with another smaller replacement statue of Our Lady
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6
This statue survived the Vietnam War although the Notre Dame Cathedral behind it was damaged.
7
It was penned by Bishop Joseph Pham Van Thien, the first Vietnamese bishop (Phu 2009).

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

62
of Victories (Tran 2009). However, their religious practices were also severely restricted under
the Vietnamese communist government. In 1978, they resumed the Lavang Convention tradition
but on a very small and local scale. There were approximately 10,000 attendees who were mostly
from the Hue and Quang Tri areas, in comparison to the 300,000 visitors who represented
different regions of Vietnam and Cambodia in 1961 (Tran 2009).
During the 1990s, Vietnam became more tolerant toward religions in order to liberalize
its economy. Vietnamese Catholics were able to slowly rebuild the pilgrimage center and the
number of pilgrims continued to grow (Tran 2009). In the Jubilee Year closure mass in 2011,
there were more than half a million who attended the event (Union of Catholic Asian News
2011). These collective acts of reconstruction and religious practices not only commemorated
their history of suffering and separation. They also spoke volumes about Vietnamese Catholics’
resilient faith under continuing harsh treatment from the new communist-led government and
isolation from the Catholic Church outside of Vietnam since 1975.
Vietnamese Catholics’ sustained strength through Our Lady of Lavang has attracted
people worldwide to seek blessings at her pilgrimage center. According to a local Vietnamese
priest in central Vietnam, Our Lady of Lavang sanctuary will become as popular as famous
Marian sites in Europe, especially the ones for Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima.
Recently, the Vietnamese government has been turned on its heels in order to capitalize on the
popularity of the pilgrimage center. In 2008, it returned a plot of to the church and initiated plans
to build an airport nearby.
8
These are investments toward the building of a tourist center that
could lure in local and overseas money. The government has already accomplished this goal at
other mother goddess devotional centers throughout Vietnam, including the Hon Chen pagoda in
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8
Father Thanh Xuan Phan, interview, August 12, 2009, Hue, Vietnam.

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63
Hue that attracted thousands of tourists over the course of its one-week summer pilgrimage
festival.
Vietnamese Catholics’ relationships with Our Lady of Lavang have manifested
distinctive Vietnamese characteristics through processes of localization and transformations.
Indeed, Marian devotion and piety in Vietnam partially owe their roots to Portuguese, Spanish,
and French influences of Catholicism introduced to Vietnam by European missionaries (Phan
2005). However, Vietnam’s conditions of religious persecutions, continuing political conflicts,
and poverty under which Mary emerged have reconstituted her into a uniquely Vietnamese
religious icon. Our Lady of Lavang has become a symbol of mercy, divine power, and guide for
navigating through religious diversity for Catholics in Vietnam. These culturally grounded
meanings were further localized when the church in northern Vietnam became isolated from the
rest of the world beginning in 1954 (when communists took control of the area) and then in 1975
(when communists took control of the rest of the country). Although the communist government
of Vietnam loosened restrictions toward religious practices beginning in the late 1990s as it
opens up the country’s border to economic globalization, the Vietnamese Catholic community in
Vietnam had already developed its own distinctive relations with the faith, tangentially to the
Vatican II transformations that fundamentally re-interpreted Catholic practices and beliefs in
many parts of the world since the 1960s.

HOW OUR LADY OF LAVANG BECAME VIETNAMESE: MARY AS A SYMBOL OF
VIETNAMESE ETHNITY MADE IN AMERICA AND EXPORTED TO VIETNAM

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64
This section examines the “Vietnamization” of the image of Our Lady of Lavang by
Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. and how it has become a global icon of Vietnamese
Catholicism. During decades of geographical isolation and separation from their homeland
following their exodus to the U.S. since 1975, Vietnamese Americans Catholics have prayed to
the Blessed Virgin Mary for hope, forgiveness, and solace to reconcile with their displacement.
They re-imagined her as a Vietnamese woman and, after Vietnam normalized relations with the
U.S. in 1995, influenced the re-modeling of the European-looking statue of Our Lady of Lavang.
Since the statue of Our Lady of Lavang in Vietnam represented a Vietnamese woman in 1998, it
became synonymous with Vietnamese Catholicism.

From Exodus to Resettlement: Marianism Transplanted (1975-1984)

As they struggled to re-build their lives in the U.S., Vietnamese Catholics continued to
pray to and venerate Mary and, arguably, did so more fervently because of their traumatic
experiences of coerced displacement and difficulty integrating into the U.S. as refugees (Dorais
2007). For example, as a reflection of his devotion, famous Vietnamese Catholic sculptor Nhan
Van immediately created a statue of Mary looking like a Vietnamese woman upon his arrival in
the U.S. in the early 1980s.
9
This was the first statue of its kind. He did not give the statue a
special name although it did later served as a model for him to create the Vietnamese-looking
statues of Our Lady of Vietnam and Our Lady of Lavang. The sculptor simply wanted to thank
Mary for protecting him during his boat escape. Like him, other Vietnamese Catholics most
likely also worshipped Mary, but did not have devotion specifically to Our Lady of Lavang.
Historical evidence has revealed that Vietnamese Catholics focused primarily on Our Lady of
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
9
Mr. Nhan Van, interview, December 28, 2012, private residence, Fountain Valley, CA.

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

65
Fatima in their yearning for the homeland. The popularity of Our Lady of Fatima – possibly
more than Our Lady of Lavang – immediately after Vietnamese refugees arrived in the U.S. may
be because of her official Vatican recognition and therefore greater universal appeal.
As Nhan Van’s sculpture reflects, since the early years of their arrival in the U.S.,
Vietnamese Catholics concentrated on homeland orientation and anti-communism in their
Marianism. In 1976, only a year after the beginning of their population influx, they came
together to pray for the freedom of Vietnam from communism after Our Lady of Fatima
appeared in Saigon although the Vatican did not verify the appearance (Tran 1994:299-323).
During the same year in August, they celebrated the Feast of the Assumption with Bishop
William Johnson, the first bishop of Orange, at Saint Barbara’s Church in Santa Ana. In addition
to being a holy day of obligation, the celebration was an important tradition that had become
popularized in Vietnam through devotion to Our Lady of Lavang.
In 1978, more than 1,5000 Vietnamese Catholics across the U.S. attended the largest
Feast of Assumption celebration in the isolated town of Carthage, Missouri during the desert-
heat month of August (Phan 2005:457–472). The pilgrimage event became popularly known as
“Marian Day,” attracting mostly Vietnamese throughout the U.S. and Catholics and non-
Catholics alike for several days of prayers. In addition to a statue of Our Lady of Fatima,
attendees also worshipped a statue of Our Lady of Peace (Đức Mẹ Nữ Vương Hòa Bình). She
was adopted as the patroness of the Vietnam-founded religious order that organized the event,
the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix.
10
As I have noted earlier, the Our Lady of Peace
title was also associated with Our Lady of Lavang and the Mary statue Saigon. For several times
during the multi-day festival, Vietnamese Catholics also recited the “Holy Mother Bring Peace to
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10
This religious order was established in Vietnam in 1941. They moved their religious headquarters to Carthage
after more than half of the group’s members (175 brothers) fled Vietnam since the fall of Saigon.

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

66
Vietnam Prayer” (Kinh xin Đức Mẹ cho Việt Nam được hòa bình), which was imported from
South Vietnam. Thus, in many ways through the Feast of Assumption celebration in local
churches in Orange County and at the national Marian Day festival, Vietnamese Catholics in the
U.S. continued – and, arguably, intensified -- the struggles against communism that began in
South Vietnam.

Community Centralization

The shared transplanted Marianism reminded them of the significance of depending on
each other in order to preserve their memory, history, and culture while navigating through
adaptation in the new land. As illustrated in a steering committee reported submitted to the
bishop of Orange in 2010: “As in many other societies, religion and culture are tightly
intertwined…thus, the (Vietnamese Catholic Center) should not be viewed as just a ‘cultural’
center; the weekend Vietnamese classes at the parishes ought not to be viewed as just ‘language’
classes…there is a strong desire of the young Vietnamese Americans to explore the value and
beauty of Vietnamese culture and heritage” (Vietnamese Catholic Center Steering Committee
2010:5). Because of the integral and intertwining role of religion in all aspects of life,
Vietnamese Catholics placed a strong focus on re-institutionalizing their religious communities
in order to adapt to their new home.
Centralization had been central to their religious identity and vital to their survival
throughout periods of trials and tribulations in history. By the 19
th
century, Vietnamese Catholics
had already established a system chrétienté or họ đường (Keith 2012; Hanson 1978). These were
tight-knit religious communities in remote areas in which members protected each other from

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

67
religious persectuions and non-Catholics. They often named their communities after a saint in
order to call on him or her for protection. They honored the saint by giving his or her name to
most (if not all) boys and girls, depending on the saint’s gender, upon their baptism.
11
The
cultural and religious life within a Catholic village was perpetuated through family generations
as children and grandchildren usually end up marrying within the religion.
When they had to flee communism in North Vietnam in 1954, Vietnamese Catholics
were able to rely on their religious communities to facilitate their exodus. They usually followed
the lead of a religious leader, especially a priest. In refugee camps, they re-concentrated in
enclaves to help each other. As they resettled to life in the new area, many of them rebuilt their
community structures as they were in the north.
Historical antidotes have revealed that this pattern of community centralization also
occurred when a large number of Vietnamese Catholics fled to the U.S. after 1975. Priests and
religious professionals were central in reviving religious activities on boats, including masses
and sacraments. Among the first wave of refugees, there were approximately 200 priests and 250
sisters who accompanied their followers on boats. As in their homeland, they established pastoral
committees with assigned roles and responsibilities. The re-institutionalization also expanded to
the collectivization of instrumental living activities as such cooking, cleaning, and schooling in
refugee camps (Tran 1994:304).
When Vietnamese Catholics transitioned to their new home in Orange County, they
immediately organized themselves as a community. In 1976, there was already a formative
community with a structure of leadership at St. Barbara parish in Santa Ana. A year later,
Vietnamese Catholics began publishing the Hiep-Thong (Hiệp Thông) Weekly Bulletin that
printed news about religious and community life (Vietnamese Catholic Center 2013). By 1978,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11
Mr. Dinh, interview, January 15, 2012, private residence, San Jose, CA.

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

68
they had already formed four distinctive communities informally named after the city of
residence or the name of their parish: Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, and St. Barbara.
As in Vietnam, these communities also adopted a patroness who they were formally named after,
such as the Community of Assumption of Mary in Anaheim (Cộng Đoàn Đức Mẹ Mông Triệu)
and the Community of St. Joseph at St. Barbara Parish (Cộng Đoàn Thánh Giuse). Each
community had a pastoral committee, a laity organization consisted of between three to five
members who were representatives and leaders of their respective group (Vietnamese Catholic
Center 2013). These four original Vietnamese Catholic communities probably had several
hundred – if not thousand – members. Their population influx was one of the main reasons why
the Diocese of Orange was established and became separated from the Diocese of Los Angeles
on March 30, 1976 (Krekelberg and Glacomi 2007). Although employment opportunities and
favorable climate may also be motivating factors, as scholars have argued (Zhou and Bankson
1998), the institutional strength of the Vietnamese Catholic community consequentially attracted
more ethnic co-religionists to Orange County. The area gradually became home to the largest
number of Vietnamese Catholics outside of Vietnam.

The four original Vietnamese Catholic communities became the foundation for further
centralization and expansion in Orange County. In June 1978, their leaders voted to form an
umbrella leadership council, the Pastoral Committee of Vietnamese Catholics in Orange County
(Ban Thường Vụ). In July 1978, this group, along with representative leaders of different
ministries and religious associations, formed the Executive Council of the Vietnamese Catholic
Community (Ban Chấp Hành Cộng Đồng Công Giáo Việt Nam). The Executive Council worked
under the leadership of the Committee of Vietnamese Priests. The priest who served as the
president of this committee represented all Vietnamese Catholics within the diocese. The

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formation of this structure also created the “Vietnamese Catholic Center” as the place of
administrative meetings. It was housed at the primary residence of priest members in the
Committee of Vietnamese Priests.
12

Racialized Multiculturalism

However, the Diocese of Orange’s policy of multiculturalism has restricted Vietnamese
Catholics’ community-building efforts. In 1976, in response to the large arrival of Vietnamese
Catholic refugees, the U.S. Catholic Church publically announced that it embraces assimilation
in the form of respecting the “mosaic” make-up of different communities (Tran 2004:307).
However, this was interpreted variably at the local diocese level.
While other dioceses had permitted smaller Vietnamese Catholic communities to
establish their own national parishes during the 1980s,
13
the Diocese of Orange did not give such
approval to its Vietnamese Catholics. This disappointed many of them. Although Vietnamese
Catholics could be served by any Vietnamese priest regardless of their city of residence and
parish affiliation, according to the diocese’s approval in 1978 (Vietnamese Catholic Center
2013), the lack of a shared national parish further hindered their ability to freely come together
and pool in resources across congregations. Many also did not understand why, on the other
hand, the diocese had permitted the Polish and Korean Catholic communities to build their own
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12
This was the former home of Oblates sisters who temporarily stayed there to teach Eucharist courses at St.
Polycarp.
13
Some of the Vietnamese catholic “personal parishes” that have been established are: “Resurrection of Our Lord
Parish” in New Orleans in 1984 (Our Lady of Lavang Shring in New Orleans 2013), “Our Lady of Laving Church”
in Houston in 1985 (The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston 2013), “Vietnamese Martyrs Parish” in Sacramento in
1986 (Diocese of Sacramento 2013), and “St. Philip Phan Van Minh Catholic Church” in Orlando in 2007 (Persaud
2007). When I was in San Jose in 2012, I learned that the Vietnamese Catholic community is considering to rename
one of their churches, St. Patrick’s Church, into “Our Lady of Lavang Parish” or “Vietnamese Martyrs Parish.”

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national parishes during the 1980s (Krekelberg and Giacomi 2007).
14
Despite their much larger
number and significant representation among the religious vocations,
15
Vietnamese Catholics
were prohibited by the diocese from constructing their own religious institution.
In 1983, in alignment with the diocese’s multicultural platform, Vietnamese Catholics
were granted permission to establish a new Vietnamese Catholic Center to showcase the Catholic
Church’s ethnic diversity. The center replaced the old one housed at the primary residence of a
number of Vietnamese priests. Its primary purpose was to facilitate social functions and
community services, such as serving as the meeting site for different religious associations. The
bishop of the Diocese of Orange prohibited Vietnamese Catholics from using the center to hold
masses, sacraments, and other religious services other than prayers. These religious activities
generated the most financial contributions. Without these sources of incomes, the Vietnamese
Catholic Center had to depend mostly on individual donations or payments received from non-
religious programs, such as English-as-a-Second-Language classes and tutoring services.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese Catholics had to continue to be affiliated with local parishes,
which were usually led by non-Vietnamese pastors although Vietnamese Americans were
significantly over-represented among the religious vocations.
16
As members, they were obligated
to cover the expenses of their affiliated parishes. These responsibilities created resentments
among Vietnamese American Catholics. They saw the diocese as using them for financial
benefits while restricting them from realizing the full promises of multiculturalism through the
establishment of a national parish. As in Vietnam, Vietnamese American Catholics viewed the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
14
Father Henry Noga, director of the John Paul II Polish Center, interview over the phone, October 3, 2012; Staff
member at the Saint Thomas Korean Catholic Center, interview over the phone, October 3, 2012.
15
The high representation of Vietnamese in the religious vocations has remained today. In the U.S., Vietnam is the
most common foreign country-of-birth among the religious of the profession class of 2011 (CARA 2011).
16
By 1978, four Vietnamese American priests had became pastor but none served the largest Vietnamese
American Catholic community in Orange County (Tran 1994:310). As pastors, they managed all functions and
finances of an assigned parish. They also have authorities over other priests and staff assigned to their churches.

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church primarily as a social institution, which “exaggerates the role of visible and canonical
structure and the importance of the hierarchy” (Phan 2003:162). Moreover, because they stood
“between a more conservative Tridentine Catholicism and a more progressive Vatican II
Catholicism” (Phan 2000:22), Vietnamese American Catholics valued religious rituals and
population devotions, including Marianism and pilgrimages, much more than community service
programs. A part of this was due to the fact that, within the contexts of war and religious
suppression, their Church in Vietnam was isolated from the Vatican II transformations that swept
across other parts of the world. Thus, although the construction of the cultural center was a
significant stepping-stone for them, it was not as important as having their own national parish.
Prompted by these experiences of structural marginalization within the church hierarchy
and institution, Vietnamese Catholics began to mobilize outside of the local ecclesiastical
hierarchy. In 1980, Vietnamese American Catholics established the Federation of Vietnamese
Catholics in the United States (Phan 2000:19-35). The organization expanded the Community of
Vietnamese Clergy and Religious in the U.S. founded in 1976 to include the laity. At its second
bi-annual meeting in 1984, fifteen thousand Vietnamese Catholics from thirty states congregated
in New Orleans (Tran 2009). This grassroots organizing created networks among Vietnamese
Americans dispersed throughout the U.S. and mobilized their representation within the Catholic
Church.
17
It occurred more than a decade before the Vatican and the U.S. church systemically
created a mechanism to outreach to Vietnamese Catholics, when the former established the
Center of Pastoral Apostolate for Overseas Vietnamese in 1988 and the latter followed with its
U.S. counterpart in 1989.
Within these contexts of multiculturalism, structural inequality within the local
ecclesiastical hierarchy, and grassroots organizing, Our Lady of Lavang emerged as a unique
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17
Father Duong Phan, interview, December 20, 2010, private residence, San Jose, CA.

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cultural representation of the collectivity by the early 1980s. She was not commonly known
outside of Vietnam and her lack of recognition from the Vatican had restricted her popularity to
Vietnamese Catholics. However, it is precisely because of these particular associations with
Vietnam and Vietnamese identity that Our Lady of Lavang has became a symbolic ethnic marker
for Vietnamese Catholics to distinguish themselves from other Catholics on U.S. soil. As early as
1982, Vietnamese Catholics began using her name to label their ethnic-based religious
organizations (e.g. “Our Lady of Lavang Association” and “Our Lady of Lavang Prayer Group”)
(Dinh 1995).

Within the next decade, the representation of Our Lady of Lavang for Vietnamese
ethnicity had achieved full momentum, reaching beyond local recognition and toward
international acceptance, with significant implications for how Vietnamese Catholics have been
able to advance and experience reconciliation on multiple levels.

Our Lady of Vietnam: Ethnic Identity and Homeland Ties (1985-1994)

Beginning in 1985, three years after Vietnam liberalized its economy with Đổi Mới
(Renovation), Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. used their organizational prowess to globalize
the status of Our Lady of Lavang. In November 1985, upon the 25
th
anniversary of the
establishment of the Vietnamese Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Trinh Van Can submitted a
letter to Pope John Paul II requesting him to canonize 117 Vietnamese martyrs (Nguyen and
Chau 2011). As the president of the Vietnamese Bishops’ Conference, he signed the letter
representing all his bishop brothers. The Holy Father was probably touched by the request. In
1984, he had given a radio address expressing his sorrow that he could not visit the faithful in
Vietnam during his recent trip to several Asian countries (Pope John Paul II 1984). Vietnamese

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Catholics in the U.S. quickly received news about the petition and, like many other Catholics
worldwide, poured in their letters and petitions of support to the Vatican. For the first time in a
decade, they were symbolically re-connected to co-religionists in the homeland.
During the Marian Year of 1987, as the case for canonization was undergoing
investigation, Pope John Paul II formed the Coordinating Office of the Apostolate for the
Vietnamese in the Diaspora (Văn Phòng Phối Kết Tông Đồ Mục Vụ Việt Nam Hải Ngoại) to
create an institutional bridge between the Vatican and the overseas Vietnamese community.
18

The first director of the center was Monsignor Philippe Tran Van Hoai, a staunch anti-
communist priest with a long history of working with Vietnamese refugees throughout the
world.
19
In the spirit of the Marian Year as the Church prepared for the turn of the millennium,
Monsignor Tran undoubtedly informed the Holy Father about the 200
th
year of commemoration
of Our Lady of Lavang’s apparition in 1998. Born and raised in central Vietnam not far from the
Our Lady of Lavang sanctuary, Monsignor Tran had close historic and personal ties to Our Lady
of Lavang. In 1959, he became the first priest to be ordained at Our Lady of Lavang church. His
ceremony occurred during the same year that the pilgrimage center was consecrated as a national
shrine and became the most important Catholic religious center in Vietnam.
As a result of influences from Monsignor Tran and the Center of Pastoral Apostolate for
Overseas Vietnamese, Pope John Paul II publicly discussed the significance of Our Lady of
Lavang with Vietnamese Catholics on June 19, 1988 (Tran 2009). This was the first time in
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
18
The Center closed on December 16, 2012 due to financial restraints and the justification that Vietnamese
Catholics around the world have successfully adapted into their host societies. Father Dinh Dao (the last director of
Coordinating Office of the Apostolate for the Vietnamese in the Diaspora), email correspondence, April 25-May 29,
2012.
19
Monsignor Philippe Tran Van Hoai was the ideal candidate to direct the newly established organization. Since
1969, he had been studying and working in Rome. At the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, Mosignore Tran was
appointed as the Director of the Vietnamese Refugee Office of Caritas Italiana to rescue and resettle Vietnamese
boat people who were fleeing from communism. In 1992, he founded the Movement of the Vietnamese Laity in
Diaspora.

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history that the Pope had emphasized Our Lady of Lavang. The meeting occurred immediately
after the ceremony of canonization for the 117 Vietnamese martyrs in Rome. By the early 1990s,
Pope John Paul II referred to Our Lady of Lavang much more frequently in public addresses in
anticipation of the celebration (Tran 1994:299-323). One of his most popular presentations of
Our Lady of Lavang was at World Youth Day in 1993 in Denver, which was attended by many
Vietnamese American Catholics. In his address, he commended “the whole Vietnamese Catholic
community to the intercession of Our Lady of La–Vang” and encouraged them to prepare for the
bicentennial commemoration of Our Lady of Lavang’s apparition in 1998 (Pope John Paul II
1993). He also blessed them for “an even brighter future for the new generations of Vietnamese”
(ibid). He said, “May they grow up with healthy pride in their national origin, the riches of their
culture, the spiritual greatness of their forebears who stood firm in the face of trials of all kinds”
(ibid).
As I have illustrated earlier, Vietnamese American Catholics have had a long history of
linking Our Lady of Lavang to martyrdom in the contexts of religious persecution, violence, and
war. However, their faith was most definitely re-invigorated when the Pope recognized their
unique form of Marianism in the global stage. Such an affirmation further mediated relations
among Vietnamese Catholics dispersed throughout the world. In a magazine published in 1995,
when Vietnam-U.S. just became normalized, a Vietnamese American urges his ethnic co-
religionists to make efforts to visit the Our Lady of Lavang pilgrimage center in Vietnam. He
writes,
“Each overseas Vietnamese Catholic has to save only a little
money, give up one meal, or sacrifice one less fun occasion, in
order to save enough money …to visit the (Our Lady of Lavang)

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pilgrimage center, which is very beautiful…I know that Mother
does not need money, does not need a beautiful house. Mother
only wants her children” (Vu 1995:30).
Within the context of her growing global popularity and validation by the Vatican, Our Lady of
Lavang became an important bridge for Vietnamese American Catholics to re-connect to their
homeland. She is not only their spiritual mother but also the mother of their homeland, as another
Vietnamese American Catholic writes in the same publication: “Our Lady of Lavang, the mother
of my homeland and my own mother” (40). These ties were further intensified as they
approached the 200-year commemoration of Our Lady of Lavang’s apparition. In a magazine
published in 1996, a Vietnamese American Catholic writes,
Now [in preparation for the 200 year anniversary] is the time for
overseas Vietnamese Catholics to be spiritually united and
connected with the Catholic Church in the homeland. This is our
affirmation that, despite being far away from the homeland, we
will never forget our spirituality as a Vietnamese faithful and a
citizen of a country and a peoplehood (Bui 1995:14).
In an email exchange, the former and last president of the Center of Pastoral Apostolate for
Overseas Vietnamese further affirmed that “Our Lady of Lavang…symbolizes Vietnamese
Catholics in Vietnam’s connections to co-religionists abroad and the Catholic Church of
Vietnam.” This transnational mediation through the Blessed Virgin Mary has also been observed
by other studies of immigrants in the U.S. (Tweed 1997; Horsfall 2000; Duricy 2008).
In response to Our Lady of Lavang’s growing global popularity following the
canonization of Martyrs of Vietnam, Vietnamese American Catholics in Orange County was

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inspired to re-imagine Mary in their ethnic image. In 1994, they created a statue of “Our Lady of
Vietnam” and placed it at entrance to the Vietnamese Catholic Center (Vietnamese Catholic
Center 1998) and referred to her as “Our Lady of Vietnam.” The bishop of Orange Diocese
permitted this project as it fitted very well within the church’s promotion of multiculturalism. A
Vietnamese Mary would expand upon the collection of “ethnic” religious figures already present
at various Catholic sites in Orange County, including Our Lady of Guadalupe, Korean-looking
St. Thomas, and Our Lady of Czestochowa from Poland.
Our Lady of Vietnam is a white statue was sculpted by Vietnamese American Catholic
Van Nhan. The statue represents Mary dressed in Vietnamese traditional clothes (áo dài) and her
head adorned by a traditional rounded headdress. She holds a miniature statue of Jesus in front of
her, “as if she wants to hand her most beloved child to Vietnamese people in order to save them
and their race” (Vietnamese Catholic Center 1998:17). Her statue aims to bring “peace and
tranquility” to Vietnamese faithful who are adapting to life in a new country (ibid).
At the same time, Our Lady of Vietnam emphasizes Vietnamese American Catholics’
lingering connections and ethical responsibilities to co-religionists in Vietnam. She stands on a
grotto in the shape of an S that represents Vietnam and its mountainous ridges. According to a
publication by the Vietnamese Catholic Center, this representation of Mary “guides the spirit of
Vietnamese people to return to their homeland roots” and to pray for their co-religionists who are
suffering from communism (Vietnamese Catholic Center 1998:17). This is why they also
referred to her as “Our Lady of Peace.” The title is associated with other forms of Mary
worshipped among Vietnamese Catholics, particularly the statue of Mary at Marian Day’s home
site in Carthage, Missouri and the one in the center of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

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Vietnamese Catholics have also placed vivid symbols of martyrdom around the statue of
Our Lady of Vietnam. On a nearby wall, there are brass-painted panels depicting eight methods
of torture that Martyrs of Vietnam endured (e.g. beheading, head-restraining yoke around the
neck, trampling by elephants, and suffocating by ropes). Sculptor Van Nhan had created these
works. In a 1998 booklet about the Vietnamese Catholic Center, the reliefs are highlighted: “A
special feature of these reliefs is that the faces of martyrs are peaceful and serene, bearing no
grudge against their tormentors. The tormentors themselves also shows no anger nor vengeances
as they only carried out the order of their superiors” (Vietnamese Catholic Center 1998:20-21).
Moreover, the main chapel at the Vietnamese Catholic Center is dedicated after the Vietnamese
martyrs. On the center main stage, there is a large painting of Vietnamese martyrs being received
by Jesus. The publication further explains: “The Church in Vietnam has a long history of
persecution. Thousands and thousands of people have shed their blood as witnesses to Christ.” In
a Vietnamese section, the pamphlet continues: “To commemorate the Vietnamese martyrs and
yet forget their sacrifices is a deep loss to our veneration of them” (19).
These representations clearly show that, despite decades of isolation from Vietnam,
Vietnamese American Catholics have not waned their ties to the homeland. Instead, they have
intensified these relations through devotion to Mary. Vietnamese Catholic youths, many of
whom were born in the U.S., have showed signs that they will inherit and perpetuate this
homeland orientation in their faith. They have been involved in youth programs that often evoke
their background as refugees with a biblical mission, as evidenced by the themes "Promised-
Land I" and “Promised-Land II” for their summer camps (Eucharist Youth Society 2013).

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Our Lady of Lavang: From A European Icon to a Global Symbol of Vietnamese
Catholicism (1995-Present)

After Vietnam re-established diplomatic ties with the U.S. in 1995, its economic
integration and globalization had created more channels for Vietnamese American Catholics to
reconnect to co-religionists in their homeland. For example, they could easily send remittances
and fly directly to Vietnam on a U.S. carrier.

Meanwhile, the government of Vietnam was also
loosening strictures toward religious practices as part of its agenda to create friendlier economic
ties with Western countries (Bouquet 2010:90-108). It formally recognized Catholicism as the
second largest religious group in Vietnam (Vietnamese Committee for Religious Affairs 2006).
Within the context of economic globalization and religious tolerance in Vietnam, a
delegation of Vietnamese priests was able to visit their ethnic co-religionists in Orange County
during the mid-1990s. Nhan Van, the sculptor of Our Lady of Vietnam, volunteered to guide
them.
20
Since the 1970s, he had been very involved in the Orange County Vietnamese Catholic
community. In 1978, he as was representative leader for Vietnamese Catholics in Orange County
while they were trying to form a multi-parish umbrella leadership organization (Vietnamese
Catholic Center 2013).
During the tour, Mr. Van showed the Vietnamese priests statues of Our Lady of Vietnam
and his original statue of a Vietnamese-looking Mary at his home. They were impressed and
delighted by his works. This news reached the ears of the bishop of the Hue Diocese. He was
preparing for the 200
th
commemoration of the apparition of Our Lady of Lavang in 1998. It was
an important event not just for Catholics in Vietnam but also around the world. Between 1996
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
20
Mr. Nhan Van, interview, December 28, 2012, private residence, Fountain Valley, CA.

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and 1998, he had received many letters of blessings from Pope John Paul II in reference to the
upcoming historic ceremony (Tran 1994:299-323).
Consequentially, the bishop of Hue Diocese and other church leaders in Vietnam decided
to invite Van Nhan to create a Vietnamese statue of Our Lady of Lavang.
21
Like the image of
Our Lady of Vietnam, the new representation of Our Lady of Lavang depicts Mary dressed in
white Vietnamese traditional clothes (áo dài) and wearing a golden headdress. Like Our Lady of
Vietnam, she also holds a statue of baby Jesus.

However, it arguably portrays Vietnamese
traditions much more poignantly than the former because of its added colors. Certainly, the blue
cloak that is on top of Our Lady of Lavang’s white áo dài alludes to the conventional
representation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, because the cloak is a Vietnamese
traditional dress reserved for special Vietnamese occasions, such as weddings, the new image
highlights important references to Vietnamese culture.
On July 1, 1998, this statue received blessings by Pope John II in Rome (Tran 2009). At
this celebrated event, the Holy Father also proclaimed Our Lady of Lavang as the patroness of
the Catholic Church of Vietnam. Although this religious honour did not officially recognize the
historical accuracy of the apparition of Our Lady of Lavang in 1798, it was a source of
inspiration for Vietnamese Catholics throughout the world. For the first time in history, a
Vietnamese icon of the Catholic faith was officially introduced to the global Catholic
community. On August 13, 1998, two hundred years after her apparition, more than 200,000
attendees gathered in Lavang to worship Our Lady of Lavang in the representation of a
Vietnamese woman.
22

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
21
ibid.
22
In January 2011, this original statue was replaced by a newer model sculpted by a local Vietnamese artist (Father
Than 2009).

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Since the 1990s, Vietnamese Catholics throughout the world have increasingly integrated
Our Lady of Lavang into their religious practices. However, there has never been large-scale
mass production of Mr. Nhan Van’s patented original model, as Kendall (2013) has observed
with statues of Catholic saints in northern Vietnam. Instead, there have been various
reinterpretations and negotiated visual art forms of Our Lady of Lavang, each with its own
special meanings and expresses connections within the global Vietnamese Catholic community
despite local diversities and differences. For example, upon the occasion of Marian Day in 1999,
a year after the Vatican publically recognizes the Vietnamese portrayal of Our Lady of Lavang,
the site of the festival displayed a large painting of Vietnamese martyrs with Our Lady of Lavang
and baby Jesus in the center by artist Vivi (Dongcong.net 2013). Previously, these types of
portrayals did not illustrate Our Lady of Lavang but a middle-aged figure of Jesus as the central
figure. Vivi’s painting has inspired other works throughout the world to similarly replace Jesus
with Our Lady of Lavang.
Similarly, in 2002, the original Vietnamese-looking Our Lady of Lavang in Vietnam was
replaced upon the occasion of the 26
th
Marian Convention.
23
The newer version depicts Our
Lady of Lavang’s headdress decorated with twelve stars. Although the twelve stars have been
argued as allusions to the original twelve followers (apostles) of Jesus, Vietnamese Catholics in
Vietnam and abroad have re-interpreted them as the guiding stars of the Big Dipper (seven stars)
and the Small Dipper (seven stars) that Vietnamese boat refugees used to guide themselves to
their new homes. In the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lavang in Washington, D.C., which was
completed in 2005, the stars are decorated throughout the sanctuary as sacred reminders of the
Vietnamese global dispersion (Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
2013).

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
23
The original statue was placed in the storage of the Our Lady of Lavang Pilgrimage Center (Tran 2009).

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However, despite differences, changes, and isolation from each other, Vietnamese
Catholics around the world have mediated reconnection and a sense of collectivity through Our
Lady of Lavang. Today, statues of Our Lady of Lavang have become a popular diplomatic gift
from a Vietnamese Catholic community to another in a different country, as I have observed in
Taiwan and Japan. In 2002, Pope John Paul II blessed six statues of Our Lady of Lavang in
Rome (Coordinating Office of the Apostolate for the Vietnamese in the Diaspora 2002). He gave
the statues to Vietnamese American Catholics in Orange County, who were responsible for
distributing them to respective representatives of different continents. In 2010, a stone engraved
with “Overseas Diocese” (Cộng Đồng Hải Ngoại) was placed at the Our Lady of Lavang
pilgrimage center during the opening ceremony of the Holy Year (Publicity Committee for the
2010 Holy Year Mass 2011). It recognizes Vietnamese American Catholics and other overseas
Vietnamese Catholics as the twenty-seventh diocese of the Catholic Church in Vietnam.
Although symbolic on some levels, these transnational exchanges have also exposed the limits
and violence of nation-state projects of ethnic order for reconciliation. For refugees who have
continued to witness and experience vestiges of past trauma and violence, their reconciliation
must cross multiple places, time, and peoples.
Through these global ties manifested through Our Lady of Lavang, Vietnamese American
Catholics have been able leverage their continuing ethnic marginalization within the church
hierarchy in Orange County. In 2001, after more than two decades of battle, the bishop of
Orange finally gave them approval to construct a parish named after Our Lady of Lavang on a
4.5-acre plot of land located in a poor part of Santa Ana. This was the first church in southern
California that was given a Vietnamese name. The bishop announced, "The Vietnamese Catholic
community is the second-largest ethnic community [behind Latinos] in the Diocese of

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Orange…Yet they were the only ones who didn't have the privilege of having a parish named
after their patron--or in this case, patroness" (Lobdell and Tran 2003). On August 20, 2006, after
three years of delays due to opposition to the $10 million project, the architectural “Vietnamese
and Hispanic” Our Lady of Lavang Church opened to serve a multi-ethnic congregation that is
predominantly Latino, Vietnamese, and white (Diocese of Orange 2006). The event coincided
with the year in which the first Vietnamese American bishop, Dominic Mai Luong, was ordained
and represented the Vietnamese American community in the area. Today, the church is one of
fifteen Vietnamese American Catholic parishes dedicated to the Vietnamese form of Mary,
making “Our Lady of Lavang” more popular than other Marian names such as Our Lady of
Fatima and Our Lady of Lourdes (Federation of Vietnamese Catholics in U.S.A. 2009).
However, despite being a historic accomplishment, a number of Vietnamese faithful also
felt that the project came too late for the largest Vietnamese Catholic community outside of
Vietnam. As early as 1985, Vietnamese Catholics in other dioceses have already had a parish
named after Our Lady of Lavang.
24
A number of my informants shared with me that the parish
is now very well financed because of donations from Vietnamese Catholics throughout the
diocese. However, under this seemingly temperate comment is their skepticism toward the
diocese: Why did the bishop wait until 2001 to permit a parish be constructed and named after a
Vietnamese Mary? Some of them suspected that the diocese needed their financial support as its
budgets was suffering from sex abuse legal cases while struggling to accommodate a growing
local Catholic population that is predominantly poor and Latino in Santa Ana. The Our Lady of
Lavang Parish alleviated this problem because it attracted the large contributions from
Vietnamese Catholics from neighboring towns, including the affluent community at St.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
24
The earliest “Our Lady of Lavang Church” that I have was established in Houston in 1985 (The Archdiocese of
Galveston-Houston 2013), followed by New Orleans in 1988 (Our Lady of Lavang Shrine in New Orleans 2013).

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Bonaventure in Huntington Beach that donated half a million toward a parish hall (Lobdell and
Tran 2003). Not soon after Our Lady of Lavang parish opened, it immediately became the largest
parish in the diocese primarily because of the Vietnamese population.
The continuing exclusion of Vietnamese Catholics in the church hierarchy has been
further attested by the Vietnamese Catholic Center’s threatened closure. In addition to the lack of
financial support from the diocese and deferred contributions to parishes, the center has been
tightly controlled by the church hierarchy in response to its continuing ties to Vietnam. This is
part of the diocese’s plans to eventually terminate the center. During the twenty first century, one
of its former Vietnamese priest directors was pivotal in organizing many large-scale protests
against human rights, especially religious freedom, in Vietnam. In 2005, an event at Mile Square
Park attracted nearly 5,000 protestors (Nguyen 2010).
The diocese did not favor these mass demonstrations. As a result, the bishop assigned the
priest to a remote parish with few Vietnamese members. Thereafter, he made the center be
directly under the authority of Bishop Dominic rather than the center’s director. However, as
Bishop Dominic personally informed me in a private interview, he is usually at the diocese’s
office and do not know much about the activities at the Vietnamese Catholic Center.
Nevertheless, he has the highest and final authority over it rather than the priest director who is at
the center full-time during the weekdays.
This re-organization has further forced the Vietnamese Catholic community to be
restrained within the ecclesiastical hierarchy and marginalized their representation. In addition to
the prohibition of religious sacraments and services, it has also been restricted from engaging in
homeland politics. However, the structural containment within the diocese has not guaranteed
equal representation for Vietnamese Americans. Whereas Hispanics have a designated ministry

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within the diocese’s organizational structure and Koreans and Polish each have their own
parishes, Vietnamese Catholics have been only symbolically represented by Bishop Dominic
(Diocese of Orange 2012). In order to assert their voices, they have to organize among
themselves and the Catholic Center is the only available meeting point shared across the diocese.
Thus, the construction of the Our Lady of Lavang parish does not attest to the inclusion of
Vietnamese American Catholics in the Diocese of Orange. On the contrary, it is an extension of
the ecclesiastical hierarchy’s continuing policy of racialized multiculturalism. It embraces the
displays of culture while simultaneously turning a blind eye to structural inequality.

US-CAMBODIA RELATIONS: MARIANISM FACILITATED THROUGH OUR LADY
OF THE MEKONG RIVER

While Vietnamese Catholics throughout the world have adopted the U.S.-made
Vietnamese-looking version of Mary, this section shows that ethnic co-religionists in Cambodia
have not participated in this movement. Within the contexts of anti-Vietnamese animosities and
statelessness, they have been worshipping an oxidized cast-iron gray statue of Our Lady of
Lourdes that they have named “Our Lady of the Mekong River.” However, despite being a
locally situated manifestation, I illustrate that Our Lady of Mekong has reconnected Vietnamese
Catholics in Cambodia to ethnic co-religionists in the U.S.

Historical Trajectory of Vietnamese Marianism on Cambodian Soil: From Transplantation
to Erasure (1860-1994)

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During the first one hundred years of their arrival in Cambodia from 1860 to 1961,
Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia most likely did not worship Our Lady of Lavang on a large
scale. Although long distance communication and transportation improved under French
colonialism, they remained geographically distant from her sanctuary in central Vietnam.
Instead, these Catholics most likely developed their own tangential course of Marian worship
under the leadership of the religious orders that served and led them. Historical records show that
the first or one of the earliest Mary statues that arrived in Cambodia was in 1555, brought into
the country from Madagascar by Portuguese missionaries (Ponchaud 1990:31). However, the
statue did not have long lasting impacts in Cambodian society because the missionaries soon left
the country within several decades.
Marianism was not transplanted into Cambodia until the mid-19
th
century, when
Catholicism expanded rapidly under French colonialism. In 1869, the Sisters of Providence of
Portieux arrived in Cambodia from Vietnam to serve the growing Catholic community, which
was in large part due to the sizable influx of Vietnamese Catholics since King Norodom gave
them a piece of land in Russey Keo (the present-day second largest district of Phnom Penh) four
years earlier in 1865 (Ponchaud 1990). The sisters belonged to the first religious order that
arrived in Cambodia. They brought with them their patroness, Mary Help of Christians, who
most likely shaped their religious outreach and solidified Marian piety among Vietnamese
Catholics. Although the Providence of Portieux came from in France, many Vietnamese
participated in it. From 1880 to 1925, its novitiate near the border between Vietnam and
Cambodia trained 333 sisters, all of whom were Vietnamese. It was probably also during this
period that the Legion of Mary gained momentum in Cambodia (Ponchaud 1990).

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Beginning around the 1880s, ethnic Vietnamese began worshipping Our Lady of Lourdes
in greater number and intensity. In front of the newly built Phnom Penh Cathedral, there was a
new and large French-made statue of her with an engraving of “Queen of Justice, Love, and
Peace” (Elegant 1970). The statue was near four of the largest and original ethnic Vietnamese
Catholic communities in central Phnom Penh. Moreover, ethnic Vietnamese’ devotion Our Lady
of Lourdes was probably also encouraged by the religious professionals, who saw it befitting
with the Catholic Church’s recognition of her apparition two decades earlier.
Ethnic Vietnamese further strengthened their Marian devotion with the arrival of
Carmelite sisters from Vietnam in 1919. These sisters had strong devotion to the Virgin Mary
and also worshipped her as “Our Lady of Mount Carmel.” The community grew rapidly and led
to the development of other communities in Asia (Ponchaud 1990). Thus, they were most likely
were able to build a small chapel in the Chruichangwar (Kamm 1970)
25
peninsula part of Phnom
Penh soon after their arrival.
During the 1940s and 1950s, when many foreign missionaries began to gradually return
to Europe as a result of the French defeat in the Indochina War, Vietnamese sisters of Providence
of Portieux and the Carmelite sisters continued to perpetuate Marianism on Cambodian territory.
Although they returned to Vietnam in 1959, after the diocese of Phnom Penh separated itself
from two Vietnamese provinces following the end of the Indochinese War, the Daughters of
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
25
It is sometime spelled as “Chroy Changvar.” In 1970 and 1971, this predominantly ethnic Vietnamese Catholic
area was covered by several international English-language newspapers. It was dubbed as “Village without men”
(Kamm 1970) because nearly all Vietnamese men and boys in this village and nearby ones were killed the Lon Nol
government and its soldiers. For the massacre that occurred on April 12, 1970 alone, one account (Chicago Tribune
1971) estimated that there were 3,000 thousand Vietnamese deaths, mostly men and boys. Their bodies were
dumped into the Mekong River and floated down the waterway toward Vietnam. Before the massacre, Kamm
(1970) estimated that there were 2,700 Vietnamese Catholics and 40 Khmer Buddhist families who lived here.
Williams (1970) suggests that these ethnic Vietnamese of Cambodia were popularly viewed as “Vietnamese
nationals” who should be protected by the Vietnamese government. Kamm (1970) and Williams (1970) suggest that
the killings were precipitated by ethnic hatred and the suspicion that these ethnic Vietnamese were collaborating
with communist North Vietnamese.

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Mary continued to develop Marianism in Cambodia partially through its patroness (Ponchaud
1990). The religious order was established in 1943 in the heart of the Vietnamese Catholic
community, Russey Keo, and was made up of mostly Vietnamese.
Since the first Lavang Convention in 1901 to 1961, ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia
participated in at least two out of fifteen conventions. The first time was in 1928, when the
convention first became a national event upon the opening for a new chapel. The last recorded
year of their participation was 1961, which was the most popular convention up to that time
because it coincided with the elevation of Our Lady of Lavang church to a minor basilica (Tran
2005). It is quite possible that ethnic Vietnamese from Cambodia had attended several other
preceding Lavang conventions. However, as the Our Lady of Lavang pilgrimage center began
gaining international recognition in the late 1950s, the Catholic Church in Cambodia was under-
going Khmerization during the following decade. There is a surviving statue of the Virgin Mary
depicted as a Khmer woman in Battambang. This suggests that, in Phnom Penh, the
Khmerization in the 1960s also entailed the visual transformation of Mary as a local although
there is no evidence confirming this. Because of this drastic change in religious devotion to
Mary, ethnic Vietnamese were unable to explore and integrate Our Lady of Lavang into their
faith.
During the next two decades of anti-Vietnamese nationalism, violent political
bloodsheds, and chaotic displacement, ethnic Vietnamese were restricted from opening
venerating any form of Mary. Ponchaud (1990) has claimed that the Legion of Mary was
“particularly well adapted in times of persecution of the Vietnamese mentality…allow(ing) (the)
structuring the faith for their participants” during the early 1970s, the religious movement
probably gradually became fragmented as violence intensified by competing political factions.

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For a while, ethnic Vietnamese had to flee to Vietnam, especially between 1975 and 1978 when
Cambodia was under the Pol Pot government. However, they still did not learn much about the
Our Lady of Lavang. They had limited level of interaction with local Vietnamese co-religionists
because they were mostly placed in refugee camps in remote rural areas (Tran 1979). Moreover,
the climate of war and the transition to a communist government in South Vietnam further
restricted religious life. Between 1979 and 1989, when Vietnamese communists expanded their
authority to Cambodia, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics returned to Cambodia but continued to
practice their religion underground. As a result, they did not have statues of Mary or other
religious objects.

The Return of the Cambodian Catholic Church: The Khmerization of Mary (1995-present)

Beginning in 1995, with the official recognition of Catholicism as a religion in
Cambodia, the MEP-led Catholic Church began the campaign to localize Mary as a Khmer
woman. In light of the fact that not even the United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia
was able to manage the Khmer-Vietnamese ethnic violence, the French missionaries feared that
the largely Vietnamese Catholic population would endanger the church’s new beginning.
Moreover, because the church’s foundation was centrally located in Phnom Penh, the threats of
anti-Vietnamese hostilities were much more eminent than in rural areas (Tarr 1992). As a result,
MEP was determined to carry out its Khmer inculturation program in order to assuage anti-
Vietnamese assumptions that the Catholic Church was catered to the Vietnamese.
Consequentially, under Bishop Yves-Georges-René Ramousse, who also led the
Khmerization transformations during the 1960s in Cambodia, Mary was redesigned in the form

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of a Khmer woman. She was imagined as a woman dressed in Khmer traditional clothes: a
sarong (a long skirt), a simple long-sleeve top, and a kroma (a hand-made, multi-functional
scarf) wraps around her neck. Her two hands hold a small figurine of baby Jesus. Moreover,
because her image is often carved out of the banyon tree, her skin tone is distinctively dark and
makes her stand in great contrasts to “white” European statues of the Virgin Mary. Through this
form of localization, the Catholic Church hoped that the Khmer Mary could be approachable and
effectively convey teachings of Catholicism to Khmers.
All of my Vietnamese Catholic interviewees informed me that they were shocked when
they first saw the Khmer statue of Mary. Marian piety has deep historical roots and is relatively
strong among them because they “believe” and do not have to learn to have faith in Mary,
according to Father Thai.
26
A member of a pastoral committee said, “we are used to seeing Mary
a certain way since we were young. It (the Khmer-looking Mary) hurts our eyes.” Most ethnic
Vietnamese Catholics informed me that they know “Our Lady of Peace” (Nữ Vương Hoàng
Bình). This title refers to the grand statue of Our Lady of Lourdes that was placed in front of the
Phnom Penh Cathedral during the 1880s and had an engraving of “Our Lady of Peace, Love, and
Justice.” Coincidentally, it also refers to other important sites in Vietnam – such as the Our Lady
of Peace in Saigon and Our Lady of Lavang in Vietnam, as I have discussed in previous sections
– but most ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia do not know this. A smaller number of
them also shared that they worship “the Praying Blessed Virgin Mary” (Đức Mẹ Cầu Nguyện).
This title probably refers to other lesser popular but more “generic” portrayals of Mary with her
clasped hands in prayer position. This form of Mary was probably introduced to ethnic
Vietnamese Catholics by various sister religious orders who arrived during the early years of the
MEP-led Catholic Church. I have seen several copies of this Marian statue at several Catholic
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
26
Father Thai, interview, October 20, 2010, Buddha’s Village, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

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centers and churches. It represents Mary as a European woman with her head slightly tilted down
while her hands are clasped in a prayer position. She is dressed in a long dress that is white
topped by a sky blue outer layer.
Even Father Thai, the only widely known Vietnamese priest in Cambodia who takes care
of the largest group of ethnic Vietnamese, could not convince his followers to worship the
Khmer statue of Mary and had to replace it with a “white” one.
27
Many Vietnamese Catholics
shared with me that they believe Mary was “white” and beautiful, suggesting that the dark-
skinned Khmer version of Mary was not beautiful. As one villager suggested with this complaint,
“She (the Khmerized Virgin Mary) is painted dark. I can’t see all of her facial features.” Several
said that they could not possibly stand reciting prayers in front of the Khmer Mary, while others
believed that the Virgin Mary in heaven would not receive their prayers if they prayed to her.
This partly explains why ethnic Vietnamese Catholics made concerted efforts to maintain
the original European depiction of the Virgin Mary. During the late 1990s, when Cambodia-
Vietnam borders opened up and became more porous, they invited a sculptor from Vietnam to
come to Phnom Penh to sculpt a statue of her. However, they did not keep it. As a pastoral leader
said, “We didn’t like her face and so we got rid of it.” Afterward, they decided to purchase an
“authentic” statue in Vietnam and ship it over by boat to Cambodia. In 1998, they pooled in
more than $800 to purchase a $250 statue, hire a deliveryman, and pay for the transportation.
However, the Cambodian government seized the statue before it arrived. Two years later, they
attempted to purchase the statue again with success. Not longer afterward, they purchased
another one from Vietnam.
These statues of Mary have been enclosed separately in two cement shrines located at
opposite ends of Buddha’s Village, the central meeting point for ethnic Vietnamese Catholics
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
27
Ibid.

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throughout Cambodia. Each is approximately 24 inches or 60 centimeters tall. One is of Our
Lady of Lourdes, representing Mary with her hands clasped in a praying position. There is also a
similar-sized statue of a Carmelite nun placed inside her shrine, which was influenced by the
presence of the religious order in Phnom Penh between 1919 and 1975. The other Marian statue
is of Our Lady of Grace, depicting Mary with arms spread at her sides similar to the illustration
in the Miraculous Medal.
These statues of Mary have been a focal point of faith for ethnic Vietnamese. As a
pastoral committee member illustrated, “With these (European) statues, many people believe in
Mary. They get whatever they pray for. For example, if someone was sick or we had other
problems in our religious community, we would pray together in front of Mary and our wish
would be granted. If there was anything wrong in our religious community, we would
immediately have a procession for Mary right away and the problem would be resolved right
away.” Whereas the church is only opened during prayer services and on Sundays during mass
hours, Mary is always available to the villagers because her shrines never close. As a man
illustrated this point, “Whenever I am tired, I can just go to visit Mary and ask her to give me
health and strength so that I could be a good servant until my last breathe. I have come to know
her power very well.”
On a daily basis, Vietnamese Catholics may stop by the Marian shrines to recite a prayer,
light incense sticks, or meet close friends. The Virgin Mary’s central place in community life is
further attested by the fact that villagers often decorate it with elaborate ornamentations,
changing them according to the cycle of the liturgical seasons. On important religious holidays,
especially the Feast of the Assumption and Christmas, there is usually a 30-minute procession to
the shrines and around the village before mass service.

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As Marianism becomes revived and thrive once again in Cambodia, ethnic Vietnamese
Catholics have continued to be disengaged from Our Lady of Lavang, which became the
patroness of Vietnam and a unifying symbol for Vietnamese Catholics throughout the world by
1998. Several of them have heard of Our Lady of Lavang from words of mouth, tourists from
Vietnam, and informal networks. They have also seen a photo of her and a DVD on the Lavang
Convention. Nevertheless, the majority of ethnic Vietnamese Catholics does not know about this
Vietnamized Mary. Instead of Our Lady of Lavang, these ethnic Vietnamese Catholics have to
choose between Mary as “white” (European representation) or “dark” (Khmer representation).
These are the only two options that they have within the context of anti-Vietnamese hostilities in
Cambodian society, which in turn has been internalized by the Catholic Church’s anti-
Vietnamese Khmerization programs.
The experiences of ethnic marginalization have forced ethnic Vietnamese to prove their
authentic belonging within the contemporary church’s French-led Khmerization programs.
Consequentially, they have entailed embracing only European forms of Mary. They have
asserted that these are the “true” representations that have been passed down through many
generations by their ancestors. In doing so, the European statue lays evidence to their đạo dong
(kin religion, in reference to the filial transmission of Catholicism) and claim of quê hương
(homeland) toward Cambodia.
28
Moreover, the European Mary is a reminder of their belonging
to a universal Catholic community that is beyond Cambodia. This is a source of inspiration that
gives them hope and a sense of religious legitimacy despite decades of isolation from Catholics
outside of the country.
Simultaneously, while they idolize the European-looking Mary and reject her Khmer
depiction, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics have also disdained the depiction of their own ethnicity
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
28
Tarr (1992) has similarly observed that many ethnic Vietnamese refer to Cambodia as their homeland.

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and culture by her. Father Thai’s comment has illustrated this: “They (ethnic Vietnamese
Catholics) do not like Mary wearing the traditional Vietnamese dress. We are educated so we
appreciate her like that. However, for them, they only like her dressed in that (European dress) as
she has always been depicted like that. If her nose were to be flatter, they would immediately not
worship her….Our Lady of Lourdes is much superior (efficaciously). Why would they need Our
Lady of Lavang dressed in a Vietnamese traditional costume?”
29

Vietnamese in Cambodia have tried to demonstrate their close affiliation with the Church
through their affinity for a non-Asian Mary. As I have discussed earlier, they have been the
important foundation of the church since its arrival -- in terms of number, lay participation, and
religious devotion. However, Vietnamese have not been fully accepted by the ecclesiastical
hierarchy since its return to Cambodia during the early 1990s. Instead, they have been rejected in
many ways by the Church’s policies of anti-Vietnamese Khmerization program. Unlike co-
religionists in the U.S. who could freely organize and mobilize their concerns because of their
rights as citizens, Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia are stateless and depend on the local
church hierarchy for legal protection. Consequentially, they are much less able to contest their
ethnic marginalization and have to constantly prove their belonging within the Church.

Our Lady of the Mekong River: The Spiritual Mother of Vietnamese Catholics in Village
Sa
30
(2008-Present)

Since 2008, Vietnamese have been challenging the Catholic Church’s Khmerization
program and exposing its limits through a third form of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On April 11 of
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
29
Father Thai, interview, October 20, 2010, Buddha’s Village, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
30
This pseudonym does not have any meaning.

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this year, a group of Cham-origin Muslim and Khmer fishermen from a village named Village
Sa
31
in Phnom Penh lifted a 130 kilogram, 1.5 meter tall statue of Our Lady of Lourdes from the
Mekong River, which flows through both Cambodia and Vietnam and Khmer and Vietnamese
alike have had a long history of sharing resources from this river (Jordens 1996). They
immediately recognized the object as a Catholic figurine and gave it to Vietnamese Catholics in
the village. This is the same statue that was placed in front of the Phnom Penh Cathedral before
it disappeared during the Pol Pot era (1975-1978). Like many other religious objects, it was most
likely dumped into the Mekong River by Khmer Rouge soldiers.
Within days after the statue was lifted from the river, hundreds of people flocked to
Village Sa in order to venerate her. Vietnamese villagers informed me that large crowds kept on
arriving for several weeks. The pilgrims prayed throughout the day and into the night. Although
there were some cases of disapproval of the veneration, including a foreign Protestant priest,
people in general were awed by the statue.
32
As a result of the generosity of benefactors and
visitors throughout Cambodia and from other countries, Vietnamese Catholics were able to
collect $22,000 to build a shrine for the statue in around 2009.
33
The sacred site includes an
artificial 8.1-meter high mountain located next to the village’s church.
The shrine’s natural scenic surroundings (plants, trees, and stones) allude to the popular
devotional sites of Our Lady of Lourdes and “magical” mother goddesses in Vietnam that Khmer
worship, such as the Black Lady and Lady of the Realm (Taylor 2004 and 2010). It is precisely
at this juncture of multiplicities that Our Lady of the Mekong River has brought together ethnic
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
31
It is very close to Chroy Changvar (also spelled as Chruichangwar), a peninsula in central Phnom Penh that used
to be the home of one of the three early Vietnamese Catholic parishes (“Xom Bien”) established in the 1860s with
land given to Vietnamese Catholics by King Sihanouk. The peninsula is across from St. Joseph seminary (which has
been functioning as St. Joseph Parish since the church returned in the 1990s). During the 1970s, the massacres of
nearly all Vietnamese men and boy on Chroy Changvar forced surviving Vietnamese to flee and move to nearby
areas, including what later developed into “Village Sa” (a pseudonym).
32
Father Tuan, interview, May 9, 2010, village church, near the border with Vietnam, Cambodia.
33
Mr. Ro, interview, February 28, 2011, private residence, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

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Vietnamese Catholics and predominantly Buddhist Khmers, each with different motivations and
interpretations of her with respect to their own faith. And, yet, at the same time, they have
chosen to not hypervisibilize these distinctions but to show their connections. They do not refer
to her as “Our Lady of Lourdes” or a mother goddess that ethnic Vietnamese Catholics do not
venerate. Instead, ethnic Vietnamese and Khmers have decided to call her “Mother of the
Mekong River” or “Our Lady of the Mekong River.”
In Khmer, “Mekong” literally means “mother water” or “mother of rivers” to reference
the waterway’s grand size” (Nguyen 1999), and this meaning can loosely translate “Our Lady of
the Mekong River” as “Mother of the Great River.” As a central and nutrient-rich waterway that
gave birth to the rise of civilization life in areas surrounding it, the Mekong River constantly
brought Vietnamese and Khmers into contact with each other (Taylor 2010). In 1866, when King
Sihanouk moved the royal capital from Angkor (near Siem Reap) to Phnom Penh, he invited the
Vietnamese to the city and gave them land,
34
thus further encouraging inter-ethnic exchanges.
However, the inter-ethnic co-existence was ravaged by decades of war during the 20
th

century. Vietnamese Catholics were among the primary victims of waves of Khmer nationalism
that sought to search for a golden past after the French ended its rule in 1954. During the 1970s,
thousands of Vietnamese Catholics, especially men and boys, were killed in the middle of the
night and then their bodies were thrown into the Mekong River, floating down from Phnom Penh
and toward Vietnam (Williams 1970; Chicago Tribune 1971; Kamm 1970). Unlike Vietnamese
of other religious groups, they were easy targets because they concentrated in Catholic enclaves.
The Mekong River also harbored Khmer people’s traumatic past. From 1975 to 1978, the Pol Pot
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
34
Including an area that later developed into four original Vietnamese Catholic enclaves (Ponchaud 1990).

Chapter 2 “Mary, Our Vietnamese Beloved Mother” NINH

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regime systematically annihilated all signs of civilization, and, from religious artifacts to books
and artworks, the river was its dumping ground.
35

Today, the Mekong River continues to conjure this traumatic past as American
explosives and munitions continue to be found at the bottom of the waterway and endanger the
lives of Vietnamese and Khmer alike (Hruby 2013). Within the atmosphere of anti-Vietnamese
hostilities, which have been further internalized by the Catholic Church, ethnic Vietnamese
Catholics have not been able to openly appease the spirits of their ancestors. As for Khmers, they
have been drawn into an international tribunal that does not seek to heal and reconcile their past.
Instead, it has become a playground for international powers to deploy
their Judeo-Christian Western-centric conceptualizations of human
rights, individual guilt, and justice (Fitzpatrick 2012). In a Theravada
Buddhist majority nation such as Cambodia, these ideas contradict with
beliefs in karma and reincarnation, which do not conceptualize the
human person as isolated and finite but continuously connected to
his/her surroundings and previous and next life. Among both ethnic
Vietnamese and Khmers, their pain has been further exacerbated by the
growing economic disparities. They have been displaced and forced to remain across
the river, away from the wealth looming around the high rises, casino, and foreign brand name
stores.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
35

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The “resurrection” of Our Lady of the Mekong River, lifted from the bottom of the river
after decades of neglect, is a glim of hope amidst these merciless moments. She has brought
them together and revealed their own strength in peaceful and loving co-existence as her
children. As has been noted in a tourist pamphlet about Our Lady of the Mekong River made by
ethnic Vietnamese Catholics, who have become the rightful protector of the statue: “We only
know that the Holy Mother really loves her children. She wants to be by their sides to care,
console, and bless each and everyone who has come to her. Her hands are always clasped in the
form that Cambodians would make when praying. Her eyes are always looking up toward the
sky whether she is praying or blessing her children. She never refuses to listen to anyone who
has come to ask for her blessings.” At the bottom of her feet, there is a large engraving of her
name in Khmer and Vietnamese letters.
Such inter-ethnic co-existence is oppositional to and prohibited by the Catholic Church’s
anti-Vietnamese Khmerization policies. This is evidently reflected in a publication written by
one of its leaders, an MEP French priest who served in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge
regime and returned to the country to continue his practice during the 1990s: “As soon as Khmer
people feel that the Vietnamese are too numerous in their church, they desert it. The Vietnamese,
on the other hand, assert themselves. Co-existence is thus a constant concern and there is always
the danger of explosion into open conflict even within the tiny community that is the church.
Everything must be done to prevent Khmer people from feeling estranged within the Church of
their own country” (Ponchaud 2006:30, emphasis added). He certainly expresses a sense of
sympathy for the minority Khmer population within the church, but he also blames the
Vietnamese majority for creating havoc for the church and, ultimately, causing its own
decimation in the 1970s.

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On the contrary, through Our Lady of the Mekong River, ethnic Vietnamese has
illustrated that they are the essential key element for the Catholic Church to achieve its primary
goal through Khmerization: the conversion of Khmers into the religion. By advocating and
facilitating inter-ethnic coexistence through Our Lady of the Mekong River, ethnic Vietnamese
Catholics have been more successful in bringing Khmers to the religion than the church’s
Khmer-looking Mary. In fact, more Khmers have been venerating her than Catholics who
“already believe in her,” as in the words of one ethnic Vietnamese Catholics. Because of this
success, the MEP French bishop of the Vicariate Apostolic of Phnom Penh has not been able to
carry out the Church’s anti-Vietnamese agenda and remove the Khmer/Vietnamese signs Our
Lady of the Mekong River’s shrine. Not only Vietnamese but also Khmers have embraced her
without questioning her association with “Vietnamese-ness.”
Furthermore, contrary to the Church’s assumption, Khmers have helped ethnic
Vietnamese Catholics to become reconnected to co-religionists in other countries by elevating
her popularity. Through informal networks and word-of-mouth, knowledge about Our Lady of
the Mekong River has travelled across national borders. This has in turn developed into symbolic
and material ties between ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia and co-religionists outside
of the country. For example, members of the Pastoral Committee of Village Sa informed me that,
because of Our Lady of Mekong River, they have received monetary donations from Vietnamese
Catholics in distant countries such as the U.S., France, and Australia. A number of international
non-profit organizations and humanitarian associations, including the San Francisco.-based and
Vietnamese-led Franciscan Charity and Maryknoll, have channeled their works through Village
Sa partially because the Marian shrine has become a locus of community building. In return for
the financial support, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics have prayed for their donors to Our Lady of

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99
the Mekong River. Without Our Lady of the Mekong River, ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia
would not be able to connect so meaningfully with others around the globe. As an economically
deprived community, they do not have access to modern forms of communication, such as the
Internet and phones. However, the transnational connections opened up through the discovery
and veneration of Our Lady of the Mekong River have heightened their sense of belonging to a
borderless Vietnamese Catholic community while cultivating relations with local Khmers.
Our Lady of the Mekong River shrine has become a major pilgrim center in central
Phnom Penh, attracting visitors from all over the world. According to the tourist pamphlet
created by Vietnamese Catholics in the village: “The Holy Mother has blessed many pilgrims
and their families, especially treating their illnesses, giving fortunes to them in their economic
endeavors, and bringing peace and happiness into their family and personal life, and many
more.” Each year on April 16
th
, Vietnamese Catholics and people across religious affiliations and
ethnicities have congregated at the shrine to commemorate the day when Our Lady of the
Mekong River was lifted from the water. Among the regular visitors have included those from
the Can Tho province in Vietnam, which has a large Cambodia-born ethnic Vietnamese
population largely due to its historically close affiliation with the Catholic Church in Cambodia
and role as a refugee camp during the 1970s (Diocese of Can Tho 2013). Vietnamese Catholic
pilgrims have also come from the U.S., Australia and Canada. Just as the Our Lady of the
Mekong River has been resurrected to life from the bottom of the river, ethnic Vietnamese
Catholics too are rebuilding their local community and transnational ties to ethnic co-religionists.
It precisely at this space of border crossings in which Our Lady of the Mekong River and Our
Lady of Lavang, despite their tangential developments, have come to re-connect Vietnamese
Catholics in Cambodia and the U.S.

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CONCLUSION

By employing different forms of Mary (Our Lady of Vietnam, Our Lady of Lavang, and
Our Lady of the Mekong River), ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. and Cambodia have
aimed to reconcile with their long history of religious persecution. An important part of this
process has involved countering nation-state projects of “ethnic management,” which have been
internalized within local church hierarchies. Whether it is through multiculturalism in the U.S. or
anti-Vietnamese ethnic cleansing in Cambodia, these models have misconstrued and concealed
their past and, consequentially, ruptured their relationships with each other across borders.
Marianism has been critical for ethnic Vietnamese to counter these forms of nation-state
sponsored historical erasure. It represents “acts of anamnesis against historical and an on-going
erasure of Vietnamese ….distinct presence by forced forgetting” within nation-state paradigms
of ethnic belonging (Nguyen-Vo 2005:169). Within American multiculturalism, Vietnamese
Catholics have depicted Mary in their ethnic image in order to re-create ties with the homeland
and co-religionists throughout the world. In contrast, in the context of the anti-Vietnamese
antagonism in Cambodia, Vietnamese Catholics cannot worship a Vietnamese form of the
Blessed Virgin. Instead, many worship an oxidized statue of a European-looking Mary that helps
them to navigate complex and contentious inter-ethnic relations. As studies of Vietnamese
female veneration have similarly found (Taylor 2004; Pham and Eipper 2009; Fjelstad and
Nguyen 2006; Endres 2012), these “ethnic” forms of the Virgin Mary are not simply responses to
the commands of traditions but the demands of day-to-day struggles.

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Through Marianism, ethnic Vietnamese have been able to facilitate bonds of affinity and
obligation between the U.S. and Cambodia. Although most of them do not know each nor have
they met each other, they feel a sense of ethical responsibility to their co-ethnics’ well-being in
other host countries. This is evidenced by their concerted efforts to circulate money, material,
and spiritual support between Cambodia and the U.S. Through these cross-border exchanges,
Vietnamese Catholics have re-situated religion within their experiences of exile, disrupting
national boundaries and ethnic order.

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102
CHATER 3

FOLLOWING GOD AND ANCESTORS:
Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia and Their Relationships with Co-religionists in the U.S.

Ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia have been structurally restricted from
establishing cross-border ties with ethnic co-religionists in the U.S. due to the precarious legal
status of their ethnic and religious identities. They have been living in Cambodia for more than
three centuries and have been the foundation of the Catholic Church. However, since the political
turmoil following the end of French colonialism in 1954, their ethnicity and religion have
become targets of political attacks. During the 1970s, Khmer nationalism movement exploded on
the grounds of anti-Vietnamese hostilities. This was most notable under the violent Khmer
Rouge regime between 1975 and 1978, which exterminated all forms of religious life and
systematically killed Vietnamese. Thereafter, under the communist Vietnamese occupation
(1979-1988), ethnic Vietnamese Catholics were able to gradually return to Cambodia. Their
ethnicity but not religion was tolerated. However, since the withdrawal of Vietnamese troops in
1979, their ethnicity has once again re-emerged as a scapegoat of Cambodian nation building
(Jordens 1996). Meanwhile, their religion has become a legal protected category under
Cambodia’s democratic constitution. They could practice their faith freely as long as they
conceal their ethnicity. Within this anti-Vietnamese political context, the Catholic Church has
returned to Cambodia with the motivation to purge itself of ties to Vietnamese people, culture,
language, and history.
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As a result, despite being part of a global church, this chapter argues Vietnamese
Catholics in Cambodia have been structurally, politically, and socially marginalized from
Vietnamese co-religionists in the U.S. Beginning in 2004, they have been able to engage in
cross-border ties only because of the initiation and efforts of the latter group. In response to a
Dateline show about young Vietnamese girls working in brothels in Cambodia, two prominent
Vietnamese American Catholic groups spread their humanitarian efforts in Vietnam to
Cambodia: San Francisco-based Franciscan Charity and San Jose-based De La Salle (DLS)
Brothers of Lasan Vietnam Overseas. They represented themselves as non-governmental
organizations with the mission of helping the poor, regardless of their ethnicity and religion.
Nevertheless, their primary recipients have been Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia.

ETHNIC VIETNAMESE CATHOLICS IN CAMBODIA

Religious Transplantation and Growth (Pre-1979 History)

Early Vietnamese Catholic Communities in Cambodia (17
th
Century-1953)

Although the first European Jesuit visited Cambodia in 1554, Catholicism did not have
lasting results until 1665, after the first arrival of a MEP (Missions Étrangères de Paris) priest
who was surveying the territory as a potential missionary site. By this time, there were already
about 50 Vietnamese Catholics who had been living in the country (Ponchaud 1990:72). They
were most likely in Cambodia to escape from religious persecutions at the hands of the Hue
imperial court in central Vietnam, which was responsible for the deaths of forty martyrs who
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were later posthumously canonized. Within the next two centuries, MEP continued its work in
Cambodia, focusing mainly on working with Vietnamese people. By 18
th
century, missionaries
had established themselves in Cambodia. Although religious books were translated into in
Khmer, they were not widely used and most French missionaries spoke Vietnamese but not
Khmer (Ponchaud 1990).
The missionary’s focus on converting Vietnamese in Cambodia was largely attributed to
institutional support from Vietnam. In 1659, under the Vatican’s 1622 Roman Congregation for
the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide) that aimed to regain control of overseas missions
from the Iberian crowns by transforming Jesuit missions into apostolic vicariates (Cooke 2008),
MEP was formed and led by French priests. One of its first sites of conversion was in today’s
southern Vietnamese, where the priests quickly established the Vicariate Apostolic of Conchin.
Distant from the anti-Catholic imperial court in Hue, MEP was successful in converting local
Vietnamese and, to a lesser extent, ethnic Khmer without support from the French colonial
government, which did not have full control of Vietnam and Cambodia until two centuries later.
Gradually, the Vicariate Apostolic of Cochin’s outreach extended and followed Vietnamese
Catholics who were living in neighboring Cambodia because of commercial opportunities or
religious persecution in central Vietnam.
Despite the threats of religious persecution by the Vietnamese imperial court in central
Vietnam during the 1830s and 1840s, Catholic life in South Vietnam steadily became vibrant due
to generous overseas funding from France. The growth prompted the Vicariate Apostolic of
Cochin to be subdivided into the eastern (Qui Nhon) and western (Saigon) parts in 1844
(Ramsay 2004). The whole of Cambodia, the southern parts of Laos, and six central Vietnamese
provinces belonged to the latter. They constituted approximately 23,000 faithful, three
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missionaries, and sixteen Vietnamese priests (Phan 2006). In 1942, four churches of Vietnam
and approximately 200 faithful (nearly all of whom were Vietnamese) in Cambodia became
formally attached to the Vicariate Apostolic of Cochin (Ponchaud 1990).
By the 1850s, the Vicariate Apostolic of Cambodia was carved from the Vicariate
Apostolic of Western Cochin in order to strengthen its local base (Phan 2006). However, despite
the re-organization to mark its structural transplantation on Cambodian soil — which also
included eight Vietnamese provinces that later became part of Vietnam’s Catholic Church
beginning in 1955 — the church’s followers remained distinctively Vietnamese. While Khmer
people did not convert into Catholicism in significant numbers because of loyalty to Theravada
Buddhism, the proportion and number of Vietnamese Catholics continued to grow due to harsh
anti-Catholic edicts in central Vietnam, spill-over Catholic population in southern Vietnam, and
commercial opportunities in Cambodia (Keith 2012; Ramsay 2004; Ponchaud 1990:72). As a
result of the population influx into Cambodia, Vietnamese Catholics constituted between seven
and eight percent of all Vietnamese in Cambodia by this time, in comparison to one percent of
Catholics among all Vietnamese in Conchinchina (Ramsay 2004:313; Ponchaud 1990:75).
However, among the 600 Catholics in Cambodia, Vietnamese expatriates and Cambodians of
Vietnamese origin constituted the largest percentage.
By time the French conquered Cochinchina in 1862 and established a protectorate over
Cambodia in 1863, Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia had already formed ethnic enclaves and
established local parishes. With land given by Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk when he
moved the capital from Angkor (near present-day Siem Reap) to Phnom Penh in 1867, they
established three Vietnamese
1
parishes along the Mekong River: 1) “Hoaland”
2
in Russey Keo,

1
To be precise, they were Annamites (Edwards 1990:56).
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the headquarter of the Vietnamese community in Phnom Penh; 2) “Banam”
3
in Prey-Veng
District, near the border with Vietnam; and 3) “Xom Bien”
4
on the peninsula of Chroy Changvar
in Phnom Penh. By the 1870s and early 1880s, distinct Vietnamese communities had developed
around these parishes (Ponchaud 1990:74).
5
These parishes gradually extended their leadership
to annex other Catholic Cambodian communities in Phnom Penh, Battambang, and Moat
Karases (Ponchaud 1990:74).
For a while at the end of the 19
th
century and at the turn of the 20
th
century, the Catholic
Church under MEP showed some concerns that the ethnic dominance of Vietnamese within the
church "impeded [their] mission with the Khmers" (Ponchaud 1990:77). This was partly because
of the Cambodian anti-French insurgence that killed many Vietnamese Catholics in 1885
(Ponchaud 1990:75). As a result, two provinces under Cambodia’s Catholic Church were
detached and re-attached to the church in Vietnam. However, this detachment was more
symbolic than realistic because the Vicariate Apostolic of Cambodia still had eight other
Vietnamese provinces and Vietnamese Catholics continued to dominate in number. In 1914,
there were 32,500 Vietnamese Catholics of the total 36,000 Catholics in Cambodia. They also
made up a significant number within the vocation, which was often greater or equal to the
number of foreign missionaries (Ponchaud 1990). Because of their large representation, the life
of the Catholic Church depended on Vietnamese followers.

2
Present-day Svay Pak Vietnamese Catholic enclave. It is also known as “Kilometer 11” in Vietnamese because it is
11 kilometers north of the Phnom Penh city center. It is within the Pastoral Center of Phnom Penh. The Russey Keo
area was also the home of the Phnom Penh Cathedral (completed around 1880s, the same time as its twin cathedral
in Saigon). The area was home to many “religious persuasions,” as there were also many pagodas (Edwards
2003:56). It quickly developed into a large multi-ethnic commercial center since the 1860s (Edwards 2003:56).
3
Near present-day Somrong Thom parish, within Father Thai’s Pastoral Center of Champa. This is approximately
where the 1970s massacres of mostly Vietnamese men and boys from Chroy Changvar (Chruichangwar) were
carried out by the Lon Nol government. Their bodies were then thrown into the Mekong River and floated
southward toward Vietnam (Kamm 1970; Chicago Tribune 1971; Williams 1970).
4
This community is no longer in existent. During the 1970s , the massacres of nearly all Vietnamese men and boy
on Chroy Changvar (Chruichangwar) forced surviving Vietnamese to flee and move to nearby areas, including what
later developed into Village Sa (Kamm 1970; Chicago Tribune 1971; Williams 1970).
5
These parishes correspond closely to present-day parishes named “Kilometer 11,” “Neak Loeang,” and “Hai Cat.”
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The End of Colonialism and the Beginning of Khmerization (1954-1960s)

In 1954, at the end of French colonialism, the Catholic Church in Cambodia was further
re-structured to separate itself from Vietnam. In 1955, the church separated itself from eight
Vietnamese provinces, thus losing about 84,000 or two thirds of its faithful and a little less than
one half of its Vietnamese priests (Ponchaud 1990:105; Diocese of Orange 2013). In 1957, the
newly built Cathedral of PP was completed and coincided with the ordination of the first Khmer
priest was ordained (105b). In 1968, two new apostolic prefectures were created: Battambang
and Kompong-Cham.
The Vatican II religious interpretations of 1962 further deepened the roots of the Catholic
Church in Cambodia. Under the leadership of Bishop Yves-Georges-René Ramousse, the
Catholic Church in Cambodia integrated Khmer culture into religious practices and beliefs in
order to expand the outreach of the faith to Cambodians (Ponchaud 1990). In 1964, the liturgy
was completely translated from Latin into Khmer. Separate masses were conducted for
Vietnamese and Khmer languages. As a result of these accommodations to Khmer culture,
Vietnamese Catholics became gradually marginalized in the post-Vatican II Cambodian church
although they constituted a significantly much greater following and were more involved in
religious life than Khmer Catholics (Ponchaud 1990).

Expulsion to Vietnam by the Lon Nol Government (1970-1975)

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The early 1970s was characterized by heightened anti-Vietnamese Khmer nationalism
although, as a signatory of the 1951 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide, Cambodia had “an obligation under international law to protect ethnic, Vietnamese
residing in Cambodia” (Moore 1971:125). The Lon Nol government (1970-1975) crippled the
church by expelling 2/3 of its Catholic population who were Vietnamese. Based on interviews,
many ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia fled as a group with other members of their parishes and
under the leadership of their priests or other religious professionals. In May 1970, as many as
10,000 of them congregated on the grounds of the Phnom Penh Cathedral in Russey Keo (The
Lewiston Daily Sun 1970). Sts. Peter and Paul Church was another meeting point in the city.
From there, they escaped Cambodia together.
In Vietnam, most ethnic Vietnamese resettled in camps located in rural areas along the
Mekong Delta
6
(The Lewiston Daily Sun 1970) or close to the border with Cambodia
7
(U.S.
Senator Edward Kennedy Staff Report 1970). A small number were also placed in further inland
areas in Lam Dong, My Tho and Vung Tau (U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy Staff Report 1970).
In general, they were in rural villages distant from local Vietnamese Catholics who had either
been living in South Vietnam or had moved there after it was separated from North Vietnam in
1954. The government of South Vietnam claimed that it had re-integrated these ethnic
Vietnamese into their society (Vietnam Embassy in Washington, D.C. 1970a and 1970b).
However, the U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy accused the Republic of Vietnam of “trying to
‘solve’ the refugee problem by refusing to admit that it exists” (U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy
Staff Report 1970:5). The conditions of the camps were not suitable to live and ethnic
Vietnamese were not given employment opportunities to rebuild their lives. This is partly why,

6
e.g. My Tho, Can Tho, Sa Dec, Vinh Long, and Long Xuyen
7
e.g. Tay Ninh and Chau Doc
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during the 1980s, many ethnic Vietnamese decided to return to Cambodia before they had the
chance to establish lasting relations with local co-religionists.
The Catholic Church’ activities were certainly affected by the drastic drop in the number
of Catholics as a result of the Vietnamese flight to Vietnam. However, structurally, it was not
targeted by the U.S.-supported Lon Nol’s military junta. It was able to even welcome Caritas
Internationalis in 1970 to help victims of wars. A small number of Vietnamese clergy remained
in Cambodia and served the church in secret, speaking Khmer and blending in with the Khmer
population.

Ethnic and Religious Purification under the Khmer Rouge (1975-1978)

After the collapse of the military junta under Lon Nol, the rise of power of the communist
Khmer Rouge regime between April 17, 1975 until the end of 1978 made life worse for the
remaining 150,000 Vietnamese and the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was nearly
exterminated. It lost many of its religious professionals, including a Cambodian priest, and
approximately 2/3 of its population died in forced labor camps (Ponchaud 2006:73-74). All
Church assets were either confiscated, destroyed, or dumped into the Mekong River. Only two
church buildings in Phnom Penh had survived: the original house of the Providence of Portieux
and St. Joseph’s seminary, which was converted into a military base for the Khmer Rouge.
8
All
religious clergy and Catholics who remained behind were captured, tortured, and executed.
Among the Catholics who were killed included the first ethnic Khmer bishop, Joseph Chhmar

8
Sister Mary of Providence of Portieux, interview, June 7, 2010, Child Jesus Church,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Father Vincent of Pontifical Foreign Missions Institute, interview,
August 10, 2010, Child Jesus Church, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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Salas, who was ordained coadjutor bishop for the Vicariate Apostolic of Phnom Penh two days
before the Khmer Rouge took control.
In particular, the Khmer Rouge targeted ethnic Vietnamese. Motivated largely by the
fears of genocide under the hands of the Vietnamese, the Khmer Rouge instigated violent and
targeted attacks that either killed or expelled all ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia (Chanda 1986,
cited in Kiernan 2011:586).

As under during the repatriation program under the Lon Nol
government, they either fled individually or as a group under leadership of a priest or nun. All
Vietnamese-dominated religious orders, including Daughters of Mary, also returned to Vietnam
during this time (Ponchaud 1990). As they were arriving by foot and boats crossing south
Vietnam’s western border, local co-religionists were fleeing by planes and boats in the country’s
eastern coast in order to escape from the 1975 newly installed Vietnamese government. Thus,
these two refugee communities never formed lasting ties until three decades later.

“Buddha’s Village”
9
: The Return of Vietnamese Catholics (1980-1987)

Early Religious Revitalization at Buddha’s Village

During the early 1980s, before the 1984 accord between Vietnam and Cambodia that
facilitated the migration of Vietnamese to the latter, a small number of ethnic Vietnamese
Catholics had already began returning to their villages. They formed the largest gathering
centered in Buddha’s Village, located next to the Mekong River about 18 kilometers south of the
Silver Pagoda in central Phnom Penh. Its name referenced the Khmer Theravada Buddhist

9
I’m using “Buddha’s Village” to cover and protect the identity of this village. Similar to this pseudonym, its
commonly used name alludes to Theravada Buddhism and a temple although the village is a distinctively
Vietnamese Catholic community.
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temple that is located immediately in front of its compound. Before the 1970s, Buddha’s Village
was a small ethnic Vietnamese Catholic enclave in comparison to other ones centrally located in
the city, especially the three original parishes established during the 1860s and one was near the
Phnom Penh Cathedral. Because of its small size, Buddha’s Village was not targeted by anti-
Vietnamese massacres during the 1970s. It became a relatively safe temporary haven for ethnic
Vietnamese Catholics fleeing from the city.
When they returned to Buddha’s Village in the 1980s, they had to practice their faith
secretly. During these dark years, the new Vietnamese communist-backed Cambodian
government suppressed all forms of religious practices and prohibited the reconstruction of
religious sites. The only exception was during the occasion of Christmas in 1983.
10
Despite its
complete destruction, the empty land where the cathedral once stood became the location of a
multi-faith Christmas celebration in 1979, the year the Khmer Rouge's regime was overthrown.
Vietnamese Catholics built a nativity scene following the request of their sole benefactor, Aunt
Three, a “good-hearted” non-Catholic ethnic Vietnamese woman living in central Phnom Penh
who was sympathetic to their well being.
11
“It was a simple nativity scene made out of leaves
and had one photo of Jesus,” a member of the Buddha’s Village pastoral committee shared.
Approximately 20 ethnic Vietnamese families informally congregated in Buddha’s Village for
Christmas prayers in the open air. They continued to pray around this nativity scene until it fell
apart a year later.

10
In 1979, upon the fall the overthrow of the Pol Pol government, a newspaper article reported that Vietnamese
troops celebrated a multi-faith “Christmas celebration” at the site of where the Phnom Penh Cathedral once stood
(Australian Associated Press 1979). As the Vietnamese were controlled by communists, which were very repressive
toward religions during the 1970s, the event was most likely not religious in nature and was a celebration of the fall
of the Khmer Rouge regime.
11
Buddha’s Village Pastoral Committee, interview, December 26, 2010, Buddha’s Village
Church, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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Immediately following the 1984 accord, the Cambodian government allotted the land in
Buddha’s Village to 47 ethnic Vietnamese Catholic families and approximately 10 Khmer
families. Each family was allocated a plot that measured 12 meters wide and 80 meters long. The
head of the household received an official document verifying the ownership.
According to members of the pastoral committee at Buddha’s Village, they were the only
Vietnamese Catholic community allowed to own land. The received this “special” treatment
because they fought against Pol Pot soldiers who attempted to enter their village. Moreover, they
earned trust from the Cambodian government after helping it find a Vietnamese man who had
robbed a bank in Phnom Penh. Other smaller ethnic Vietnamese enclaves usually had to rent
their land since they were not legally permitted to land ownership. The only way in which they
could purchase land was through the assistance of a Cambodian citizen.
12

The Beginning of Religious Re-Institutionalization

With paper documentation of land ownership, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in Buddha’s
Village slowly re-institutionalized religious life to accommodate the slowly growing community.
In 1984, with financial support from Aunt Three and Vietnamese Catholics throughout
Cambodia, they built a school that was also covertly being used as a religious center. Because the
Cambodian government permitted the construction of centers for educational purposes, the
school did not draw suspicion from officials. This was followed by three more schools built at
smaller Vietnamese enclaves between 1984 and 1985; one was very close to Buddha’s Village
while the other two were close to the border with Vietnam. During the day, the schools held

12
Beginning in 1997, when Catholicism became an officially-recognized religion, they could also live on or around
the Catholic Church’s property. With the legal recognition, the Church could purchase land and property.
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Vietnamese language and Eucharist classes for children and teenagers taught by village
residents. There were no Khmer language classes because the villagers were not proficient in
reading and writing Khmer and they could not afford to hire a Khmer teacher. In the evenings
and during the weekends, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics throughout Cambodia gathered for
prayers.
As a result of the school, many more ethnic Vietnamese Catholics throughout Cambodia
heard more about Buddha’s Village. This attracted the arrival of religious leaders who became
instrumental in helping the ethnic Catholic community grow and become more institutionalized.
In 1986, a Vietnamese sister from the congregation of the Providence arrived at the village
(Father Thai 2010; Ponchaud 2003). She was informally known as “Sister Five.” Like other
villagers, she was originally from Cambodia and had fled to Vietnam during the Pol Pot years.
An ethnic Vietnamese Catholic couple hosted her in their home until she revealed her religious
vocation in order to request a private residence. The faithful kindly responded to her request and
built a humble home for her. She played a leading role in organizing and managing the
Vietnamese and Eucharist classes. Later during the same year, Father Thai arrived from My Tho
in southern Vietnam (Father Thai 2010). However, no one except Sister Five knew of his
identity as a priest because he never wore his religious black robe. He came from Can Tho and,
during the 1980s, crossed into Cambodia in order to head toward the refugee camps in Thailand.
However, after failing twice that put his life on the line, he became “trapped” in Cambodia. He
could not return to Vietnam for fear of being persecuted by its communist government.
Thus, while under the Vietnamese occupation until 1988, Vietnamese Catholics were
unable to freely practice their faith and were isolated from co-religionists in Vietnam and in
other countries. However, inter-ethnic relations improved partly because of diplomatic relations
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114
between the Vietnamese authority and the Cambodian government. There was clearly tolerance
toward inter-ethnic differences but not religion. This drastically changed beginning in 1989,
when tolerance was shifted to religion and away from ethnicity.

Anti-Vietnamese Ethnic Cleansing in the Shadow of Religious Freedom (1989-Present)

The Return of Cambodia’s Catholic Church

Paradoxically, while Cambodia was becoming more hostile toward Vietnamese during
the early 1990s, it was also becoming more tolerant toward Catholicism and other religions
beginning in the late 1980s. This was a part of the country’s plans to gradually transition out of
the control of Vietnamese authorities. Vietnam, for its part, had also declared its intention to
withdraw its troops from by 1990 in order rebuild ties with the international community,
especially its former enemy, the U.S.
In 1989, in response to Cambodia’s invitations a year earlier, Father Thomas Dunleavy
(U.S.-based Maryknoll) and the former bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom Penh, Mgr
Yves Ramousse (MEP), arrived in Phnom Penh on a humanitarian basis (Father Dunleavy 2012;
Ponchaud 2003:15). Along with other NGO personnel, they were housed in the run-down
Monoram Hotel with close surveillance of Cambodian policemen. As a volunteer, they had
limited rights but could still carry about sacramental duties during the weekends. In 1990, French
MEP missionary Emile Destombes returned to Cambodia since his expulsion by the Khmer
Rouge regime. Several months after his arrival, upon the occasions of Easter and the Khmer New
Year, Father Destombes was allowed to hold the first public mass since 1975. This was
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115
immediately after Cambodia loosened its policies toward religious and permitted public liturgies
and the construction of places of worship for all Christians (UCAN 2013).
Father Destombes’ presence in Cambodia lent support to the arrival of two French
Catholic NGOs, Caritas Internationalis and Secours Catholique of Paris during the same year.
The organizations registered themselves with the Cambodian government as an Antenna of
Caritas Interantionalism. It was based in Phnom Penh and later developed into Caritas
Cambodia. These organizations were instrumental in obtaining visas for the religious
professionals on the basis of humanitarian assistance.
Although UNTAC was not able to compel Cambodia to protect its ethnic Vietnamese
population, it was able to push for religious freedom in the country and ensured that the
Cambodian government institutionalized mechanisms to recognize religious groups (Marston
and Guthrie 2004; Jordens 1996). This opened many more opportunities for Catholics to re-
transplant their faith in Cambodia. In 1992, Mgr. Yves Ramousse (MEP) was re-appointed by
the Holy See in his former title as the Apostolic Vicar of Phnom Penh before he was expelled in
1975 by the Khmer Rouge government (UCAN 2013). In 1994, he was instrumental in the re-
establishment of diplomatic relations between Cambodia and the Holy See. In 1995, after more
than two decades, the first new Khmer Catholic was ordained and the first the first meeting of the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Cambodia and Laos (CELAC) was held. During the same year,
the Church produced a Khmer translation of the bible.
In 1997, Catholicism became an official religion of Cambodia. The Cambodian
government returned Church properties, sometime with a small fee (Ponchaud 2003). Among
these included St. Joseph seminarian buildings, which were being used as a military office.
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Religious leaders converted the seminary into St. Joseph Parish and an administrative
headquarters of the Vicariate Apostolic of Phnom Penh.
Currently, the Catholic Church in Cambodia is under the authority and guidance of
priests belonging to France-based MEP although a smaller number of them are also affiliated
with other religious orders and countries. The Church is comprised of one vicariate apostolic
(Phnom Penh) and two prefectures apostolic (Battambang and Kompong Cham). The vicariate
apostolic of Phnom Penh is made up of the city of Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, and the provinces
of Kandal, Takeo, Kampot, Kompong Speu and Koh Kong. The prefecture apostolic of
Battambang includes the eight provinces of Battambang, Pursat, Kompong Chhnang, Kompong
Them, Siem Reap, Preah Vihear, Oddar Meanchey and Banteay Meanchey. The prefecture
apostolic of Kompong Cham encompasses the provinces of Kompong Cham, Kratie Prey Veng,
Stoeung Treng, Mondulkiri.

The Centralization of the Ethnic Vietnamese Catholic Community

As a result of return migration in the 1980s, Vietnamese Catholics gradually formed
enclaves in villages settled around the Mekong River to the east, the Basong river to the south,
and the Tonle Sap Lake in the northwest. They informed me that their families lived in these
villages for many generations. They were familiar with the areas and wanted to return there to
rebuild their lives. Furthermore, these are strategically located villages. Although limited, ethnic
Vietnamese Catholics could be sustained from the fish in these major waterways. They also have
easy access to waterway escapes. This has been historically been proven to be essential to flee
from impending anti-Vietnamese attacks. Lastly, ethnic Vietnamese do not have to own land to
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117
be part of the villages. Land distribution to ethnic Vietnamese completely stopped with the end
of the Vietnamese occupation in 1989, and children often either inherited land from their parents
or have to move out. They could live on boathouses that float on these waterways while still be
able to maintain ties to kin and friends on land.
13

The Vietnamese Catholic community became much more institutionally centralized after
they established contacts with Father Thomas Dunleavy, an American volunteer for Maryknoll.
Through words of mouth and from the news, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics had heard of his
arrival to the country. Just before Christmas in 1989, they sent him a message asking him to
conduct a Christmas mass. They were afraid to ask for permission from the government and he
was an NGO person with limited freedom. Nevertheless, Father Dunleavy agreed to lead a
private Christmas mass in Latin at Buddha’s Village. Since then, Father Dunleavy maintained
regular contacts with Buddha’s Village. He also introduced many other foreign priests, especially
those affiliated with Maryknoll, to the community. They received translation help from Father
Thai, who was still hiding his vocation as a priest.
Every other week, Father Dunleavy and other priests conducted mass at Buddha’s
Village. The regular services became a catalyst for greater cohesion among ethnic Vietnamese
Catholics who were dispersed throughout Cambodia. The priests attracted ethnic Vietnamese
Catholics throughout Cambodia to Buddha’s Village. During popular events such as Christmas
and Easter, as many as 5,000 to 7,000 people to attend his service (Buddha’s Village 2010).
During this time, Cambodia had not officially recognized Catholicism as a religion yet.
However, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics were able to ask for permission from village officials.

In addition to regular Sunday services, Father Dunleavy initiated monthly meetings with

13
The ethnic Vietnamese Catholic floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake has become a major tourist attraction.
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representatives of ethnic Vietnamese Catholic villages. They addressed a variety of issues
ranging from employment to education and church activities. In 1989, through these discussions,
they decided to build a new brick church in Buddha’s Village. The representatives were
responsible for putting together a blue print and recruiting volunteer labor. Meanwhile, Father
Dunleavy sought donations from abroad. While he was overseas, he wire-transferred 200,000 riel
(approximately $800 at the time) to them. Village members used the money to purchase supplies
and then constructed the building with their own labor. The new school was completed within
the same year.
Today, this church continues to stand even though it has undergone several phases of
renovation and expansion. It serves as the main and central religious institution among ethnic
Vietnamese Catholics. It can accommodate up to 300 individuals. This is usually not enough. On
a mass immediately following Christmas, I observed that many people had to stand in the back
and outside of the church. Since Father Thai (a Vietnamese) revealed his identity as a priest and
received approval from the bishop to practice his religious vocation in 1997, he has served as the
main presiding priest at the church.
Since 2000, under Bishop Ramousse’s structural re-organization and centralization,
Buddha’s Village has been assigned as a parish member under Father Thai’s Pastoral Center of
Champa. Based on the 2008 estimate by the Vietnamese American-led Franciscan Charity that
works in Cambodia, there are approximately 200 Vietnamese Catholics who live next to around
30 Buddhists. They are part of the original 47 Vietnamese families who were allocated land in
the village and others who live nearby on floating houses. This makes Buddha’s Village the
largest ethnic Vietnamese Catholic village centrally located near Phnom Penh, and the third
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largest in Cambodia. Two other larger Vietnamese Catholic villages are near the border with
Vietnam, made up of approximately 300 and 400 Vietnamese Catholics.
There are ten other predominantly Vietnamese parishes that are under Father Thai’s
Pastoral Center of Champa. However, the center’s network is beyond its administrative division.
Father Thai’s roster reveals that there are at least twenty-one predominantly ethnic Vietnamese
parishes that regularly meet at his parish in Buddha’s Village. As the meeting location for nearly
all major occasions, including monthly meetings with the bishop, Buddha’s Village continues to
play the critical role of centralizing the ethnic Vietnamese Catholic community dispersed
throughout Cambodia.
There are also at least eleven other communities who maintain informal ties to Buddha’s
Village but, due to geographical distance, do not regularly visit it. Of the approximately 32
predominantly Vietnamese Catholic villages in Cambodia, all except for five have a local parish.
While all have Khmer names, nearly half (15 villages) commonly used their Vietnamese names.
These Vietnamese names have been used for many family generations. Some are descriptive of
the location of the village (e.g. Svay Pak is also referred to as “Kilometer 11” because of its
distance from central Phnom Penh). In all cases, however, the Vietnamese names are not
“Vietnamized” sounds of their corresponding Khmer names. This suggests that the ethnic
Vietnamese Catholics have had a long history of institutional formalization in Cambodia.

The Racialization Ethnic Vietnamese Catholics within the MEP-Controlled Ecclesiastical
Hierarchy

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Since as early as 1990, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics have been racialized as a “the
problem” for the return of the Catholic Church in Cambodia (Ponchaud 2003:30). Ponchaud
(2003), an influential MEP French priest with one of the longest records of serving in Cambodia,
has reflected this point in one of his publications: “In 1990, acculturation was a sine qua non of
survival, as Catholics were so often charged with practicing a foreign religion, with religious
treason and, worse still, with being agents for Vietnam” (22). Consequentially, the Catholic
Church has been following the agenda of “everything must be done to prevent Khmer people
from feeling estranged within the Church of their own country” (Ponchaud 2003:30). Catholic
teachings, rituals, and beliefs have been localized into familiar “Buddhist” forms for Khmers.
For example, the faithful sit cross-legged on the ground nearly throughout mass, as if they were
visiting wats and temples. Catholic concepts such as “life after death” and “baptism” have been
loosely translated in references to Buddhist ideas of “reincarnation” and “rebirth” (Father
Ponchaud interview 2010). Incense sticks also replaced candles in churches and at home altars.
However, the “acculturation” that Ponchaud (2003) has referred to is not simply cultural
adaptation to Khmer and Buddhist practices and ideas or emphasizing outreach to the Khmer
population as the case was under Khmerization of the 1960s. It is also the systematic eradication
of “the problem of the Vietnamese ethnic minority”(Ponchaud 2003:30). This has entailed
racializing ethnic Vietnamese Catholics as “a foreign presence” (Ponchaud 2003:34) loathed
within the Catholic Church. As Ponchaud has written, “Vietnamese Christians in the Catholic
Church have consistently been a source of difficulty. Christ had not only the look of the
European foreigner, but also that of the hated enemy” (Ponchaud 2003:28). The racialization has
permitted the MEP church authority to blame ethnic Vietnamese of its failures in Cambodia
while also expressing pity toward Khmers. Ponchaud (2003) has illustrated this, “An uninformed
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Khmer entering the Church compounding before or after Mass could not but conclude that
Catholicism is a Vietnamese religion and leave for good. That is what a lot of newly baptized
people do” (39). He has further claimed, “As soon as Khmer people feel that the Vietnamese are
too numerous in their church, they desert it. The Vietnamese, on the other hand, assert
themselves” (2003:29-30).
Moreover, the racialization of ethnic Vietnamese has also allowed the Catholic Church to
turn a blind eye to their material and spiritual needs. The Church has maintained estranged
relations with ethnic Vietnamese Catholic villages while privileging the priority to build a local
“Khmer” hierarchy and following. As Ponchaud (2003) has expressed, “The Church also has the
obligation to these Vietnamese communities, which often inhabit a secluded environment on the
margins of Khmer society, to open them up to their Khmer surroundings. But the primary
concern of the Church of Cambodia is to be present ot the Khmer Buddhist environment, by not
allowing itself to become preoccupied by the one ewe that staye din teh fold while forgetting the
others lost in teh mountains” (30). The MEP authority has assigned the responsibility of
Vietnamese Catholic villages to U.S.-based Maryknoll priests while discouraging others from
visiting Buddha’s Village (Ponchaud 2003:28). It does not support the building of parishes for
ethnic Vietnamese Catholics, who themselves must pool in resources to do so.
While it has distanced itself from ethnic Vietnamese Catholics, the Catholic Church has
also exercised its authority to systematically purge all signs of “Vietnamese-ness” in religious
life. Two of the strictest policies are: 1) the prohibition of Vietnamese from participating in the
religious vocation; and 2) the prohibition of the Vietnamese language in religious rituals. It has
purposely channeled these policies through Buddha’s Village because of its central and
important role among ethnic Vietnamese Catholics.
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The Forbidding of “Vietnamese” in the Religious Professionals

The Catholic Church has the written policy of forbidding the participation of Vietnam-
born and ethnic Vietnamese from joining the religious vocations, especially priesthood.
Therefore, in order to enter the religious vocation, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics have to speak,
behave, and look like “Khmer.” This has been a painstaking process for them. For example,
although Father Thai had revealed his identity as a priest to the bishop of Vicariate Apostolic of
Phnom Penh in 1993, he was not allowed to practice openly until 1997 (Father Thai 2010). He
had to become fluent in Khmer by studying the language with young children and obtain a letter
of verification from his former pastor in Vietnam, which was very difficult due to the anti-
Vietnamese Khmer antagonism during the early 1990s. Today, he has remained the only
Vietnam-born priest serving in Cambodia. Father Thai speculated that the bishop would not have
permitted him to practice his vocation if it were not for the fact that he was legally “trapped” in
Cambodia. He could be persecuted for anti-communism in Vietnam and cannot resettle in
another country.
As for other native priests in Cambodia, nearly all were born in Cambodia and have
Vietnamese ancestry. They appear like “Khmer” and are fluent in the language. Consequentially,
most non-Vietnamese Catholics do not know of their Vietnamese blood, even if they had known
each other for decades. This is most evident when I interviewed a Khmer Catholic woman in
Battambang in 2012. She was fluent in Vietnamese because she had grown up living with
Vietnamese sisters of the Providence of Portieux.
14
At one point during the interview, I asked

14
Mrs. Sim, interview, July 18, 2012, Catholic Church of Battambang, Battambang, Cambodia
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about the priest of the parish and referred to him by his Vietnamese name. She became confused
and did not know whom I was talking about until I called him by his Khmer name.
For Vietnamese children to consider the religious vocation during their adulthood, ethnic
Vietnamese Catholic parents shared with me that they have to socialize them as Khmer since
childhood. This process often involves the traumatic experience of giving up their children for
adoption by a Catholic orphanage.
15
This is not simply to culturally expose the children to
Khmer ways of living, but also to transform them into Khmer. Through the orphanage and
assistance from the Catholic Church, these children would cut or limit relations with their blood
parents, adopt a Khmer name, and obtain Khmer citizenship. “So Vietnamese parents have to
sacrifice their children if they want them to become a priest,” a Vietnamese Catholic woman
lamented to me.
16

The bishop’s requirement that the religious serving in Cambodia must be “Khmer” has
specifically aimed to purify itself of any association with the Vietnamese ethnicity. While the
religious from countries other than Vietnam could easily obtain approval from the bishop to
serve in Cambodia, those coming from Vietnam have been barred. During my fieldwork, I met
priests from France, Italy, the U.S. and Thailand who shared that the bishop welcomed their
arrival. The Thai missionary was actually fourth generation Vietnamese in Thailand, but he was
able to pass as Thai because he did not know the Vietnamese language.
17
These foreign religious
were free to serve and move around in Cambodia with the bishop’s close surveillance.
As for the religious who come from Vietnam, they have constantly worked in fear of the
bishop and Catholic Church hierarchy. Between 2001 and 2010, less than ten were reluctantly

15
The 1996 Nationality Law conferred citizenship to any children born to at least one Khmer parent, regardless of
their birthplace.
16
Mrs. Le, interview, May 28, 2010, private residence, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
17
Father T, interview, June 1, 2010, private residence, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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allowed to enter Cambodia to serve the Vietnamese villages by Bishop Emile Destombes.
However, since Bishop Olivier Schmitthaeusler became the head of the Apostolic Vicariate of
Phnom Penh in 2010, their status has become much more precarious. Like his predecessor,
Bishop Yves-Georges-René Ramousse, he completely stopped accepting the religious
professionals from Vietnam even if he or she were fluent in Khmer. This policy is continually
promulgated through the Buddha’s Village church. For instance, on November 27, 2011, at a
monthly meeting with ethnic Vietnamese held at the church, Bishop Schmitthaeusler distributed
a document detailing this policy to each village representative. He reminded them that all clergy
and religious brothers and sisters must be “cultivated” (đào tạo) in Cambodia. Buddha’s Village
Pastoral Committee members clarified with me that that this meant being able to pass as Khmer
linguistically, physically, and culturally. One man even said that this included adopting “the
certain way in which Khmer carry themselves, walk and talk.”
Because of this anti-Vietnamese prohibition, many Vietnamese religious professionals
have been serving ethnic Vietnamese Catholic villages without the bishop’s knowledge. Often,
through the word-of-mouth, they and members of their religious orders knew about the needs of
the ethnic Vietnamese Catholic communities. Once they have received approval and support
from the head of their religious orders, they would secretly enter Cambodia without passing
through the bishop’s office. They have almost always do not stay at Buddha’s Village because,
as the center of the ethnic Vietnamese Catholic community, it has been constantly under the
scrutiny of the diocese. During my fieldwork, I met several brothers and sisters who were
serving in ethnic Vietnamese Catholic villages far from central Phnom Penh. They often served
as Vietnamese language instructors and led Eucharist classes and religious rituals. There was
also a father from Vietnam who I did not get the chance to meet because he travels frequently
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and served in a Vietnamese Catholic village very remote from Phnom Penh. He was very well
known among ethnic Vietnamese Catholics for being fluent in Khmer, committed to their well-
being, and yet cannot obtain permission from the bishop to stay in Cambodia.
According to Father Thai, the bishop has often justified the denial of Vietnamese priests
and religious brothers and sisters by claiming that the church in Cambodia does not need them.
However, the reality is that the Vietnamese Catholic community has been desperately
underserved. Vietnamese Catholics have not been able to attend mass on every Sundays and
other important services because there are not enough priests to visit all the villages. This has
been in contrast to the cases of churches in the city, which has several regular masses catered to
predominately Khmer and non-Vietnamese expatriate congregations.
Moreover, most ethnic Vietnamese Catholic villages have not been able to hold
Eucharistic classes and give general education to their children because they do not have
religious volunteers from Vietnam. As attested by a villager, “We all always want religious
brothers and nuns from Vietnam. They know how to teach our children very well.”
18
Although
the elementary educational system in Cambodia does not require legal documentation for entry,
many ethnic Vietnamese Catholic parents have discouraged them attending for fear of violent
discrimination.
19
Moreover, because of their desperate economic conditions, most of them have
depended on their children before they reach teenage years. In some cases, these children have
even sold into prostitution, as the case was in Svay Pak that became a sensational Dateline story
in 2003.

18
Mr. Manh, interview, February 14, private residence, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
19
Buddha’s Village Pastoral Committee, interview, December 26, 2010, Buddha’s Village
Church, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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The Prohibition of the Vietnamese Language

In addition to the restriction of Vietnamese Catholics from the religious vocation, the
Cambodian Catholic church has also enforced a policy of requiring the Khmer language to be
used at all religious rituals and events, including weddings and funerals. Exceptions have been
made for English, Korean, and French to serve the expatriate community. Vietnamese, however,
are neither expatriate nor Khmer. Ethnic Vietnamese Catholics have expressed to me that they
understand the Bishop’s motivations. As an interviewee elaborated, the bishop wants to bring
Catholicism to Khmer and “wants us (Vietnamese) to learn Khmer because we’re in their
country.” To achieve the Catholic Church’s goal of eradicating the Vietnamese language, the
bishop has paid for Khmer language and cultural classes taught by Khmer teachers in all
Vietnamese villages. Moreover, the Church has institutionalized Khmer language proficiency
(reading, writing, and speaking) as a requirement for communion.
The Khmer-only language policy has been particularly imposed on the community at
Buddha’s Village. As this is the largest Vietnamese Catholic village and serves as the central
institution among ethnic Vietnamese Catholics, the bishop of Vicariate Apostolic of Phnom Penh
sees it as a “role model” for other Vietnamese Catholic villages. However, the bishop has less
control over other Vietnamese Catholic villages dispersed throughout Cambodia and distant from
central Phnom Penh. As a villager explained why this Buddha’s Village was specifically
targeted by this language policy, “Maybe it is because we might attract attention from Khmers if
we conduct masses in Vietnamese. At other (villages), Vietnamese Catholic communities are
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smaller” and therefore do not have to always use Khmer.
20
This explains why Buddha’s Village
Catholics cannot even have a sign of their parish in Vietnamese.
21
One of the committee
members said, “ Previously, we had a Khmer on top of the Vietnamese sign with the name of our
church. However, within the past 5-6 years (approximately 2005), we had to take the Vietnamese
sign down. The bishop told us…that we have to do everything in Khmer.” The only exception to
this case is Village Sa, which I have detailed in Chapter 2.
The Church’s agenda to replace Vietnamese with Khmer has neither achieved the goals
of integrating Vietnamese into Cambodian society or further cultivating their faith. All
Vietnamese living in Vietnamese Catholic villages can already speak Khmer and Vietnamese
with equal fluency although they may not know how to read or write in both languages (Phan
2010; Jordens 1996). However, during my fieldwork at Buddha’s Village and other ethnic
Vietnamese Catholic enclaves, I observed that ethnic Vietnamese Catholics always use
Vietnamese with each other, even among young children. For them, the Vietnamese language is
not about disassociating themselves from Cambodia society.
Language is the only possession that ethnic Vietnamese Catholics have after losing all
material things and many kin members to the tumultuous and violent periods in Cambodia. It is
the key to reconnect to their loved ones in shared faith. As an informant expressed, “The
Vietnamese language is our mother tongue, from our birth mother. The bishop cannot just stop
us from using it. Listen to the news from other countries, and you can hear that the Vietnamese
language is not forbidden.” ” Because of this filial intimate significance of the Vietnamese
language, they have resisted using Khmer in their religious practices and beliefs despite their

20
Mr. Hai, interview, November 25, 2010, Buddha’s Village Church, Phnom Penh,
Cambodia.
21
Buddha’s Village Pastoral Committee, interview, December 26, 2010, Buddha’s Village
Church, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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fluency and long residency in Cambodia. Vietnamese Catholics at Buddha’s Village have been
using Khmer only for Sunday masses, as has been enforced by the bishop, but have almost
exclusively spoken in Vietnamese during other religious activities and daily activities. At a non-
Sunday prayer, for example, I observed that Father Thai delivered the service in Khmer but the
congregation recited in Vietnamese. I speculated that many Vietnamese Catholics do not know
how to recite prayers in Khmer. For a post-Christmas mass, the bishop led a mass in Khmer at
Buddha’s Village. Although the large number of attendees filled up the church, I discerned a
drastically lower volume by their recitation in Khmer than in Vietnamese at other times. This
was similarly observed by a German priest who is fluent in Vietnamese and was visiting ethnic
Vietnamese Catholic communities throughout Cambodia (Phan 2010). Even Vietnamese
Catholics who are best educated in Khmer reading, writing, and speaking — such as religious
brothers and sisters who regularly attend and supervise Khmer classes — have not made the
effort to learn the Khmer translation of many Catholic tenets, rituals and practices. At a monthly
meeting with the bishop at Buddha’s Village, these representatives and leaders of their villages
had to make a presentation on sin. They were all fraught in distress and unable to clearly express
their ideas to the bishop because they did not know the Khmer words for the different
sacraments, prayers, and confession. However, they were able to converse with each other at
great length and intensity about the topic in Vietnamese.
By cultivating their filial bonds through shared faith, the Vietnamese language has also
been ethnic Vietnamese Catholics’ key survival strategy in an anti-Vietnamese hostile
environment. During times of crises and danger, they have relied upon their language in order to
give and receive help from other ethnic Vietnamese. Because most Khmers do not know
Vietnamese, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics could communicate with each other much more
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discreetly. Moreover, as they are already fluent in speaking, Khmer writing has not been
essential to their survival when they have to constantly do physical labor in order to barely make
ends meet. As the case is with the general population of Cambodia, their functional literacy rate
in Khmer is very low (UNESCO Office of Phnom Penh 2013). As a result, although Khmer
classes have been organized in their villages and supported by the Cambodian Church, parents
have shared with me that they do not force their children to attend.
As a result of these restrictions on Vietnamese participation and language in religious
life, the Catholic Church’s Khmerization program has lost sight of its goal of facilitating ties
between Vietnamese and Khmers. It has exacerbated ethnic tensions by re-enforcing unequal
treatments and acceptance based on ethnicity. This has been apparent in the church’s leadership
among the laity. Vietnamese Catholics often whispered to me that the diocese nearly always
selects Khmer to lead their lay organizations even though Vietnamese Catholics constitute the
majority and most involved lay people. Similarly, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics lamented that
they receive much less financial assistance from the church hierarchy than their Khmer
counterparts. An informant elaborated, “The bishop always help the other (Khmer) side more. As
for us Vietnamese Catholics, we have to help ourselves. When we built our church, we received
only a small amount of financial support from the bishop. As for Khmer Catholics, the bishop
paid for everything when they built their church. This is why us Vietnamese Catholics have to
help each other.” The church hierarchy’s preferred treatment toward Khmer Catholics may be
seen as befitting of the its strategy to develop its Khmer religious following. However, it has also
threatened the Church relations with the Vietnamese following. The discriminatory attitudes
have fueled resentments among many ethnic Vietnamese who feel that they have been neglected
and denied opportunities to fully live their faith. For instance, many of them were disappointed
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and upset that they could not attend the much-anticipated ceremonial observation of Saint Don
Bosco’s remains in central Phnom Penh. They live far away from the city center and cannot
afford the transportation expenses. However, they did not dare to ask the bishop for financial
support because they knew that that their request would be rejected.

Summary

Since 1989, in contrast to the previous decade under Vietnamese occupation, Cambodia
has been protecting religion but not Vietnamese ethnicity when it transitioned toward a
democracy. Within this context, the MEP-led Catholic Church has returned to Cambodia with an
iron fist determined to purge itself of ties to Vietnamese ethnicity while building an ethnically
Khmer following. This has exacerbated Vietnamese-Khmer ethnic tensions and isolated ethnic
Vietnamese in Cambodia from co-religionists in Vietnam. The Catholic churches in Cambodia
and Vietnam have not established institutional bridges and exchanges even though political
bilateral relations between these countries have become friendlier since the late 1990s. In other
neighboring countries, for instance, the Church of Vietnam has been involved in the well-being
of its followers as they move abroad for work, marriages, and studies. The Committee on
Migration, in particular, has an important role in this capacity. When I was studying in Taiwan
and Japan in 2011, the highest ranking Vietnamese priest, Bishop Pham Minh Man, was on a trip
visiting different Vietnamese Catholic enclaves in order to survey their needs while collaborating
with local parishes. Neither he nor any other high-ranking clergy from Vietnam has been openly
welcomed by their closest neighbor, the Church of Cambodia. In fact, anecdotes have revealed
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that brothers and sisters from Vietnam who have arrived in Phnom Penh as tourists were denied
from meeting with the bishop.
Because of their structural isolation from Vietnam, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in
Cambodia have been disconnected from ethnic co-religionists in the U.S. Stateless and without
legal protection in Cambodia, they also do not have many resources and leverage to extend their
outreach beyond the country’s border. Many informants expressed that they feel helpless because
they do not know of any means to re-establish the relations. Means of global communication
such as the internet are beyond their reach since many do not know how to use it. Even with a
telephone, they do not have established contacts in the U.S. Although they have received help
from many international faith-based humanitarian organizations working in Cambodia, such as
U.S.-based Maryknoll and Don Bosco, these organizations are not well connected to the
Vietnamese American Catholic community. As a result, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in
Cambodia could not initiate connections with their ethnic co-religionists in the U.S.

CROSS-BORDER RELATIONS BETWEEN VIETNAMESE CATHOLICS IN
CAMBODIA AND THE U.S.

During the 1990s, the U.S. re-established diplomatic relations with Vietnam and
Cambodia. This opened channels for Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. to re-connect to ethnic co-
religionists in Cambodia through Vietnam. By this time, as I have argued in Chapter 3, they had
already developed strong institutionalized organizations at the local and national levels.
Moreover, they had been able initiate cross-border exchanges with ethnic co-religionists
dispersed throughout the world. This was partially mediated by the Vatican-supported
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Coordinating Office of the Apostolate for the Vietnamese in the Diaspora (Văn Phòng Phối Kết
Tông Đồ Mục Vụ Việt Nam Hải Ngoại). In 1995, when the U.S. ended its its embargo toward
Vietnam, these overseas networks immediately extended to co-religionists in the homeland.
However, these cross-border exchanges were generally underground and outside of the
surveillance of the Vietnamese government because many Vietnamese Americans continued to
be suspicious, fearful, and resentful toward the Vietnamese state (Phan 2003 and 2005). They
heavily relied on religious leaders such as Vietnamese American priests to re-connect to their kin
and friends in Vietnam. For example, Vietnamese Americans usually trust and ask Vietnamese
American religious leaders to give remittances to those in Vietnam (Truong et al 2008). Even
today, many of them do not transfer remittances to loved ones in Vietnam through the banking
system for fear that the government and its collaborators would steal the money. Over the years,
relations between Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. and Vietnam have strengthened. They have
recently developed into “sister relations,” as with the cases between the Diocese of Orange and
Archdiocese of Hanoi dioceses (Tran 2008) and between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and
Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City.
However, as I have discussed, Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia do not have resources
and means to re-connect to ethnic co-religionists in the U.S. even though, by the late 1990s, these
countries have normalized relations. They have been structurally, culturally, socially, and
economically isolated from their co-religionists outside of the country due to the long history of
war in the region, followed by anti-Vietnamese violence and policies of Vietnamese ethnic
cleansing in Cambodian society and the Catholic Church.
This isolation ended in 2003, when Dateline showed a program about young Vietnamese
children being forced to work in Cambodian brothels. Vietnamese American Catholics were
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shocked. They were outraged that no government or international agencies cared for their ethnic
people (Anh 2005). As a result, Vietnamese Americans across religions immediately mobilized
grass-roots efforts to help to ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia. In 2004, for instance, VietACT
(Vietnamese Alliance to Combat Trafficking) was formed (Taiwan Alliance to Combat
Trafficking 2005). It received wide popular and financial support from national Vietnamese
organizations, including the Vietnamese Professional Society (Vu 2005) and the Union of North
American Vietnamese Student Association (Cayda Foundation Unknown Date).
Today, Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. have become the forefront of this movement to
assist ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia. Like many other organizations, they have been able to
enter Cambodia on a humanitarian basis and not through its Catholic Church. This is befitting of
the Cambodian government’s strategy to draw international support to rebuild its war-torn
country since the 1990s. Two of the strongest Vietnamese American Catholic organizations who
work with ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia are located in California: 1) the San
Francisco-based Franciscan Charity (Hội Bác Ái Francisco);
22
2) the San Jose-based De La Salle
Brothers Organization (also known as “Lasan Vietnamese Overseas).
23

U.S.-Cambodia Networks

San Francisco-Based Franciscan Charity in Cambodia
The Franciscan Charity of San Francisco is a non-profit organization founded by Father
Trinh Tuan Hoang. It has a strong sister chapter in Orange County, the heart of the largest
overseas Vietnamese community. Although the group’s primary mission is “helping disabled
orphans,” it also supports the education and healthcare of poor people in Vietnam. This ranges

22
The organization’s website: www.hoibacaiphanxico.org
23
The organization’s website: http://www.lasan.org/lasan-overseas/lsvn-overseas-sanjose.htm
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from providing rice, clothing, and mosquito nets to financing books, tuition, surgeries, and
medications. The organization has a strict policy of not distributing money to individuals. It
supports special projects (e.g. building schools and water wells, heart surgeries) but they must
apply for funding through an institutionalized formal process.
The Franciscan Charity is very well-known among Vietnamese American Catholics. This
is partly because of its transparency with how it uses the raised funds to help the poor, which it
regularly reports in its newsletters and website. The organization also regularly publishes thank
you letters and photos of recipients. Moreover, the group has a far-wide media outreach, from
radio to magazines and self-produced videos. This has buttressed Father Hoang’s popularity as a
trusted priest. He is the face of the organization and frequently travels throughout the U.S. to
Vietnamese enclaves for fundraising dinners.
Since 2004, after the Dateline program, the Franciscan Charity has been working in
Cambodia. Although its mission is to help the poor regardless of religion and ethnicity, most of
its charity has been directed at ethnic Vietnamese Catholics. Through staff members based in
Vietnam and informal networks with religious leaders in the country, the organization has
established working relationships with two local Vietnamese priests in Cambodia — Father Thai
at Buddha’s Village based in Phnom Penh and Father Son in Battambang.
24
Through this local
base in Vietnam, Franciscan Charity has also received additional assistance from a Khmer-
Vietnamese Catholic woman living in Phnom Penh. She is literate in Khmer and Vietnamese.
Moreover, as she was born in Cambodia and knows the local culture well, she has been
important in facilitating relations with Cambodian officials. This has been evident by her
successful hair salon and manicure shop, which attracts a steady flow of Khmer clients and also
serves as a beauty vocational school for Vietnamese and Khmer youth.

24
Father Son was born in Cambodia and was ordained in 1995 in Phnom Penh after his studies in Canada.
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In turn, through these local representatives, Franciscan Charity was able to channel their
humanitarian assistance to pastoral committees in ethnic Vietnamese Catholic villages and other
poor Khmer communities. Collectively, these pastoral committee members would assess the
local needs and then formally apply for support from the Franciscan Charity. During the summer,
Father Hoang and volunteers would travel to Vietnam to work with the local representatives.
They purchase the requested items (e.g. rice, candies, blankets, fishing nets, mosquito net,
clothing, etc.) and deliver them to Father Thai, Father Son, or members of the pastoral committee
in each village. The village representatives would then distribute the goods to each family,
depending on their needs.
Although Franciscan Charity has also helped poor Khmers, its main recipients are ethnic
Vietnamese Catholics throughout Cambodia. Between 2004 and 2011, the Franciscan Charity
assisted around 250,000 Vietnamese in Cambodia (Franciscan Charity 2012). Each year, the
charity donated about 52,000 kilograms of relief rice to about 1,800 poor families in 35 villages.
This is approximately 30 kilogram of rice per family. However, my interviewees shared that
even families with extreme needs usually receive only 15 kilogram of rice, which lasts for only a
week because rice is a staple food and the minimum size of each family is four persons. The
discrepancy between Franciscan Charity’s and my interviewees’ numbers may be due to the fact
the pastoral committee sometime distributed the rice to families that were not considered as
“needy” by Franciscan Charity. Moreover, Franciscan Charity paid attention to building
institutions in remote ethnic Vietnamese Catholic villages that were often ignored by other
charitable organizations. It constructed five churches and five schools. It helped build 9 shelters
for poor families who live on the Tonle Sap Lake. It had also set up a vocational school in
Tuakrosan for ethnic Vietnamese Catholics.
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Recently, Franciscan Charity has also set up an informal microcredit system. The
program aims to help ethnic Vietnamese Catholics initiate and pursue an entrepreneurial
business. The loans are given without interests. However, if the borrower cannot repay the loan
in time, then the whole village will not be able to borrow money in the future. My interviewees
complained that the amount of loan is often too small, less than $200, which is far from being
sufficient to start a business. As a result, when the time in which the loan is due, all villagers
would pool in money in order to pay for one person’s loan so that the village’s line of credit
would not be threatened. An informant described, “If we can’t repay our loans, then all of us in
the village cannot get another loan (from Franciscan Charity). So, we all have to help each other.
So what would happen is my friends would help me make the repayment. I would then would get
another loan and pay them back with that new loan.” This cycle has perpetuated a cycle in which
villagers’ debt continue to grow without producing substantial outcomes.
Nevertheless, despite these challenges, Franciscan Charity has been instrumental in
reconnecting Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. to ethnic religious counterparts in Cambodia. In
2007, Father Hoang invited Father Son to the U.S. Together, they travelled throughout the
country to raise funds for ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia. In 2008, despite the economic
recession in the U.S., Franciscan Charity distributed nearly $100,000 in charity donations
(Franciscan Charity 2008). This amount has increased during recent years as the global economy
recovers.
However, the cross-border relations have been restricted by the bishop of Vicariate
Apostolic of Phnom Penh. As with the experiences of the religious professionals from Vietnam,
the charity is continually in a delicate dance with the bishop’s policy of Vietnamese ethnic
erasure. As a result, the organization limits its presence at Buddha’s Village in order to avoid
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surveillance from the bishop. For example, Buddha’s Village does not have a plaque recognizing
the donations of Franciscan Charity in Vietnamese, English, and Khmer although it has received
continued support from the organization. I observed that nearly all predominantly ethnic
Vietnamese Catholic villages have this plaque except for Buddha’s Village. A pastoral
committee member informed me that the bishop had forbidden them to display such a plaque
because it has Vietnamese lettering. At one point between 2005 and 2010, he threatened to
forbid Franciscan Charity from visiting Buddha’s Village after he saw several donate rice bags
with Vietnamese letters. As a result of this unfriendly welcome from the Catholic Church in
Cambodia, Franciscan Charity has focused on helping ethnic Vietnamese Catholic villages that
are located remotely from the center of Phnom Penh. A number of Vietnamese Catholics at
Buddha’s Village expressed to me that they understand the situation and see themselves as
“sacrificing” (hy sinh) for their ethnic co-religionists.

San Jose-Based De La Salle (DLS) Brothers Chapter or Lasan Vietnam Overseas in San
Jose

The De La Salle Brothers’ mission is render educational service to the poor, especially
children. Like many other Vietnamese in the U.S., a large number of DLS brothers had escaped
Vietnam on boats since the country fell to communism in 1975. They began to congregate at
their American chapter in Philadelphia, but, due to internal differences, this relationship ended
by 1985. Not soon after, the Vietnamese DLS brothers proposed to their religious orders’ leaders
to establish a chapter in San Jose, home of a small but growing Vietnamese Catholic community.
In 1990, this request was formally approved and the brothers moved to San Jose and joined DLS
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sisters who had already been there since the 1980s. They became known as “Lasan Vietnam
Overseas in San Jose.” Meanwhile, they continued to maintain relations with brothers in
Vietnam through letter exchanges (Nguyen 2008). As early as in 1986, when U.S.-Vietnam
relations had not been normalized, the brothers sent financial support to those in Vietnam to
revitalize their educational community programs.
The Vietnamese DLS had been isolated from the religious community in Cambodia for
more than three decades. The District of Saigon first established a chapter in Battambang in 1906
and this was followed by a second one in Phnom Penh four years later (Nguyen 2008). However,
due to the changing and volatile political situation in Cambodia, they were forced to flee the
country in 1972.
During summer 2004, Lasan Vietnam Overseas in San Jose returned to Cambodia with a
large amount of funds donated by primarily Vietnamese American Catholics. As with Francisco
Charity, this was spawned in large part by the Dateline program depicting trafficked Vietnamese
children in Cambodia. A brother from San Jose with his De La Salle brothers from Vietnam
visited Vietnamese Catholic parishes in Cambodia. One of the first visits that they made was to
the village that was shown on Dateline, a Vietnamese Catholic enclave located about 11
kilometers north of central Phnom Penh. They donated some seed money to the sisters of
Providence of Portieux to rebuild educational programs and a church in the village. On the same
trip, the Vietnamese American DLS brother met with MEP French Bishop Destombes, head of
the Vicariate Apostolic of Phnom Penh. The brother requested the bishop for permission for DLS
Brothers to return to Cambodia. Meanwhile, he also donated $15,000 to the newly returned
Church. He and other DLS brothers sensed that this could be their only chance to return to
Cambodia. Bishop Destombes was generally seen as much more tolerant toward Vietnamese
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139
than the previous bishop. He had already permitted around 10 brothers and sisters from Vietnam
to serve in Cambodia. Moreover, the brothers feared that the situation may become “difficult to
get government permission” in the future” (De La Salle Brothers in Vietnam 1999). Several
months later, on December 28, 2004, the brothers received approval from the bishop to return to
Cambodia. In summer 2005, the first DLS brother from Vietnam moved to Phnom Penh to begin
the Cambodian mission.
25

Since the return, the San Jose-based DLS brothers have been relying on financial support
from Vietnamese Americans, mostly Catholics, for their work in Cambodia. As a part of its
proposal to rebuild DLS in the country, the DLS brothers has agreed to assume the responsibility
of razing funds for a $200,000 endowment. This would help to cover room and board and other
living expenses for the brothers, including Khmer language classes and other programs to
facilitate their adaption to Cambodian society.
Lasan Vietnamese Overseas’ main fundraising arm has been through the annual dinner
“Give a Child a Smile” (Cho Em Một Nụ Cười). The event has been organized by a small group
of Vietnamese American Catholics who volunteer their Saturdays to teach Vietnamese language
and Eucharist classes. There have also been members of the Vietnamese church choir. Through
their involvements in the Vietnamese American Catholic community, they heard about Lasan
Vietnamese Overseas’ mission in Cambodia. Consequentially, in 2005, they decided to organize
the first fundraising dinner to raise funds for the brothers’ work.
The fundraising event has been annually held at Dynasty Restaurant. The program has
included various entertainment shows and an informative presentation by a Lasan Vietnamese
Overseas brother about his organization’s charity involvements in Vietnam and Cambodia. The

25
Frere F, interview, March 14, 2010, Lasan Vietnam Overseas/De La Salle Brothers
Residence, San Jose, California.
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dinner has usually attracted between 800 and 900 donors, most of whom are Vietnamese
American Catholics from a wide range of age. As the organizer expressed, “For the large part,
Give a Child a Smile aims to bring a large group of people together to share compassion, love,
and service for the poor.”
26
On average, the dinner has raised approximately $150,000 each year,
with the lowest and highest records being $108,303 and $256,459, respectively. In addition to the
$35 ticket to the dinner, there have also been individual donations that come before and after the
event.
Each year, Lasan Vietnam Overseas has also brought a group of Vietnamese American
youth on a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. Most of them are Catholics who had heard about the
DLS brothers’ work through church activities and the Give a Child a Smile dinner. On January 6,
2006, thirty of them attended a private Eucharist led by the bishop to commemorate the 100
th

anniversary of DLS Brothers in Cambodia. The celebration coincided with the opening of the
newly-built DLS Brothers’ residence in Phnom Penh. Approximately fifteen DLS Brothers from
Vietnam also crossed the border to celebrate the historic event.
Today, DLS Brothers in Phnom Penh is led by four brothers originally from Vietnam,
with continued strong support from brothers in the U.S. They have opened up their residence to
house approximately ten boys from poor and rural families who are studying in the city. These
children have been both Vietnamese and Khmers. The brothers also collaborate with other
organizations with a long history of working with ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia,
including the sister religious order Providence of Portieux and U.S.-based Maryknoll.
In 2009, the DLS brothers received permission from the bishop to build a primary school
in a predominantly Khmer Catholic community. It is located within walking distance from a

26
Ms. Thuy, email correspondence, April 3, 2013.
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Vietnamese Catholic village. Since its opening in 2011, the school has been accommodating
around 200 children. The brothers plan to expand the school in the future with an adjacent parcel
of land. The DLS religious order has financially supported these programs, but most of the
funding came from Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S.
Although these achievements are signs of progress and success, DLS Brothers are aware
that their mission may become restricted by the bishop. As with Franciscan Charity, they arrived
in Cambodia upon humanitarian basis and could function semi-independently of the Catholic
Church. Since they have already received permission to rebuild the organization in Cambodia
from the government and the bishop, the Catholic Church cannot force the brothers to leave.
27

However, the brothers are also aware that they do not want their activities to further instigate
anti-Vietnamese antagonism from the Catholic Church and Cambodian society. As a result, like
the Franciscan Charity, they haven often represented themselves as helping the poor, regardless
of faith and ethnicity, even though most of the recipients are ethnic Vietnamese Catholics.

SUMMARY

Due to a long history of war and political turmoil during 20
th
century, Vietnamese
Catholics in Cambodia became isolated from ethnic co-religionists in the U.S. until 2004.
Although they have been living in the country for hundreds of years, their lives have remained
precarious because of their ethnicity and religion. Between 1975 and 1979, under the Pol Pot
government, their ethnicity and religion became targets of Khmer nationalism’s violence and
many had to flee the country. After this regime, under the Vietnamese occupation between 1979

27
Frere H, interview, July 28, 2010, De La Salle Brothers Residence, Phnom Penh,
Cambodia.
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and 1987, they returned to Cambodia and their Vietnamese ethnicity was tolerated but they
continued to live in fears because of their faith.
Since 1988, this changed drastically. With the withdrawal of the Vietnamese authority
and transition toward democracy, anti-Vietnamese Khmer nationalism has exploded while
religious freedom has been cultivated within Cambodia’s agenda of nation-building. Although
Vietnam-Cambodia bilateral relations have improved since the late 1990s, the lives of ethnic
Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia have remained marginalized. Within this context, the
Catholic Church hierarchy has systematically aimed to eradicate any forms of association with
the ethnic Vietnamese although this population has continued to be the majority among all
Catholics in Cambodia. In particular, this program has prohibited Vietnamese from serving in the
religious profession and the use of Vietnamese language in religious settings.
Meanwhile, as Cambodia’s border becomes porous, the country has also opened up
opportunities to global scrutiny. In 2004, following a Dateline program about Vietnamese young
girls working in Cambodian brothels shown a year earlier, Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S.
immediately initiated and institutionalized mechanisms to outreach to their ethnic co-religionists
in Cambodia. Since then, they have been working closely with Vietnamese Catholics in Vietnam
to maintain these transnational relations. The strongest bases of these cross-border ties have been
based in California: The San Francisco-based Franciscan Charity and San Jose-based Lasan
Vietnam Overseas. As refugees who have similarly experienced ethnic marginalization in the
U.S., Vietnamese American Catholics sympathize with the conditions of their ethnic co-
religionists in Cambodia. Today, ethnic Vietnamese Catholic relations between Cambodia and
U.S. continue to show signs of strengths. A number of U.S.-based Catholic humanitarian
organizations and informal groups have joined the Franciscan Charity and Lasan Vietnamese
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Overseas in their work in Cambodia, including the prominent Atlanta-based One Body Village
founded in 2008.
28

28
The organization’s website: http://www.onebodyvillage.org/

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CHAPTER 4

THE CAODAI MOTHER GODDESS IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD:
Mediation Between Religious Universalism and Transnational Ties Among Vietnamese
American Caodaists

On 23 September 2010 (the 15
th
day of the 8
th
lunar calendar month), more than 100,000
people gathered at the Tay Ninh Holy See (Tòa Thánh Tây Ninh) in southern Vietnam to
participate in the most popular Caodai event — the Mother Goddess Annual Festival (Hội Yến
Diêu Trì Kim Mẫu) (Baomoi 2011). For the first time since 1975, when Caodaism and its highest
ranking ecclesiastical body – the Caodai Holy See – came under the strict control of communists,
delegations from the U.S., Cambodia, Canada, and Bangladesh were invited to attend the
celebration. One of the liveliest programs was the evening parade that immediately preceded the
midnight service. The grand and much-awaited float carried a statue of the Caodai Mother
Goddess
1
(Diêu Trì Kim Mẫu), depicted as an Asian woman with black hair, wearing an
elaborate Chinese imperial yellow dress and sitting on top of a phoenix. She was surrounded by
four female sages that collectively form a choir (Tiên Đồng Nữ Nhạc) and nine female maidens
2

who had obtained immortality through good deeds on earth (Cửu Vị Tiên Nương or Cửu Vị Nữ
Phật). As her float moved through the Tay Ninh Holy See compound, traditional music were
played and conveyed blessings to everyone in the audience. Afterward, the attendees flocked to
the Temple of Gratitude, where they would hold a midnight ceremony filled with lively music,

1
Throughout the dissertation, I will use “Caodai Mother Goddess” and “Mother Goddess” interchangeably.
Although the Caodai Mother Goddess may have shared historical and cultural roots with female deities and saints in
the “Mother Goddess religion” or “The Way of the Mother Goddess” (Đạo Mẫu), my work specifically refers to her
role within the Caodai context only.
2
The female maidens have also been referred to as “immortals,” “fairies,” and “muses.”

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chants, and rituals to welcome the spirits of the Mother Goddess and her female companions.
The festival tradition dated as far back as 1925, consequentially giving birth to Caodaism a year
later.
However, despite the central role of the Mother Goddess within Caodaism, this chapter
argues that she has not facilitated reconnection among Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodaists in the
U.S. and Cambodia. The Mother Goddess first made spiritual contacts through séances with
Caodaists in Vietnam during the 1920s, but popular devotion to her was institutionalized in
Cambodia and facilitated Caodai theology of universalism by outreaching to Khmers. Three
decades later, amidst the climate of war and violence, Mother Goddess rituals became
institutionally centralized at the Tay Ninh Holy See in Vietnam as an effort to unify the Caodai
community fragmented in several neighbourhood concentrations. In 1975, the takeover of South
Vietnam by Vietnamese communists suppressed religious life, extinguished all forms of Mother
Goddess veneration, and Mother Goddess houses of worship were forced to maintain an
underground profile. This only changed in 1997, when Caodaism was recognized as an official
religion by the Vietnamese communist government.
Meanwhile, Tay Ninh Caodaists who had fled to the U.S. since 1975 have been able to
strategically worship the Mother Goddess. Within the context of Christian hegemony and
racialized multiculturalism, this chapter shows that they have developed into two factions: non-
sectarian and sectarian. The former strand has consciously de-emphasized the significance of the
Mother Goddess in order to build its base around Caodaism’ teaching of universalism. The latter
group has revived devotion to the Mother Goddess since the 1990s, after nearly two decades in
which the practice was in hiatus and before its regained popularity in Vietnam. These tangential
orientations toward the Mother Goddess reflect a maturing Tay Ninh Caodai community in the

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U.S. that is competing with the Tay Ninh Holy See under the authority of the Vietnamese
communist government. These U.S.-based sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists see themselves as the
true chosen leaders of Caodaism during the twenty-first century because they have protected the
purity of Caodaism from communist interferences. As a result of this rivalry with the homeland,
Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodaists in the U.S. have not successfully re-established relations with
ethnic co-religionists in Cambodia, who are dependent on and under the authority of the Tay
Ninh Holy See.

THEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOTHER GODDESS

The name “Diêu Trì Kim Mẫu” (the Mother Goddess in Caodaism) is synonymous with
“Tây Vương Mẫu” [Taoist Queen of the Heavens], a spiritual mother in Taoism who lives in a
celestial garden that grows peaches of immortality. “Diêu Trì” or “Dao Trì” in Chinese refers to
her spiritual residence. “Kim” means gold or imperial. “Mẫu” is “mother” in Chinese and
Vietnamese. Her other names include, Buddha Mother (Phật Mẫu), Holy Mother (Đức Mẹ),
Immortal Empress Mother (Bà Chúa Tiên), Birth Mother (Mẹ-Sanh), Immortal-Fairy-Saint
Mother (Tiên-Thiên Thánh-Mẫu).
The Caodai Mother Goddess bestows one of the most important theological teachings of
Caodaism: religious universalism, the idea that everyone is equal to each other as children of the
supreme divine Caodai God. As reflected by a comment that Pham Cong Tac (the Hồ Pháp [Law
Protector] and one of three co-founders of Caodaism) made upon the installation of the first
Mother Goddess altar at the Tay Ninh Holy See on January 30, 1947, “There are ranking
differentials at the Temple for the Caodai God, therefore we must wear our religious uniforms in

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order to distinguish our ranks…But here, in the home of the Mother Goddess, we only come with
mother-child love. Therefore, we do not need to wear our religious uniforms.” Since this event,
Caodai dignitaries do not wear their distinctive colourful uniforms when they worship the
Mother Goddess. As with other Caodai followers, they wear a simple white Vietnamese
traditional attire (áo dài).
This emphasis on equality has been important in building bridges across social
differences and strata. This has been exemplified by Caodaism’ conscious efforts to open up
opportunities and encourage female involvements in its ecclesiastical leadership. Caodai females
can reach the rank of Cardinal (Đầu Sư), the third highest position a living Caodaist can obtain.
In a spiritual message sent to a female medium named Duong, the Supreme Being said: “Lady
Duong, I, your Master, assign you to establish the Female College. Your gender alone does not
condemn you to the kitchen. As this is the third salvation (Caodaism), there is a lot of work for
everyone…Males are not the only ones who have to work to obtain immortality and become a
bodhisattva. As I have said, at the White Pearl Palace (Bạch Ngọc Kinh), there are both male and
female participants, and usually, there are more females. So, follow my order to establish the
Female College,” (Thanh Ngon Hiep Tuyen 1972:25, cited in Bui 2005).
Likewise, within the theology of religious universalism, the Mother Goddess holds
equivalent and complementary status to the Caodai God, whose energy is yang while hers is yin.
Tay Ninh Caodaists have informed me that, while all living and non-living things originated
from the Caodai God, the Mother Goddess created all things by unifying the yin and yang
energy. As the creator and preserver of life, Caodaists believe that she could protect them from
secular materialistic seductions and return to the right path of spiritual cultivation and unification
with the Supreme Being.

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In addition to her spiritual representations, the Mother Goddess is also a historical and
mythical figure. Caodaists believe that she descended onto earth from heaven nine times, each
time as a female figure prominent in different religious and cultural traditions around the world.
According to a pamphlet distributed to all attendees at the 2010 Annual Mother Goddess Festival
in Tay Ninh, the Mother Goddess was:
1. A well-known Chinese female scholar during the dynasty of the Yellow Emperor in China
(China, approximately 2697–2597 B.C.)
2. Isis (Egypt, approximately 2500 BC-500 A.D.)
3. Hera or Juno, the wife of Zeus (Greece)
4. Demeter, Goddess of Harvest (Greece)
5. Maya, Mother of Gutama Buddha (India, approximately 400 B.C.)
6. Devibhayava (India)
7. Mary, Mother of Jesus (Israel, approximately 1
st
century B.C.)
8. Bodhisattva (China, approximately 95 B.C., during the Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty)
9. Dieu Tri Kim Mau (Vietnam, 1925)

THE MOTHER GODDESS IN CAMBODIA: VIETNAMESE-KHMER RELATIONS
AND RELIGIOUS UNIVERSALISM

The First Mother Goddess Temples in Cambodia (1927-1953)

Although Theravada Buddhism was the dominant religion of Cambodia and was
endorsed by the royal family, Vietnamese Caodaists were able to successfully transplant their

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newly founded religion into the country through devotion to the Mother Goddess. Between 1926
and 1927, they constructed the Kim Bien House of Gratitude (Báo Ân Ðường) for the Mother
Goddess on Pierre Pasquier Street in central Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This was a private place of
worship built by two Caodaists who opened the space to other faithful. It was the first Mother
Goddess devotional site. It was completed approximately a year after Caodaism was declared by
its founders as a religion in 1926 and several months after the re-establishment of the first Caodai
Temple (thánh thất) from a Buddhist center in Vietnam (Phi 2013).
In 1927, they held a ceremony to commemorate the first séance exchange with the
Mother Goddess two years later in Saigon, a tradition that became known as the Mother Goddess
Annual Festival. These early contacts with the Mother Goddess eventually gave birth to
Caodaism and provided a brief account about her life in China under the Yellow Emperor (2697-
2597 B.C.) (No Name 2013). However, Caodaists still did not know much about her role and
significance in the newly founded religion until this first commemoration ceremony in Phnom
Penh (Nguyen Unknown Date). Upon this occasion on the 15
th
day of the 8
th
month in the lunar
calendar, Caodaists at the Kim Bien House of Worship received the first Mother Goddess prayer
(Phật Mẫu Chơn Kinh) about the Mother Goddess from the Eighth Immortal Maiden (Center of
Overseas Caodaism 2013). This event initiated a new tradition in which Caodaists would always
recite this prayer during rituals worshipping the Mother Goddess.
Law Protector Tac was also present at ceremony during which the Eighth Maiden
delivered the Mother Goddess prayer. He had come to Cambodia about two weeks earlier (Tran
2007). His departure from Vietnam was in large part due to the French colonial government. It
was becoming agitated and fearful of Law Protector Tac’s increasing involvements in Caodaism
while he was working as an officer in Saigon, where Law Protector Tac co-founded the religion.

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On his first day of arrival in Phnom Penh, July 27, 2007, he and other Caodaists received
spiritual messages guiding them to establish the Caodai Foreign Mission. They immediately
responded by selecting leaders for the mission and built its base at the Kim Bien Mother Goddess
House of Worship. Law Protector Tac must have felt that the delivery of the first Mother
Goddess prayer by the Eighth Immortal Maiden less than two weeks later reaffirmed the Caodai
Foreign Mission. It was located in a minority position within the Buddhist majority Cambodian
society, aiming to bring Caodai teachings to peoples across all ethnicity. The project could
benefit from the blessings of the Eighth Immortal Maiden, the protectress of ethnic Chinese,
Thuong, and other minority people (Caodai Overseas Missionary Unknown Date). During her
lifetime, the Eighth Immortal Maiden lived under the Han rule in what is today northern Vietnam
(ward Pho Yen, Thai Nguyen province).
In response to Mother Goddess the prayer received in 1927 and the growing number of
Caodai followers, Caodaists decided to build the second Mother Goddess House of Gratitude
during the same year. It was also known as the “Mother Goddess House of Worship of Toul
Svay Prey” (Ha 2012). This Mother Goddess House of Gratitude was located at the intersection
Saigon Street
3
and Norodom Avenue in ChamKarmon, District 6, near the Tonle Bassac River
and several hundred meters from the Royal Palace. As with the Mother Goddess House of
Gratitude in Phnom Penh, many people mistakenly referred to this as a “Caodai God temple”
(thánh thất). Gradually, it functioned like a Caodai God temple. In addition to these two Mother
Goddess devotional centers in Phnom Penh, there was at least one more in Battambang but much
less is known about it.

3
Renamed to present-day Kampuchea Krom Boulevard by the Cambodian government during the 1990s as “an
attempt at reasserting Cambodia's rights on Lower Kampuchea” (Frings 1995).

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Vietnamese Caodaists in Cambodia were able to build close relationships with Khmer
through the Mother Goddess, thus further advancing toward Caodai religious universalism. Their
devotion to the Mother Goddess paralleled with the long history of goddess veneration among
Khmer people throughout southern Vietnam and Cambodia, such as the Black Lady near the Tay
Ninh Caodai Holy See (Taylor 2010 and 2004), Neang Khmau [Black Lady] or Preah Nean
Dharani (earth goddess) throughout Cambodia (Jacobsen 2008). This explains why, in 1927, they
were motivated to help Vietnamese Caodaists the Tay Ninh Holy See. The religious compound
was approximately 15 kilometers southwest of the Black Lady Mountain, a popular sacred
pilgrimage site for Khmers. It was in an isolated jungle of French Cochinchina that was still
populated by wild animals. However, despite the challenges, Khmers were dedicated to building
the Tay Ninh Holy See because a part of it would be used as a reservoir to collect the sacred
water running from the Black Lady Mountain. This would save them an arduous journey to the
source (Ha 2007).
The contributions of Khmers to the construction of the Tay Ninh Holy See were
recognized by Vietnamese Caodaists. While Law Protector Tac was in Cambodia, another
Caodai leader, Ngai Hien Phap, was managing the construction of the Tay Ninh Holy See and
later wrote a journal entry recognizing the contributions of Khmers to the project: “When
referring to the Khmer people (Tần Nhơn), I remember of the time when the religion was just
established. There were mostly Cambodian people who congregated at the Holy See to do merit
work, such as clearing the forest around the Holy Land so that the Holy See could be built...I
believe that the Caodai God will never abandon these loving people” (Tran 2007).
4
When the
Holy See was completed in 1937, it had areas within its compound designated for the Khmer

4
Exact location of the quote: http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~cdao/booksv/ddsc4-c4&5.htm

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Community (Tông Đạo Tồn Nhân) and the Kim Bien Community (Tông Đạo Kim Biên) in
Cambodia.
In 1927, a year since the founding of Caodaism, Vietnamese Caodaists’ success with
outreach to Khmers was overwhelming. Caodaists in Vietnam had not yet constructed a place of
worship for the Mother Goddess but they had been congregating at the first Caodai temple
remodeled from a Buddhist center in Tay Ninh. As the French colonial government had observed
at this Caodai temple in June of this year, the proportion between Khmer and Vietnamese
attendees can be as high as eight to one and, throughout the month, the former group was
consistently much greater in number than the latter (French Administrator of the Province of Tay Ninh.
1927). If there were approximately 10,000 adepts in 1927, based on Caodai scholar Blagov’s
(1999) estimate, then there were at least between 7,000 and 8,000 Khmers who had either
converted to Caodaism or had affinity toward it during the first year of the religion’s
establishment.
The number of Khmers in comparison to Vietnamese was probably even greater at the
two Mother Goddess veneration centers in Phnom Penh. In 1937, as a result of the growing
Caodai following, the Kim Bien Mother Goddess House of Worship expanded to include the first
Caodai God temple built in Cambodia. The Caodai Foreign Mission began to base its offices at
the temple (Caodai Overseas Missionary 2012). Cambodian rulers responded by promulgating a
decree prohibiting Khmers from visiting Caodai centers in Cambodia and Vietnam (Edwards
2007). However, this law was not fully enforced because Cambodia was under the French
colonial government. The French kept a close surveillance of Caodai activities but did not
institutionalize measures restricting religious freedom (Edwards 2007), and this was probably
because it was covertly supporting Catholic missionary activities in the country.

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Consequentially, Vietnamese Caodaists were able to continue to attract Khmers to their religion
through the mediation of the Mother Goddess.
However, due to political violence in the region during the 1950s, devotion to the Mother
Goddess alongside with the Caodai community life began to dwindle in Cambodia. In 1954, after
the Geneva Convention in Paris that ended French colonialism, Law Protector Tac foresaw
violent conflicts between North and South Vietnam and decided to go into exile in Cambodia
(Center for Studies in Caodaism Unknown Date). In 1955, Caodaists were forced by the
Cambodian government to relocate their Kim Bien Mother Goddess House of Worship and
Caodai temple. They protested against the official plan to build the Military Royal Direction of
Veterinary Medicine on their land but failed to stop the Cambodian government. Law Protector
Tac was able to negotiate with King Sihanouk, who he had befriended a year earlier during their
trips to Paris for the Geneva Convention, and received a 180 meters by 60 meters plot of deserted
land in present-day central Phnom Penh, on Mao Tse Toung/Monivong Boulevards and close to
the Mother Goddess House of Worship of Toul Svay Prey (Ha 2007). In 1955, Vietnamese
Caodaists began building the “New Mother Goddess House of Worship” (Tân Bảo Ân Đường),
which was often mistakenly referred to as a temple and gradually became known as the Kim
Bien Temple (Ha 2007).

However, the construction project was delayed until 1962 due to legal
battles over whether or not it had been approved by the government. Although the exact date is
unknown, several years later, Vietnamese Caodaists constructed a Mother Goddess shrine (Điện
Thờ Phật Mẫu) next to the Kim Bien temple.
As a result, on October 24, 1954, the Cambodian government signed a letter of agreement
stating that Caodaists would receive three lots of land (180 meters x 60 meters) on Toul-Svay-
Prey in District 5, the present-day location of the Kim Bien Caodai God Temple on Mao Tse

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Tung Street. The construction of the temple began in 1955 and was completed a year later.
However, the Cambodian government threatened repeatedly to demolish the temple because
Caodaists had not received the appropriate permission for its construction. The dispute was taken
to court and finally ended in 1962, when the mother of Prince Sihanouk intervened to support the
Kim Bien Temple.
5

However, amidst the escalating civil war in Vietnam involving Americans and spillover
effects into Cambodia, Vietnamese Caodaists and Khmers were not as involved in venerating the
Mother Goddess as during earlier decades. By the 1970s, due to anti-Vietnamese nationalism
under the Lon Nol and Pol Pot regimes, Cambodia nearly exterminated its ethnic Vietnamese
population, most of whom were either expelled to Vietnam or were killed. All Caodai centers
were completely abandoned and only the Kim Bien Caodai God Temple and its Mother Goddess
shrine had survived. Although many Caodaists in Cambodia had fled to the Holy See for refuge,
religious community life continued to be suppressed. By 1975, the newly installed communist
government of Vietnam had taken control of the Holy See and restricted all forms of religious
life. As Vietnamese Caodai refugees began returning to Cambodian between 1979 and 1988,
Vietnam extended this religious restriction into the country under its occupation.
Ethnic Vietnamese Caodaists did not openly revive Mother Goddess traditions in
Cambodia until 1992, when Caodaism became an official religion under the country’s new
democratic constitution. However, they have continued to live in fears because of the anti-
Vietnamese hostilities in Cambodia, which exploded under its agenda of nation building (Jordens
1993). Moreover, this has hindered their outreach to convert Khmers. The Khmer Caodai
enclaves in existence today are mostly descendants of converts and nearly all are located in

5
According to Ha (2007), there were two other smaller Caodai temples by 1969: one in Chamkarmon (a present-day
municipality of Phnom Penh) and the other in Battambang. During my fieldwork, Caodaists at the Kim Bien Temple
told me that these temples are no longer in existent and were probably demonlished during the Khmer Rouge period.

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Vietnam by the border with Cambodia or close to the Tay Ninh Holy See. Since Caodaism
became an official religion in Vietnam in 1997, Vietnamese Caodaists in Cambodia have
strategically submitted allegiance to the Holy See. They have depended upon the religious center
to protect themselves from ethnic marginalization in Cambodia. In turn, this dependence relation
has closed opportunities for building ties with ethnic co-religionists in the U.S., who are anti-
communist political refugees and oppose the Tay Ninh Holy See because of its working relations
with Vietnamese communists.

DEVOTION TO THE MOTHER GODDESS TRANSPIRED FROM CAMBODIA TO
VIETNAM: INSTITUTIONAL CENTRALIZATION AT THE TAY NINH HOLY SEE

The First Mother Goddess Shrine in Vietnam (1928-1941)

Amidst sectarian divides within the Caodai community during its early years in Vietnam,
the Mother Goddess became a distinctive representation and centralization of Tay Ninh
Caodaism. This branch gradually attracted the largest following and claimed to be the “original”
or root of the religion. In 1928, two years after Caodaism was declared as a religion, Law
Protector Tac led the efforts to construct the first Mother Goddess temple in My Tho,
approximately 135 kilometers from the Holy See (Bui 1986; Caodai Overseas Missionary 2012).
His faith in the Mother Goddess was cemented in 1927, when he was in Cambodia and, along
with other Caodaists, received the Mother Goddess prayer at the Kim Bien Mother Goddess
House of Worship. When he returned to Vietnam, he prayed to the Mother Goddess to help him
protect Caodaism from its internal divisions and preserve the “original” Caodai teachings

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associated with the Tay Ninh branch. Although Caodaism was established just a year earlier and
embraced the belief in an all-encompassing universal Caodai God, believers were fighting with
each other over leadership positions at the Tay Ninh Holy See (Ho Tai 1983; Werner 1981). In
response to his prayer, Law Protector Tac was instructed by the Mother Goddess to build a
shrine to worship her in My Tho (Bui 1986). He intended this first Mother Goddess shrine in
Vietnam to be a temporary sanctuary, away from the quarrels at the Holy See, and hoped that a
more permanent and grander place would be built after the construction of the Tay Ninh Holy
See was completed.
6

The Mother Goddess Shrine Moved to Truong Qui Thien (1941-1946)

Between 1941 and 1946, when Pham Cong Law Protector Tac was forced to go into exile
in Madagascar by the French government, the Mother Goddess shrine in My Tho was relocated
to Truong Qui Thien, three kilometers southwest of the Tay Ninh Holy See. Law Protector Tac
hoped that the transfer would further centralize the Tay Ninh Caodai community and facilitate
internal support among Caodaists during his absence. As in My Tho, the tradition of the Mother
Goddess Annual Festival continued to be held at the new temple.

6
The permanent and future temple for the Mother Goddess had been planned by Law Protector Tac to be built
approximately 12 kilometres north of the Caodai Holy See compound, on Binh Duong Street at the Phan Dao Thap
That village (Phận Đạo Thập Thất)
6
and near the bottom of the Black Lady Mountain. There had been many temples
and worshipping centers around this area because the mountain was considered as sacred to many people, including
Khmers (Taylor 2004). Law Protector Tac had allocated a large piece of land for the temple, expecting it to be as
large as the completed temple for the Caodai God inside the Holy See.
6
Due to political instability and violence,
which was particularly palpable around the Black Lady Mountain as it was used as a strategic surveillance site by all
military forces, the construction of the temple was never initiated. In 1954, as Truong Qui Thien was re-structured
into one of three areas of religious devotion known as “Trí Giác Cung,” this region encompassing the future Mother
Goddess temple was re-organized into a unit called “Van Phap Cung.” Today, this area is still functioning as a
Caodai gathering site although it is unclear and uncertain whether a future Mother Goddess would be built here
since the Tay Ninh Holy See came under the control of the communist Vietnamese government in 1975. There are
altars to worship the Caodai God as well as the Mother Goddess.

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Although the exact date is unknown, at Truong Qui Thien, the sign with the title of the
Mother Goddess in Nho characters was replaced with a painting of a Chinese woman sitting on
top of a phoenix. The painting was a replica of an original piece made in approximately 95 B.C.,
commissioned by Chinese Emperor Wu of Han to visually capture his encounter with the Mother
Goddess (Tran 2011). Its owner, Caodai Lady Cardinal Lam Ngoc Thanh, the highest-ranking
female in the history of Caodaism, lent this copy to Truong Qui Thien.

Centralization at the Tay Ninh Holy See (February 1947-present day)

In February 1947, immediately after Law Protector Tac returned from his exile, he
further focused his efforts on centralizing the Tay Ninh Caodai group through devotion to the
Mother Goddess. He transferred the altar of the Mother Goddess from Truong Qui Thien to The
Temple of Gratitude (Ba’o Ân Từ) inside the Tay Ninh Holy See.
7
The ceremony for the
occasion was one of the largest gatherings in the history of Caodaism, coinciding with the
completion of the Tay Ninh Holy See Temple less than ten days earlier. On February 22, 1947,
Caodaists received a spiritual message from the Mother Goddess expressing that she was moved
by her children’s devotion and love. Several months later, the first Mother Goddess Annual

7
The Temple of Gratitude is often mislabelled as the “Temple of the Mother Goddess” although it is only a
temporary sanctuary. The permanent and future temple for the Mother Goddess had been planned by Law Protector
Tac to be built approximately 12 kilometres north of the Caodai Holy See compound, on Binh Duong Street at the
Phan Dao Thap That village (Phận Đạo Thập Thất) and near the bottom of the Black Lady Mountain. There had
been many temples and worshipping centers around this area because the mountain was considered as sacred to
many people, including Khmers (Taylor 2004). Law Protector Tac had allocated a large piece of land for the temple,
expecting it to be as large as the completed temple for the Caodai God inside the Holy See. Due to political
instability and violence, which was particularly palpable around the Black Lady Mountain as it was used as a
strategic surveillance site by all military forces, the construction of the temple was never initiated. In 1954, as
Truong Qui Thien was re-structured into one of three areas of religious devotion known as “Trí Giác Cung,” this
region encompassing the future Mother Goddess temple was re-organized into a unit called “Vạn Pháp Cung.”
Today, this area is still functioning as a Caodai gathering site although it is unclear and uncertain whether a future
Mother Goddess would be built here since the Tay Ninh Holy See came under the control of the communist
Vietnamese government in 1975. There are altars to worship the Caodai God as well as the Mother Goddess.

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Festival was held here while Truong Qui Thien was under renovation. Since then, the Temple of
Gratitude replaced Truong Qui Thien as the primary host of the Mother Goddess Annual
Festival.
In 1951, the Temple of Gratitude underwent renovation. Law Protector Tac instructed the
Construction Committee to sculpt a statue of the Mother Goddess based on the painting of her on
the altar. His idea for the project was probably inspired by his childhood exposure of growing up
in a Catholic household, which has many statues of saints and God and, between 1941 and 1947,
he was exiled by the French government to Madagascar, which has a significant Catholic
population. Law Protector Tac also requested the Construction Committee to sculpt statues of her
thirteen female figures.
After the renovation was completed in late 1951, Law Protector Tac promulgated a
decree that reserved the title “temple” (đền) to refer to only the Shrine of Gratitude (Đền Thờ
Phật Mẫu) and the future permanent temple for the Mother Goddess. Meanwhile, all other places
of worship are Mother Goddess “shrines” (Điện Thờ Phật Mẫu), including at Truong Qui Thien
(Tran 2011). This distinction prohibited all shrines from having its own “legitimate” statues of
the Mother Goddess and her thirteen female companions. Beginning in 1949, as a result of Chief
Law Protector Tac’s decision, Truong Qui Thien held the festival on the 14
th
and the Holy See
followed it on the 15
th
of the 8
th
lunar calendar month (Cao Dai Tu Dien 2003). However, this
rotating system lasted for only two years. In 1951, Chief Law Protector Tac declared that the
Mother Goddess Annual Festival could not be held anywhere else except at the Tay Ninh Holy
See’s Shrine of Gratitude (Tran 2011; Kim 2011).
8
By the end of 1954, the Shrine of Gratitude in
the Tay Ninh Holy See superseded Truong Qui Thien as the central place for Mother Goddess

8
The Cao Dai Tu Dien [Caodai Online Dictionary] (2013) is the only source that I have found using shrine (điện)
instead of temple (đền) to refer to the Mother Goddess altar at the Tay Ninh Holy See.

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veneration. Under Chief Law Protector Tac’s re-organization, Truong Qui Thien ceased leading
Mother Goddess rituals and became an “Area of Wisdom” (Trí Giác Cung or Địa Linh Động),
one of three major areas of religious devotion immediately outside of the Caodai Holy See (Cao
Dai Tu Dien 2003).
Between the 1920s and 1950s, Law Protector Tac coalesced and solidified Tay Ninh
Caodaism through devotion to the Mother Goddess rituals. The centralization effort rallied
Caodaists to pool in resources across their small pockets of influences and enclaves throughout
southern Vietnam (Special Operations Research Group 1966). This enabled them to protect
themselves from sectarian divisions and hardships during the years of wars and political
instabilities. By the 1950s, devotion to the Mother Goddess had become much more popular in
Vietnam than in Cambodia. Although the Mother Goddess veneration in Vietnam was also
suppressed for more than two decades beginning in 1975, it re-emerged again as the key
instrument for revitalizing and centralizing Tay Ninh Caodaism at the Tay Ninh Holy See in
1997, when Caodaism was recognized as an official religion by the Vietnamese government.
Since then, the Tay Ninh Holy See continues to host the popular Mother Goddess Annual
Festival. Vietnamese Caodaists in Cambodia have been attending the ceremony as crossing the
border became much easier and no longer required a visa. In 2010, they were instrumental
leading the diplomatic delegation from Cambodia to the festival, which included the minister of
the Ministry of Religion and Cults. Meanwhile, however, nearly all Vietnamese Caodaists in the
U.S. have not made such efforts to attend this popular and arguably the most important Caodai
holiday. The exceptions have been Mr. Tran Quang Canh, his wife, and his small group of close
friends. Because of their participation and exchanges with the Tay Ninh Holy See, the
Vietnamese American Caodai community has accused them of being communist sympathizers.

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THE VIETNAMESE CAODAI COMMUNITY IN THE U.S.

Since the beginning of their large influx to the U.S. in 1975, Vietnamese Caodaists
encountered Christian hegemony and racialized multiculturalism. At refugee processing centers,
their religious affiliation was not appropriately recorded (Hoskins 2006 and 2008). Vietnamese
Caodaists were often mistaken for being Buddhists or Confucianists. A small number was also
inaccurately assumed to be affiliated with Catholicism because the religion has a similar
pronunciation to Caodaism. After they left refugee camps, many Vietnamese Caodaists were
sponsored by Christian families and dispersed throughout the U.S. in order to facilitate their
quick assimilation into U.S. society. In order to express gratitude to their Christian American
sponsors, many Vietnamese Caodaists converted “on paper” to Christianity. However, the
religious switching did not help many of them heal from their traumatic, unexpected, and abrupt
exodus from their homeland. As they were struggling with the practicalities of adapting to the
new society — such as learning English, securing employment, and re-uniting with friends and
family members – many continued to follow Caodaism privately at home, practiced
vegetarianism, and meditated regularly. These early experiences opened their eyes to the
marginalized positions of their ethnicity and religion even though religious freedom and cultural
diversity were touted as the cornerstone of American society. They provided the prisms through
which Vietnamese Caodaists revived and transplanted Caodai community life in the U.S.
beginning in the 1980s.
This section shows that, as in Cambodia and Vietnam, devotion to the Mother Goddess
serves as the proxy for tracing the centralization and transnational development of the Tay Ninh

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Caodai community in the U.S. This group has bifurcated into two distinct strands since 1975.
The non-denominational faction has strategically erased the Mother Goddess in an effort to build
a cross-sectarian base. It has aimed at universalizing Caodaism -- bringing religious teachings to
everyone and anywhere -- by de-emphasizing the significance of the Tay Ninh Holy See. In
contrast, the sectarian Tay Ninh Caodai branch has institutionalized itself around the Mother
Goddess in order to preserve religious purity outside of the communist-controlled Tay Ninh Holy
See. They revived Mother Goddess veneration in the early 1990s, several years before Vietnam
recognized Caodaism as a religion in 1997 and permitted co-religionists in the homeland to
engage in the same practice.
9

This chapter argues that the sectarian Tay Ninh faction but not the non-sectarian strand
has become increasingly more transnational despite its non-universal aspirations. This is
precisely because the organization’s centralization around the Mother Goddess re-orients
believers to the Tay Ninh Holy See in Vietnam. However, the homeland relations is adversarial
and motivated by opposition to the religious center, which sectarian and non-sectarian Tay Ninh
Vietnamese American Caodaists view as a puppet of the Vietnamese communist government.
Because of this disjuncture from the Tay Ninh Holy See, U.S.-based sectarian Tay Ninh
Caodaists have not been successful in mending ties with ethnic co-religionists in Cambodia.
These faithful depend on the Tay Ninh Holy See to protect themselves from anti-Vietnamese
animosities in the country.
Vietnamese Ethnicity

9
Cao Dai Thien Ly Buu Toa, a non-Tay Ninh Caodai temple, revived devotional rituals to the Mother Goddess
during the 1980s in northern California (www.thienlybuutoa.org).

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Regardless of whether they belong to the non-sectarian or sectarian branch, Vietnamese
Tay Ninh Caodaists in the U.S. have continued to ground their faith in Vietnamese ethnic and
cultural identity without denying Caodaism’s teaching of universal salvation for everyone,
regardless of race, ethnicity, class, or gender. While all of them expressed that Caodaism is
inclusive and welcoming of everyone, nearly all said that they are more focused on working with
Vietnamese people and fall short of outreaching to other ethnic groups. For example, a dentist
shared that he currently does not have a lot of time to contribute to efforts of propagating
Caodaism to “other Americans,” referring to non-Vietnamese Americans, but that is something
that he would like to devote to in the future. Similarly, a college student underscored the
importance of sharing Caodaism to “other nationalities,” but she wanted to focus her
involvements on the Vietnamese American Caodai community. She said,
What I look for right now is to have a lot of activities with the
Vietnamese American [Caodai] community in general. Although I
want to spread this religion to other nationalities, I know that this
big mission and it is not what I’m aiming for right now…I want
activities for the [Vietnamese American] youngsters…I want to be
a part in Caodai youth groups.
These non-denominational and denomination Tay Ninh Caodaists suggested that, in order for
Caodaism to realize its universal collectivity, its base within the Vietnamese community must be
strong. Hoskins (2006) has also observed this pattern among first-generation Vietnamese
American Caodaists in California. The priority to develop and cultivate Caodaism within the
Vietnamese community reflects the challenges of transplanting the religion in the U.S. for
Caodai faithful. Unlike other Vietnamese religious groups that already have relatively stronger

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institutional support, such as Catholic and Buddhist, Caodaists must rely on each other to rebuild
their religion. They do not have much external support because their religion is not well known
to the American public.
However, the strategic emphasis on preserving Caodaism is not only about pooling in
resources. It also reflects conscious efforts to maintain, celebrate, and appreciate Vietnamese
traditions and cultures in multicultural U.S. A college student expressed to me that she admired
the architecture of her Caodai temple because it “looks exactly like the one in Vietnam.” Another
interviewee, a medical doctor, shared that she was amazed by the different Vietnamese dances at
important Caodai religious ceremonies. She commented that “[Caodai religious ceremonies] are
so rich in Vietnamese culture. It’s something to be proud of.”
Several Vietnamese American Caodaists also conveyed that Caodai teachings are similar
to Vietnamese traditional values. As an engineer’s comment exemplified this,
If you don’t want someone to do something onto you, then you
should not do that onto others. That is from the [Vietnamese
traditional] five principles of behaviors: benevolent, loyalty,
politeness, intellect, and faithfulness. It is like the [Vietnamese]
national traditional customs. It does not belong to only the Caodai
religion….it is from the [Vietnamese] national traditional customs.
In addition to religious rituals and holidays, the Vietnamese American Caodai community also
annually organizes the Tet Festival (Vietnamese New Year) and the Vietnamese Mid-Autumn
Moon Festival, which correlates exactly with the Annual Mother Goddess Festival. Although the
larger Vietnamese community also organizes these events, locally organized temple-based
celebrations are opportunities for Vietnamese Caodaists to meet each other and share news with

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religious “brothers” and “sisters” who they may not see often. Unlike Catholics and other
Christians who regularly meet on Sundays, not all of my participants visit their temples on a
regular basis because religious attendance is not required within Caodaism.

Opposition to the Tay Ninh Holy See

Across factional divisions, Tay Ninh Caodaists in the U.S. have opposed the Holy See in
Vietnam. They believe that, since the Holy See came under the authority of the communist
regime in 1975, it has undergone many changes that violated Caodai religious constitutions. For
example, as they have often referenced, positions in the temple hierarchy are no longer
spiritually selected by the Supreme Being through séances. Instead, they have been appointed by
the government to individuals who are favorable to the state, according to my informants. As a
result, nearly all Vietnamese Caodaists in the U.S. do not respect the leadership at the Holy See.
During the course of four years of collecting data at several Caodai temples in southern
California, I have never heard Vietnamese Caodaists referring to Cardinal Tam by his religious
title. They nearly always called him ông, which is a pronoun that designates an elderly man but
does not recognize his position as the highest-ranking Caodaist.

CROSS-SECTARIAN CAODAISM AND ITS ASPIRATIONS FOR RELIGIOUS
UNIVERSALISM: THE INVISIBILITY OF THE MOTHER GODDESS

Early Non-Denominational Gatherings (1979-1982)

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When a group of five Vietnamese-American Caodaists first met each other in 1979
through informal ties, word-of-mouth, and newspaper advertisements, they did not centralize the
significance of the Mother Goddess in their communal religious functions in order to build
bridges across sectarian differences. As I have detailed in the previous sections, as much as Tay
Ninh Caodaists embrace the Mother Goddess as a symbol of their unity, members of other
Caodai sects de-emphasize her significance in order to assert their distance from the Tay Ninh
branch. According to a Tay Ninh Caodaist, the significance of the Mother Goddess to sectarian
and non-sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists is analogical to that of the Virgin Mary to different
Christian branches — Catholics worship her but Protestants do not. Caodaists in the U.S. must
contend with this important difference in order to construct a non-denominational group.
Although they all recognize the Mother Goddess, they have intentionally marginalized her
significance in their collective rituals and space of worship. This erasure has been strategic to
mediate a universal perspective on Caodaism, mitigating the dominant influences of the Tay
Ninh Caodai.
These early Caodai leaders gradually built their community under the leadership of Do
Vang Ly, introduced to them by a Caodai dignitary in France. Do was the former Ambassador of
the Republic of Vietnam to the U.S. and a member of the Centre for the Propagation of Caodai
Teachings (Cơ Quan Phổ Thông Giáo Lý), which presents itself as a non-denominational Caodai
research institute, but Tay Ninh Caodaists have generally considered it as a sect. He regularly
welcomed them to his home in Los Angeles, a space of worship that became known as the
“Caodai Temple of Los Angeles.”
During the early 1980s, many Caodaists from Orange County stopped attending Do’s
temple due to the long-distance travel of approximately 80 kilometers. Nevertheless, despite the

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reduction in the size of the community, Do and his remaining followers were able to make a
down payment for a home on a large piece of land in Perris, some 80 kilometers east of Orange
County. Their vision was to construct another Tay Ninh Holy See or a similar institutional
umbrella on this property. Meanwhile, they remodelled the home into the “Caodai Temple of
Perris” and established the Caodaism of the Overseas Vietnamese Organization.
Caodaists from Orange County sometimes congregated at Mr. Do’s new temple,
especially during financial difficulties that prevented them from renting a local home for
worship. However, the long distance discouraged many from returning permanently. Currently,
there are about 40-50 Caodaists who regularly attend the Caodai Temple of Perris, many of
whom belong to Mr. Do’s sect. Since the death of Mr. Do in 2008 that left a leadership vacuum,
this group has been struggling to regain its momentum.
Non-Denominational Centralization (1983-present)
In 1983, a Tay Ninh Caodai-led faction split from Do’s group in order to build a local
congregation in Orange County. Following the model coalesced under Do’s leadership, the role
of the Mother Goddess was de-emphasized in order to create a broad cross-sectarian coalition.
This was particularly important because, on the practical side, these Caodaists depended on
regular member donations to pay off the monthly rent of a house that they used as a temple.
Although they had previously met at a private home in order to reduce rental expenses, this small
space could not accommodate the growing Caodai community. The population growth was much
greater and faster than during the 1970s due to the arrivals of boat refugees (Zhou and Bankston
1998).
In 1986, under Che Thuan Nghiep, non-denominational Caodaists in Orange County
successfully raised enough funding to purchase a home in Anaheim, Orange County. They

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converted the property into the “Caodai Temple of Anaheim.” The role of the Mother Goddess
remained nearly invisible as this non-denominational community struggled to institutionalize
itself. They did not allocate space for a Mother Goddess altar nor observed the Mother Goddess
Annual Festival although the home had several spare rooms.
10
Members formed the “Association
of Caodai Seniors of Southern California” as a lay organization in which members were elected
by the general congregation to fulfil its leadership roles.
In 1992, they established the first non-denominational international Caodai group known
as the “Confederation of Overseas Caodaists.” Within the next few years, these Caodaists also
expanded locally through the purchase of another temple in Pomona and a piece of land in
Riverside. They became more active in bringing Caodai teachings to non-Vietnamese and the
younger Vietnamese generation. This was exemplified by their writings on Caodaism in English,
including Dr. Hum Dac Bui’s 1992 book, Caodaism: A Novel Religion, and his 1997 publication
co-written with Ngasha Beck, Caodai: Out of Many, One Religion of Unity. Additionally, they
held bi-weekly “scripture classes” on Sundays for the youth. These were in English and preceded
the weekly community prayers. For a while between 2006 and 2010, members of this non-
sectarian group also had a regular television program on Caodaism aired on the Saigon
Broadcasting Television Network, the largest overseas Vietnamese network.
In 2008, the group sold some of its assets in order to purchase a property and build the
“Caodai Center.” This center is focused on putting faith into practice by engaging in community
activities, such as holding meditation classes, distributing foods to the homeless, and organizing
cultural events for children. Through these outreach programs, non-denominational Tay Ninh
Caodaists in southern California have hoped to attract non-Vietnamese converts and build a

10
During my fieldwork, I observed that one room houses several altars for ancestors. However, I could not find any
altar for the Mother Goddess.

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communal space for the next U.S.-born Vietnamese Caodai generation. They have been
successful with the latter but not former goal.
As with their sectarian counterparts, the non-denominational Tay Ninh Caodai
community in the U.S. have remained distinctively Vietnamese. Often, any non-Vietnamese who
join the group would become like a “celebrity” since there are not many of them. Even with the
consideration of these cases and perhaps several more, more than 99% of all Caodaists in the
U.S. are still ethnically Vietnamese. However, this has not discouraged non-sectarian Tay Ninh
Caodaists from spreading the teachings of Caodaism and their openness has welcomed a number
of non-Vietnamese visitors. They have been conducting their bi-weekly scripture classes through
telephone conference calls in which Caodaists and non-Caodaists throughout the world could
participate in without charge. They have also continued these discussions on the internet, such as
on their Facebook page and website. However, despite the energy and revived spirit within this
non-sectarian branch, the members have not concentrated on reviving the Mother Goddess
traditions.
Unlike Vietnamese Catholics whose faith is familiar to American society and enjoy
institutional support from local Catholics to rebuild their religious communities in the U.S.,
Vietnamese Caodaists have to adapt many of their religious practices in order to adapt to life in
the new land. They cannot regularly meet on the 15th and the 30th of each lunar month because
of conflicts with work schedules. Instead, they have congregated weekly or biweekly during the
weekends. Similarly, they have often re-scheduled their ceremonial holidays to convenient dates.
Moreover, although chants and prayers have continued to be read in a Sinicized form of
Vietnamese, a few have been translated by Vietnamese Caodai leaders into English. There have
also been discussions about liberalizing the formal dress code of attending religious ceremonies

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from a white Vietnamese traditional dress to any form of attire in white. This openness has also
de-emphasized the need to follow a strict vegetarian diet and allowing individuals to slowly
integrate full vegetarianism into their lives.
The Tay Ninh Holy See De-Centered: Discourses of Religious Universalism
Non-denominational Tay Ninh Caodaists have criticized the Tay Ninh branch for its
arrogance. They have asserted that sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaism contradicts Caodaism’s central
tenet about religious universalism, which means that everyone belongs to the same universal
Supreme Being and all religions are connected to each other as one. They have claimed that
sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaism falsely assumes that it is the “authentic” and central form of
Caodaism. As a dentist I interviewed said, “You just say that you are a Caodaist…It’s good
enough. Caodaism is not called Tay Ninh Caodai. It is just Caodaism.” A medical doctor has
further maintained that sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaism carries with it pride as well as the potential
for exclusion. She said, “It [Tay Ninh Caodaism] is something to be proud of. But I think it’s
wrong to say that you’re it…and then exclude everybody. Because I think you’re going against
the doctrine of Caodaism.” The central philosophy of Caodaism is the belief in a universal God
shared by everyone. She has contended that this is the foundation upon which Caodaism teaches
religious tolerance. However, she has denounced sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists for deviating
from this fundamental belief by neglecting other Caodai perspectives and assuming superiority.
While this
anti-sectarian positionality has advocated the centrality of religious universalism, it has also dis-
affiliated itself from the Tay Ninh Holy See in Vietnam. First, non-sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists
have disregarded the religious center as an important place of worship. For example, an

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accountant discounted the significance of the Holy See in order to assert a non-sectarian view of
Caodaism. She explained, in Vietnamese:
It [the Tay Ninh Holy See] is nothing special to me.
Because in my religion, I believe in reincarnation. I have
been born into so many lives, who know where my origin is
from….Possibly in the previous life, I was born in China,
India. …I cannot possibly know. That is why it [the
Caodai Holy See Temple] is only a location. I do not have
to think that I am from Tay Ninh, I only know the Caodai
Tay Ninh sect. Caodai Ben Tre sect and Cao Dai Dao Phat
sect -- I do not need to know. I am not that close-minded.
Although she once revered the Caodai Holy See as a child growing up within a Tay Ninh Caodai
household, she has no longer regarded it as “special” or more important than any other religious
sites. The accountant has suggested that she could have followed any religion, depending on
chance and her birthplace.
Other Tay Ninh Caodaists in this non-denominational group have shared this perspective.
During an informal conversation, a college student informed me that she last visited the Tay
Ninh Holy See in 2005 but, contradictory to her expectations, she did not feel she belonged
there. She explained that the people were not welcoming like those at her temple in southern
California. Likewise, an engineer expressed that the Holy See Temple is “only a place.” During
his trip to the Tay Ninh province in 2003, he did not feel compelled to visit it amidst his “busy
schedule” with family and friends. Although these participants recognized the important role of

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the Holy See in the history of Tay Ninh Caodaism, they expressed a sceptical view toward its
claim as the “center” of Caodaism, the place that unites all Caodaists and guides the religion.
Second, Vietnamese American non-denominational Tay Ninh Caodaists have replaced
the temple with the body as the sanctuary of divine connection to the Supreme Being. During
several scripture sessions, several of them discussed that “the body is the temple” because they
believed that the Supreme Being is inside each person. As an electrician explained,
So each one of us has some components of God. For me,
my own belief of it is your conscience. Like when you do
something, you feel bad, your heart’s pumping fast, that’s
part of God in a way…telling you that that’s not right.
By replacing the temple with the “body” as the home for the Supreme Being, Vietnamese
American Caodaists suggested that each person is sacred and belongs to God regardless of where
they practice their religion. Wherever they are, God remains within them. This individualized
embodiment makes the Supreme Being portable to the U.S. even though the religion was found,
indigenized, and centralized around the Holy See in Vietnam.
In addition to the embodiment of God, they have contended that the Caodai God is
omnipresent. As an informant elaborated,
To me, wherever there is God, then we can go there to
pray. It does not mean that we have to go to the temple at
the Tay Ninh Holy See, the Pomona Temple, or the
California Temple….Wherever there is an altar, then there
is God, and we can just go there to worship.

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He has suggested that the Tay Ninh Holy See cannot represent the omnipresence of God nor does
it have the sole central authority within Caodaism. He has echoed other participants’ belief that
the Caodai community exists under the eyes of the Caodai God rather than the Tay Ninh Holy
See. During several youth scripture sessions, participants discussed that people’s “limited
minds” and irrationalities are incapable of materializing a temple for God. This perspective has
opposed a central Tay Ninh Caodai tenet that the Holy See is a sacred place because it was
constructed under divine instructions, sent to Caodai founders by séances.
Through these re-articulations of the embodiment of the Caodai God and his
omnipresence, Tay Ninh Caodai members in the non-denominational strand in the U.S. have
mitigated the centrality of Tay Ninh Caodaism and its Holy See. This dis-affiliation and
distancing have mediated the erasure of the Mother Goddess, who represents the spiritual and
institutional centralization of Tay Ninh Caodaism at the Holy See. Over the course of two years
of fieldwork, I observed that these non-denominational Tay Ninh Caodaists referenced the
Mother Goddess only during scripture classes and virtual meetings as part of their discussions.
However, as of today, they still do not hold the Mother Goddess Annual Ceremony nor do they
have a Mother Goddess altar. Although members may attend the ceremony individually at the
sectarian Tay Ninh Caodai Chestnut Temple, this has not been popularly advocated or
encouraged.

TAY NINH CAODAISM AND RELIGIOUS PURITY: THE CENTRALIZATION OF
DEVOTION TO THE MOTHER GODDESS

The First Mother Goddess Shrine, 1992-1998

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As the non-denominational Tay Ninh-led Caodai branch in Orange County began to gain
local and international momentum during the early 1990s, several Tay Ninh Caodaists branched
off to form a sectarian faction. They advocated the preservation of Tay Ninh Caodai teachings,
rituals, and organization as they were before communist interferences in 1975 in Vietnam. I refer
to this as “religious purity.” Their establishment was in the wake of major changes to religious
rituals that the Tay Ninh Holy See adopted in 1991. For these Vietnamese American Caodaists,
such revisions were a blasphemy because they violated the dictates of Caodaism as written in the
religious constitution. Moreover, they perceived these alterations as politically motivated, meant
to meet the commands of the Vietnamese communist-government rather than the Supreme
Being.
Most of them had strong oppositional orientation toward the Vietnamese communist
government. In general, they were recently arrived refugees who had escaped on boats or former
soldiers of the South Vietnamese army who were qualified for the U.S. Humanitarian Order
resettlement program implemented in the late 1980s. Their demographic backgrounds were in
contrast from most members of the non-sectarian Tay Ninh Caodai group, who were mostly
highly educated and had escaped Vietnam in earlier years. Thus, perhaps because of their recent
trauma exodus and sufferings under communism in Vietnam, sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists were
determined to mobilize against the Vietnamese communist-controlled Tay Ninh Holy See and
resurrect and preserve religious purity in the U.S.
One of the most important traditions that they revived was the devotion to the Mother
Goddess, which occurred before Vietnam recognized Caodaism as a religion in 1997 and
permitted such practice to resume. At their temple on Lampson Street – nominally referred to as

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the “Lampson Temple” – they had an altar for the Mother Goddess.
11
This was the first of its
kind in southern California. Although space in the temple was crowded because it was modelled
from a garage attached to a humble home, these denominational Tay Ninh Caodaists revived
Mother Goddess rituals. The altar shared the same space as another one for the Caodai God
although, normally, these altars should be in separate rooms or buildings. Their prayers were
simple and were not accompanied by traditional music. Because they did not have enough
members who could play various traditional instruments and be able to form an appropriate
orchestra, they could not organize a grand Mother Goddess Annual Festival. Music is
particularly important for such a sacred event because it symbolizes an invitation to the Mother
Goddess and her thirteen female companions to descend to the place of worship. As a result, on
the day of the Mother Goddess celebration, these sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists simply gathered
and prayed as usual at the Lampson Temple.
In addition to rituals, denominational Tay Ninh Caodaists’ search for religious purity also
sought to rebuild their religious community as they remembered before radical transformations
under communism in Vietnam. This was evident by the structural re-centralization of the
community based on the five-level organizational hierarchy that existed under the Tay Ninh
Holy See before 1975 (e.g. religious village, communist, district, province, and region), as I have
described in the background section in Chapter 1.
On 13 June 1992, these Tay Ninh Caodaists officially declared the establishment of the
“Religious Province of California” (Châu Đạo California) at the Vietnamese Convention Center
in Westminster City. Under the leadership of a former dignitary who was ordained by the pre-
1975 Tay Ninh Holy See, Thuong Mang Thanh, the religious province functioned as the
umbrella organization and representative of all other denominational Tay Ninh Caodai religious

11
The first Mother Goddess shrine in the U.S. was built in 1992 in San Jose, northern California.

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centers in California. At the time of its establishment, member temples included one Caodai God
temple in Westminster, another one in Sacramento, and a Mother Goddess shrine and Caodai
God temple in San Jose. It was the highest and largest Caodai organization outside of Vietnam.
The Religious Province of California quickly became the public face of the Tay Ninh
Caodai community, representing it at events such as neighbourhood parades and city council
meetings. It mediated connections and exchanges among Tay Ninh Caodaists dispersed
throughout the world, as exemplified through its regular publication of the Qui Nguyen
magazine, maintenance of a popular website, and the distribution of CDs on community
activities. The religious province also organized and hosted a number of important national and
international events, including meetings among overseas Caodai dignitaries and summer youth
retreats.

The Second Mother Goddess Shrine, 1999-present

Since the late 1990s, although the experiences of exodus have not been so immediate and
the transition to life in the U.S. have been much become much more stable, sectarian Tay Ninh
Caodaists have continued to uphold ideals of religious purity. This has been particularly evident
through the veneration of the Mother Goddess. On July 3, 1999, the Religious Province of
California introduced the community to the second Mother Goddess shrine built in southern
California. This shrine was larger and replaced the older one in order to accommodate the
growing denominational Tay Ninh Caodai following. It was located inside a Christian Church
purchased as the new administrative headquarters for the Religious Province of California.
Because the location was on Chestnut Street in Westminster, home of the largest “Little Saigon”

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Vietnamese ethnic enclave outside of Vietnam, it became popularly known as the “Chestnut
Temple.”
With the new Mother Goddess shrine, sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists have been able to
appropriately worship the Mother Goddess in a space separated from the Caodai God. They have
placed the altar in the center against one side of the room. In the middle of the altar has been a
plaque decorated with three vertical lines in classical Chinese characters. From right to left, the
first line reads (Sages of the White Cloud), followed by (Golden Mother of
the Resplendent Lake, which refers to the Caodai Mother Goddess), and lastly
(Nine Immortal Maidens) (Figure 2). Usually, surrounding the altar are religious offerings, such
as a vase with flowers, a cup of wine, a plate of fresh fruits, and an incense stick holder. In front
and facing the altar is an open space of worship. Rows of white pillows are usually neatly
arranged on the floors in front of the altar. This Mother Goddess worshipping shrine could
comfortably accommodate approximately 50 people although, during popular ceremonies, as
many as 200 people have filled the room and hallway.
During weekdays at six in the evening and on Sundays closest to the 15
th
and 30
th
of each
lunar month at noon, Caodaists have congregated at the Chestnut Temple to pray. The
ceremonies for the Mother Goddess and the Caodai God have been held at the same time.
Usually, in Vietnam, the prayers occur at different times — at noon for the Caodai God and six
in the evening for the Mother Goddess — so that everyone could participate in both rituals.
However, according to my informants, most Caodaists can only devote half of their Sundays to
temple activities and some must rely on other people’s assistance for transportation to the
temple. As a result, the concurrent services have compressed time devoted to temple activities to

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only the first half of Sundays. Generally, female Caodaists have tended to participate in rituals
for the Mother Goddess more so than their male counterparts.
As a part of its pursuit for religious purity, the sectarian Tay Ninh Caodai community has
also been keen on reviving the annual ceremony for the Mother Goddess, which was stopped in
1975 and allowed to resume in 1998 by the Vietnamese communist government. They initially
faced the challenge of not having enough members who could play traditional instruments and
collectively form an orchestra. However, once this problem was resolved as the community
expanded and attracted more followers, sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists immediately resurrected
the tradition of commemorating the first time in which the Mother Goddess communicated to
Caodaists in 1925.
12
However, because only the Tay Ninh Holy See is allowed to organize the
Mother Goddess Annual Festival according to religious doctrines, they have decided to initiate a
new tradition as an offshoot of that one. They have called this the “Observation of the Mother
Goddess Annual Festival” (Lễ Tưởng Niệm Hội Yến Diêu Trì), held on the 15
th
of the 8
th
month
of each lunar calendar year.
Through the Observation of the Mother Goddess Annual Festival, sectarian Tay Ninh
Caodaists have struggled to preserve religious purity as it were before Caodai religious life was
disrupted by the 1975 Vietnamese communist takeover. As in Vietnam, they have embraced the
Mother Goddess ceremony as the most important yearly religious holiday even though
attendance is not compulsory. Denominational Tay Ninh Caodai leaders have put strong
emphasis on the rituals for the Mother Goddess festival, replicating and reciting specific details
as noted in Caodai books printed before 1975. As an informant explained to me that everything

12
Not many Caodai communities in the U.S. have been able to form a traditional orchestra. During the late 1990s,
the Chestnut Temple was the only community in southern California that had one.

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from the flower arrangements to the footsteps and hand gestures of ritual performers have to be
carefully presented with precise accuracy to reflect the “beauty of the Caodai God.”
This quest for purity has been more vigilant since these Caodaists’ arrival to the U.S.,
with the trauma of displacement being further compounded by the experiences of ethnic and
religious marginalization. As Hoskins (2005, 2008 and 2012) has found, these Vietnamese
Caodaists see their refugee status as a privileged position in which they were chosen by God to
protect Caodaism from the impurity of communism in Vietnam. Although they could not
organize the Mother Goddess Annual Festival, an event which could only be hosted by the Tay
Ninh Holy See, this new tradition of “observation” of the celebration reflects sectarian Tay Ninh
Caodaists’ efforts to protect their religion from communist infiltration and disruptions due to
forced exodus.

The Tay Ninh Holy See Re-Imagined

In addition to rituals and practices, religious purity mobilized on the basis of devotion to
the Mother Goddess has also been centered on the spectre of a communist-free Tay Ninh Holy
See. As I have discussed earlier, the Tay Ninh Holy See is a manifestation of the Mother
Goddess as much as rituals, music, and celebrations devoted to her. It became a centralized
institution and iconic symbol of Tay Ninh Caodaism through the collective devotion to the
Mother Goddess. For example, the Mother Goddess Temple could only be within the Tay Ninh
Holy See compound. Similarly, according to religious decrees, the Mother Goddess Annual
Festival, the most popular Caodai festival, could only be held at there. Thus, for denominational
Tay Ninh Caodaists in the U.S., the pursuit for religious purity through the Mother Goddess must

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also preserve and centralize a Tay Ninh Holy See free of communist control. Consequentially,
this trajectory has been more oriented toward the homeland than the universalism of non-
denominational Caodaists in the U.S., which has been globally situated and has de-emphasized
the importance of Vietnam. It has dovetailed two simultaneous, contradictory processes: 1) to
maintain relations to the Tay Ninh Holy See in kin terms; 2) to oppose the present communist-
controlled Tay Ninh Holy See.
In their justifications for re-grounding Caodaism under the authority of the Tay Ninh
Holy See, sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists have often conveyed relations with “the holy land” in
filial and ancestral terms. As a youth leader at the Chestnut Temple elaborated:
The foundation of Caodaism is at the Tay Ninh Holy
See….Everyone wants to keep the words “Tay Ninh Holy See” in
order to remember the roots of where they came
from….Vietnamese people always want to remember their
roots….Just as in the family, we do not forget our father, mother,
and grandparents.
Similarly, another worshipper from the Chestnut Temple referred to the Holy See as the ancestral
root or “family nest” (tổ đình) that Caodaists must always remember and revere. He said:
[The Tay Ninh Holy See] is like an ancestral root. Firstly, it is the
place where the Holy House was first constructed. Secondly, it is
home of the universal Left Eye (the Caodai God), where we can
hold important religious ceremonies. Thirdly, the Tay Ninh Holy
See is where the Spiritual Law Protector sent [through séances] a
blueprint of the Holy See to Chief Law Protector Tac so that we

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could build it….This ancestral root is invaluable because history
cannot be replaced.
These Tay Ninh Caodaists have attenuated the Holy See’s sacred status through filial terms. This
“familization” of the Holy See — whether it is through the evocation of history or spiritual
contacts — has transformed it into a living body to which all faithful have direct blood
connection, and therefore to each other, as if the Holy See is their common ancestor. As a result,
this filial relationship has created a sense of community — or, more specifically, of family —
attached to religious experiences. This discourse has been tangential from the non-
denominational group’s articulation of the individual embodiment of God, which has denied the
significance of the Holy See as the sanctuary of sacredness.
The communal, filial tie has been further perpetuated by the collective submission to the
Tay Ninh Holy See. Sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists have maintained that “the holy land” is the
only place that can perform all Caodai practices and rituals and the sacred repertoire of Caodai
religious teachings. For example, they have asserted that séance, as a means of communication
with the spiritual world, can only be performed inside the temple. And, because religious
teachings are transmitted through séances, only books that are printed and propagated by the Tay
Ninh Holy See should be given credence. As a dental lab assistant explained,
Well, cầu cơ [séances] can only happen inside Tòa Thánh
Tây Ninh [the Tay Ninh Temple]. So anything outside Tòa
Thánh Tây Ninh, we always have doubts. But whatever
that comes from the Tây Ninh Temple, we don’t have
doubts.

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A leader of religious ceremonies said that he refused to use any books printed without the
signature and stamp of the Holy See. He noted that there are many books on Caodaism printed
by Caodaists in the U.S. but he cannot reference them because they were not produced under the
authority of the Holy See. Through these articulations, these sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists have
contended that “the holy land” is not only their place of origin but also their source of religious
guidance and affirmation. This collective affinity toward the Tay Ninh Holy See has further
solidified their sense of community as a family.
Simultaneously and contradictorily to filial connections, U.S.-based Vietnamese sectarian
Tay Ninh Caodaists have reinforced opposition to the Tay Ninh Holy See in their search for
religious purity. For example, the leader of religious ceremonies professed that he still maintains
direct contact with religious authorities in the Tay Ninh province for guidance on religious rituals
and practices. However, he emphasized that he relies on only those who have been “ousted”
from their religious positions at the Tay Ninh Temple and are now living “near” it. Similarly,
the secretary of the Religious Province of California indicated that Tay Ninh Caodaists continue
to send financial assistance to co-religionists in Vietnam, but only through those who they
personally know and trust.
U.S.-based sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists in the U.S. have institutionally organized their
political opposition to the Vietnamese government. For example, in 1998, when the Religious
Province of California hosted the second meeting for dignitaries of the pre-1975 Tay Ninh Holy
See, the attendees successfully passed a declaration that they “do not accept the Management
Council [at the current Tay Ninh Holy See], a movement that is established by the communist
authority [of Vietnam] and does not follow religious orders” (Ban The Dao 2012). Similarly, in
August 2012 and also under the leadership of the Religious Province of California, sectarian Tay

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Ninh Caodaists publicly announced three regulations against the communist-controlled Holy See
and Vietnamese government: “First, do not follow the orders of the current Holy See under the
Management Council and recognized by the communist government of Vietnam. Second, refuse
to welcome anyone who belongs to the communist Holy See and the Ministry of Religion.
Third, do not collaborate with the Ministry of Religion, which conceals the activities of the
communist government of Vietnam in plundering, deceiving, and hindering the progress of the
Caodai religion overseas” (Ngoc 2012).
1

Moreover, Tay Ninh Caodaists’ unified anti-communist stance has opposed any form of
exchanges with the Holy See. The few sympathizers of the Holy See that do exist in the U.S.
have been severely ostracized. Among them includes Mr. Tran Quang Canh, who organized the
American, Canadian, and Bangladeshi delegation visits to attend the 2010 Mother Goddess
Annual Festival, as has been mentioned in the introduction. He is the son of a former high-
ranking military general of the Caodai army. Since the late 1990s, he has publicly advocated re-
establishing contacts with the Holy See. Because of this highly controversial position, his
Washington, D.C.-based Overseas Missionary has become disintegrated and nearly all
Vietnamese American Caodaists have distanced themselves from him. During a 2009 public
video viewing event at the Caodai Temple of California in Orange County, I observed that
Vietnamese American Caodaists in the audience whispered gossips about him and none of them
directly spoke with him.
By upholding a collective and oppositional relationship with the current Holy See in
Vietnam, sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists in the U.S. have advocated a communist-free “pure”
form of Caodaism outside of its native land. Their movement has been mobilized upon the
grounds of devotion to the Mother Goddess. She is the distinctive religious and cultural symbol

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of denominational Tay Ninh Caodaism, marking it as different from its non-sectarian
counterparts and elevating it to the level of transnational, homeland-oriented institutionalization.
Through the Mother Goddess, sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists have re-grounded their affiliation to
the pre-1975 communist-free Tay Ninh Holy See. They have derived, imagined, and projected
this relations through oppositions to the current Tay Ninh Holy See under the Vietnamese
communist government.

CONCLUSION

This chapter has traced devotion to the Mother Goddess from its historical roots to its
contemporary manifestations. It has illustrated that, despite the centrality of the Mother Goddess
in Tay Ninh Caodaism, she has not mediated connections between Tay Ninh Caodaists who have
been living in Cambodia and the U.S. In Cambodia, Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodaists popularized
Mother Goddess rituals during the early years of the religion’s establishment between the 1920s
and 1940. However, their efforts gradually dwindled and even experienced a period of complete
absence due to political turmoil in the country. Today, they have not successfully resurrected the
tradition due to anti-Vietnamese animosities in their host society. Because of their precarious
ethnic and religious identities, Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodaists have to depend on protection
from the Tay Ninh Holy See in Vietnam. This homeland relations have closed off opportunities
for them to re-establish ties with ethnic co-religionists in the U.S., who has vigilantly opposed
the Tay Ninh Holy See and its affiliates because of close affiliation with the Vietnamese
communist government.

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In the U.S., Tay Ninh Vietnamese Caodaists have struggled to redefine the Mother
Goddess tradition within the contexts of Christian hegemony and racialized multiculturalism that
have simultaneously rendered their faith invisible and their ethnicity hyper-visibilize. By the
1990s, they have formed two main camps. The non-denominational strand has strategically
erased the significance of the Mother Goddess in communal settings and practices in order to
build cross-sectarian ties. Without the mediation of the Mother Goddess, members have become
locally centralized upon the shared aspiration to universalize Caodaism and de-center homeland
relations. The sectarian Tay Ninh Caodai offshoot, on the other hand, has revived Mother
Goddess devotional practice in order to advocate for the preservation of religious purity. This has
involved the recovery of religious rituals, traditions, and community organizational structures as
they had existed before communist control in Vietnam in 1975. Moreover, the Mother Goddess
shrine at the Chestnut Temple has facilitated collective orientation to an imagined and invisible
pre-1975 Tay Ninh Holy See. This spectre of a past Holy See has been constructed in dialectical
opposition to its present form under communism. As a result of this adversarial relations with the
Tay Ninh Holy See, Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodaistst in the U.S. have not been able to establish
connections to co-religionists in Cambodia through it.

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CHAPTER 5

GOD NEEDS A PASSPORT:
The Struggle of Vietnamese Caodaists in Cambodia
for Religious and Ethnic Recognition Across National Borders

On November 28, 2006, Caodaists in Cambodia met with a group of Caodai dignitaries
and communist cadres from Vietnam to transfer the tomb of Law Protector Pham Cong Tac from
their temple to Toa Thanh Tay Ninh, the “Holy See” of the syncretistic Caodai religion in
Vietnam. Despite Vietnamese governmental infiltration and control over the religious center
since 1975, Caodaists at the Kim Bien Temple in Phnom Penh remained loyal to Toa Thanh Tay
Ninh in their homeland. They believed that they were acting in accordance with the wishes of
Pham Cong Tac, who wrote in his will that he hoped to return to his homeland only when it was
“free, peaceful, and united.” Meanwhile, they turned a blind eye to their co-religionists in the
United States, who were organizing demonstrations and protests against the event, including a
visit by a delegation to King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia.
This chapter examines the Kim Bien Temple in Cambodia’s affiliation with its Tay Ninh
Holy See in Vietnam and how this connection has in turn impacted its ties to co-religionists in
the U.S. It examines the political, economic, and social conditions that have motivated cross-
border religious ties after decades of isolation from each other. Moreover, these religious
connections are analyzed at the temple’s institutional level by drawing upon individual
interviews and participation observation. The analysis reveals cross-border forms of
collaboration as well as negotiation with conflicts.
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The Kim Bien Temple
1
(KBT) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Since the early years of Caodaism, the Kim Bien Caodai God Temple has been the
central place of Caodai life in Cambodia. In 1930, Caodaists in Cambodia purchased a plot of
land on No. 37 Pierre Pasquier Avenue (present-day Monivong Avenue) adjacent to the Mother
Goddess Kim Bien House of Worship. They built the first Caodai God temple in Cambodia on
the property. On May 22, 1937, the inaugural ceremony of the temple was held with Law
Protector Pham Cong Tac and other prominent Caodai dignitaries in attendance. The occasion
coincided with the death anniversary of Victor Hugo, the Spiritual Chief of the Caodai Foreign
Mission that was to be based at the temple.
This mission was established in April 1927, approximately six months after the official
declaration of Caodaism as a religion. During this month, Pham Cong Tac, was transferred from
Vietnam to Cambodia by his French employers. When he arrived in Phnom Penh with a Caodai
delegation, Law Protector Tac stopped at the well-known Kim Bien Mother Goddess House of
Worship in Phnom Penh. It was the first place of worship built mainly for the sole purpose of
venerating the Mother Goddess and was the primary meeting site for a sizable group of
Vietnamese Caodaists engaged in missionary activities (Edwards 2007; Ha 2007). At the Mother
Goddess House of Worship, Law Protector Tac and other Caodaists engaged in a series of
exchanges with the spirit of Victor Hugo, using the phoenix-headed basket (đại ngọc cơ) and the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1
Unless otherwise specified, “Kim Bien Temple” refers to more generally the ethnic Vietnamese Caodai community
based at Kim Bien Caodai God Temple and the Kim Bien Mother Goddess House of Worship.
Chapter 5 God Needs a Passport NINH

187
more alphabetic “planchette” (tiểu ngọc cơ)
2
(Gobron 2007:91). Pham Cong Tac was instructed
to form the Caodai Foreign Mission. The mission was immediately established and became an
institutional bridge between the local Vietnamese-Khmer Caodai community and the Tay Ninh
Holy See, which the Theravada Buddhist Cambodian royal family had forbidden Khmers from
visiting because they feared it might prove a rival to their authority (Edwards 2007:201).
As the first Caodai God temple built in Cambodia and the first Mother Goddess House of
Worship, KBT was the center of religious life during Caodaism’ early years, from the 1920s to
the 1940s. Although the Tay Ninh Holy See was still considered as the headquarters of
Caodaism, its construction was not completed until 1947 and its opening ceremony was delayed
until 1955 largely due to war conflicts in Vietnam. Moreover, in addition to Law Protector Tac,
many Caodai dignitaries sought refuge at KBT to escape from military and political violence in
Vietnam (Ha 2007).
However, beginning in the mid 1950s, KBT’s central role began to deteriorate due to
social, political, and economic upheavals in Cambodia. In 1955, following the end of French
colonialism, the Kim Bien community was forced by the Cambodian government to relocate to
its present-day location on Mao Tse Toung Boulevard and Monivong Boulevard in central
Phnom Penh. The new religious center was located on a 180 meters by 60 meters plot of deserted
land. Pop Tac imagined it to be developed into “Model #2,” the second largest Caodai sanctuary.
However, due to decades of war in Cambodia and Vietnam during the twentieth century, this
vision was never realized. KBT continued to function as a refuge for Caodai and non-Caodai
Vietnamese fleeing the political upheavals and conflicts in Vietnam (Ha 2007). During the
1970s, when nearly all Caodaists fled to Vietnam to escape from attacks precipitated by anti-
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2
This is an alphabetic divination board similar to an Oujia board. It is a flat-rounded board, with the letters of the
alphabet arranged in a fan formation, so that the spirit medium can simply turn a pointer to the different letters to
spell out a message.
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Vietnamese Khmer nationalism, the KBT was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge regime. When
Caodaists began returning to KBT in the early 1980s, they had to slowly recover its buildings.
Meanwhile, they were also losing land to local Khmers who had either moved onto their property
or purchased a part of it from the Cambodian government. By 1991, they had lost 1/3 of the
temple’s original land.
Today, the Kim Bien Caodai God Temple and the Kim Bien Mother Goddess House of
Worship are located in one of the most expensive and busiest commercial areas in Phnom Penh.
They are surrounded by several embassies, including the Embassy of Vietnam which is
approximately 1.5 kilometers away. The Kim Bien Caodai God Temple is behind several large
businesses, which allow for only a narrow and long entryway to the temple. One could easily
miss the temple if it were not for a small sign with its name in Vietnamese and Khmer at the
entryway. The Kim Bien Caodai God Temple is separated from the Mother Goddess House of
Worship by about 100 meters. There are several large stores and a small street between them.
The Mother Goddess House of Worship is surrounded by vendor fruit and snack stands. Both
religious centers are “open” 24-hours in the sense that there is always someone on-site. Around
ten Caodaists live here, considering KBT as their primary place of residence for as long as
twenty-years. There are beds and a kitchen in the Mother Goddess House of Worship, where
men and women regularly congregate for meals.
KBT’s leadership resides with the Pastoral Committee. Its elected leadership positions
are president, external vice president, internal vice president, treasurer, and secretary. This body
of lay leadership is very similar to that at other Tay Ninh Caodai temples. Usually, at Tay Ninh
Caodai temples, the lay leadership works in conjunction with the ecclesiastical hierarchy, which
almost always have much more influences over religious and community life. However, KBT
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did not have a Tay Ninh Holy See-ordained dignitary until 2001, when one of its members
became a priest (lễ sanh) and this automatically gave him the highest authority at KBT.
The KBT Pastoral Committee claims that it has around 3,000 members.
During the course of my eight-month fieldwork, I observed that there were usually around 10-15
members at regular ceremonies for the Caodai God and the Mother Goddess. The most that I
saw was around 50 members who attended an important Caodai God ceremony that coincided
with Christmas. However, even at this large gathering, there were only one teenager and two
children. Everyone else was at least in their late thirties while most were older than 50 years old.
Caodaists shared with me that most members around the ages of fifteen and thirty were away for
work. In general, I noticed that nearly all KBT members were either Cambodia-born ethnic
Vietnamese or recent migrants from Vietnam. The former group spoke Vietnamese and Khmer
with equal fluency. The latter group usually did not know much Khmer. I met only non-
Vietnamese Caodaist. She was Cham and married to a Caodai Vietnamese.

Motivations for Mending Networks with the Tay Ninh Holy See

Anti-Vietnamese Khmer Nationalism and Religious Suppression, 1950-1989

Ethnic Vietnamese Caodaists have been motivated to re-establish ties with co-religionists
in Vietnam because their ethnic and religious identities have been precarious in Cambodia since
1954. With the rise of Khmer nationalism beginning during the 1950s, King Sihanouk set up a
system of ethnic order to re-construct the Cambodian society (Edwards 1996). Vietnamese
ethnicity was identified as “unassimilable” and perpetually foreign (Ehrentraut 2001; Owsley
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1995; Edwards 1995; Tarr 1992). As a result, although Caodaism had been in Cambodia since its
early years in the 1920s and had attracted a large Khmer through the veneration of the Mother
Goddess (as I have argued in the previous chapter), the religion began become associated with
Vietnamese ethnicity and a universal faith. As a religion from Vietnam, it was perceived by
Cambodian rulers as a Vietnamese political movement with colonial ambitions (Edwards 2007).
Moreover, Caodaism’s Sinicized rituals, cultural practices, and linguistic usage were portrayed
as oppositional to Cambodia’s Indianized cultural roots, such as the emphasis on wearing
Vietnamese traditional dress at religious ceremonies and chanting prayers in Vietnamese. These
differences further accentuated Caodaism as a threat to Theravada Buddhism, Cambodia’s state
religion and synonymous identification with the Khmer heritage.
During the 1970s, anti-Vietnamese hostilities precipitated into violent massacres under
the U.S.-supported Lon Nol and Pol Pot regimes. The anti-Vietnamese ethnic violence was
temporarily capped under control between 1979 and 1989, when Vietnamese troops occupied
Cambodia and installed a puppet Cambodian government. During this period, ethnic Vietnamese
Caodaists returned to Cambodia from their refuge in Vietnam. They were able to recover the
Caodai God Temple as a place of residence but not as a religious center. Religion was severely
suppressed by Vietnamese communists. As a result, ethnic Vietnamese Caodaists were forced to
conduct their religious activities clandestinely, restricting the use of traditional religious
instruments exclusively for important ceremonies.
However, in 1989, their ethnicity once again became the targets of Khmer nationalism as
Cambodia transitioned to a democracy independent of Vietnamese rule and under the guidance
of the international community. Because of their legal exclusion from the new Cambodia, which
defines citizenship on the basis of “Khmer” people, Vietnamese Caodaists became economically
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and politically marginalized. This heavily restricted their individual and community religious
life.
First, KBT community faced economic challenges as it tried to sustain religious rituals
and activities. A KBT leader informed me that since donations are voluntary, the temple has
rarely collects enough financial support to pay for utilities, food, and ritual objects. Leaders had
often stepped in to help with KBT’s financial difficulties. The financial restraints had persisted
largely due to the economic deprivation of Vietnamese Caodaists in Cambodia. A Caodaist
shared with me that he could save enough money to visit the temple only once every two months
instead of twice a month in which the rituals are held. He said that the cost of transportation and
the donation to the temple prevented many Caodaists from attending the temple regularly. Like
many other Caodaists, they did not live near the temple or in visible enclaves. Unlike many
ethnic Vietnamese Catholics who had usually been concentrated around a parish located inside a
village along the waterways of Cambodia, Vietnamese Caodaists had been dispersed throughout
Phnom Penh and the country. This group difference was due to the different occupational and
economic niches of each religious community. Whereas Catholics had dominated the fishing and
construction industries, many Caodaists had been engaged in commercial and business activities
on various levels (large and small) and therefore must travel for their work.
Second, the KBT community lacked political leverage to protect and defend itself in
Cambodia. This was particularly evident in its struggle to reclaim and protect the temple’s
property. In 1989, KBT representatives requested the ward-level Cambodian government to
intervene in the matter but did not receive a response.
3
In 1990, they submitted a similar letter to
the government in Phnom Penh (Kim Bien Temple 1990). In the letter, they stated that “the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3
Kim Bien Temple, 1989, “Letter to the Government of the Ward Tumnuptuc, Chamkamon District” (Phnom Penh,
Cambodia: December 19).

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activities of the citizens [who trespassed on the land of KBT] as described above constitute
violations of the right to religious freedom of [the] Caodai faithful and does [sic] not respect the
order of the Cambodian Government, in its relations with citizens in its country and of the world
with regards to religious freedom and civility.”
4
In addition, the Caodaists emphasized “the deep
level of collaboration between citizens of Cambodia and Vietnam, especially for those Caodai
faithful who see Cambodia as their second home.” However, their request for protection from the
Cambodian government was completely ignored. By 1991, the temple lost more than three-
fourths of its purchased land to local businesses and residents. Its original area of 180 meters x
60 meters was reduced to 25 meters x 27 meters. On May 1, 1991, a local Cambodian killed two
elderly Caodai with a tractor as they tried to stop him from demolishing a pole on the temple’s
compound. Caodaists were outraged by the tragedy, but, in the atmosphere of anti-Vietnamese
nationalist feelings after the departure of the Vietnamese military, they silenced their outcry for
fear that it would provoke even more violent aggression (Ha 2007).

Ethnic Marginalization and Limited Protection Under Religion, 1992-1993

In February 1992, KBT Caodaists saw a glimmer of hope when the United Nations
Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) arrived in Cambodia. The country had rewritten
its constitution in order to transition toward a democracy and become more integrated into the
global economy. These changes required Cambodia to adopt international human rights
standards, including loosening restrictions toward religious practices and institutionalizing
mechanism for recognizing religious groups. Consequentially, UNTAC worked with the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4
Kim Bien Temple, 1990, “Letter to the Phnom Penh Government” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: January 18).

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Cambodian government to enforce these changes. This led to the establishment of the Ministry
of Cult and Religion (MOCAR). The initiative removed the control of the Cambodian socialist
party over religious life and reduced restrictions on religion. It also institutionalized transparent
legal mechanisms for certifying religious groups and for safeguarding their well-being (Marston
and Guthrie 2004).
Within a few months, Caodai representatives approached UNTAC for assistance with
their attempts to seek legal recognition and to reclaim the Kim Bien Temple’s property. UNTAC
took the matter seriously and ordered the International Civilian Police to protect the temple and
its leaders (UNTAC 1992).
5
In letters exchanged with Cambodian politicians, UNTAC reminded
them that “the Supreme National Council of Cambodia has formally adopted legislation
pertaining to the rights of free association including by religious groups”
6
and pressed the
MOCAR Minister to “fully endorse the recognition of the Caodai religion to resume its
practices.”
7
Thereafter, UNTAC also requested the Cambodian authorities to cease all
construction on the temple’s property until its case had been resolved.
8
Although the construction
stopped for a short time, it continued and the Kim Bien Temple had to remind the Cambodian
government to intervene multiple times.
9
The dispute also provoked King Sihanouk to send a
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5
United Nations Transitional Authority of Cambodia (UNTAC), 1992, “Letter to Mr. E. Vetere, Provincial Director,
Phnom Penh Province, Civil Administration, regarding the complaint from Mr. Ngo Khi Phu and Mr. Vor Vang
Long” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: September 17).

6
Ibid., 1992, “Letter to Mr. Sim Ka, Mayor of Phnom Penh People’s Committee” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia:
November 23).

7
Ibid., 1993, “Letter to the Minister, Ministry of Religious Affairs, State of Cambodia” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia:
March 3).

8
Ibid., 1993, “Letter to Mr. Kry Beng Hong, Vice-Mayor, People’s Committee of Phnom Penh, regarding
restraining order – Cao Dai Case, no. 280 Keo Mony Street, Chamkamon District” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: March
22).

9
Kim Bien Temple, 1993, “Letter to Mr. Samuth Thoeun, Vice Deputy Chief, District Chamkamon, regarding the
ongoing construction on temple site” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: July 1). Ibid., 1993, “Letter to Mr. Kry Beng Hong,
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letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen on behalf of the Kim Bien Temple, urging him to help the
“ethnic Vietnamese of the Caodai religion.”
10

Meanwhile, in order to further assert their claims for legal protection and legitimacy as a
religious group during the early 1990s, ethnic Vietnamese Caodaists in Cambodia grounded their
religious roots and historic association with the Holy See. This was before Caodaism was
recognized as a religion in 1997 and an “indigenous religion” in 2008 by the Vietnamese
government. Moreover, although the discourses of religious rooting have had a long history of
framing the centralized relationship between the Tay Ninh Holy See and smaller temples, they
did not exist in Cambodia immediately before this period during the 1970s and 1980s. As I have
demonstrated in the previous section, during these decades, Caodai religious life in Cambodia
was suppressed due to political chaos and anti-Vietnamese ethnic violence and ties with the Holy
See had deteriorated.
KBT ethnic Vietnamese Caodaists evoked religious “roots” (gốc) in two ways. First, they
used roots to recognize the Tay Ninh Holy See’s status as the origin of Caodaism and supreme
authority given by the Caodai God. As such, they have contended that all followers throughout
the world must show continuous submission to it. As a Caodaist at KBT elaborated, “[The Holy
See] is our religious root. For any country that wants to establish Caodaism in its society, it must
receive permission from the Tay Ninh Holy See . . . Why is it like this? Because it was
established according to divine mandates received by the Revered Leader [Pham Cong Tac]. No
one would dare to disobey the orders of the Venerable Caodai.”
11
Similarly, a female member of
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !
Vice President of Phnom Penh, regarding the ongoing construction on temple ground, against the order of UNTAC”
(Phnom Penh, Cambodia: August 30).

10
Norodom Sihanouk (Former King of Cambodia), 1993, “Letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen” (Phnom Penh,
Cambodia: January 24).
11
Mr. Ba, interview, June 5, 2010, Kim Bien Temple, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
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the Kim Bien Temple Management Committee elaborated that the power of the Holy See is
reflected by its effective outreach to the local population. She said, “Down there (the Tay Ninh
Holy See), ten out of ten people are part of the religion. Whereas here, it is only about one or two
out of ten….that is why that (the Tay Ninh Holy See) is the root and here is a just a small
branch….and all small branches must always orient toward its roots.”
The second popular discourse of religious roots that KBT members expressed were in
familial and lineage terms. They frequently referred to members of the Tay Ninh Holy See as the
“older brother” and themselves as the “younger brother.” As one KBT Caodaist illustrated, “The
Kim Bien Temple also belongs to the Holy See…As we would cooperate in life, we would also
have to align ourselves with the older sibling (the Holy See).” Likewise, they often proclaimed
with pride that the Tay Ninh Holy See is “Model #1” (Mẫu 1) and KBT is “Model #2” (Mẫu 2),
in which the latter is smaller only to the former. As an ethnic Vietnamese Caodaist at KBT
explained, “Our temple is far [from the Tay Ninh Holy See], but the Revered Leader [Pham
Cong Tac] came here [Cambodia] a long time ago to establish the Caodai Missionary Center
here. The Tay Ninh Holy See is the most important religious site, but the second most important
one is here. The Revered Leader came here in order to spread the religion.” Although KBT is no
longer the second largest Caodai God temple
12
nor does it have an intact architecture similar to
the Holy See, KBT members has continued to uphold these beliefs in order to accentuate their
lineage ties to the religious center. For instance, during a conversation in which the President of
the KBT Management Committee lamented that KBT currently does not have enough land to
construct an “appropriate” Caodai temple (architecturally in resemblance to the Holy See), he
admitted that KBT is only a “temporary” sanctuary but maintained that it is still “Model #2.”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
12
Currently, the second largest Tay Ninh Caodai temple is in Dalat.
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Through these forms of religious rooting, ethnic Vietnamese Caodaists maintained that
Caodaism has a long history in Vietnam and was transplanted into Cambodia not long after its
establishment in 1927. As a KBT elderly explained, “In 1927, Our Honorable Founder Pham
Cong Tac came here (Cambodia) to establish the religion. So, Caodaism was founded in Vietnam
and, shortly thereafter, arrived in Cambodia. This means that Caodaism has been here for a long
time…It is because of this claim that the new law recognized Caodaism as a religion and could
be practiced freely here in Cambodia.”
Consequentially, as a result of external and internal political pressures, KBT was able to
obtain recognition for Caodaism from MOCAR in 1993. As an official religion, Caodaism was
no longer ethnic identified but a category with international human rights protection. Ethnic
Vietnamese Caodaists were able to legally protect themselves from these forms of ethnic
violence and exclusion with their religious recognition. As a KBT member elaborated, “After
Cambodia transitioned toward economic development and liberalization, our religion (Caodaism)
cannot be suppressed or eradicated…otherwise, Cambodia would not be able to develop and
become a member of the international community…in other words, if Cambodia does not protect
religions, it would not be able to progress.”
However, despite the religious legal recognition, KBT Caodaists were still legally
marginalized and unprotected in many ways. This was clearly illustrated by their battles to
reclaim the temple’s property, which UNTAC had left for the local court to resolve.
13
Ethnic
Vietnamese Caodaists in Cambodia did not trust the legal system. KBT leaders informed me that
they could not win the case without paying an exorbitant amount in bribery. As a result, within
the next ten years following the departure of UNTAC in September 1993, they did not pursue
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13
UNTAC, 1993, “Letter to Mr. Kry Beng Hong, Vice-Mayor,” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: March 22).
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court actions to reclaim the property of their temple. They remained ethnically isolated from, and
religiously marginalized in, Cambodian society.

Cross-Border Temple Collaborations

Cultivating Transnational Exchanges

In the late 1990s, after UNTAC departed, KBT continued to uphold discourses of
religious rooting in order to rebuild and leverage relations with the Tay Ninh Holy See. Vietnam-
Cambodia relations were improving and Vietnam also recognized Caodaism as a religion in
1997. Following these changes, several KBT representatives immediately began making regular
trips across the border to meet with members of the Management Council at the Tay Ninh Holy
See. Among them was Mr. Ngo.
14
He grew up in a Caodai family in Vietnam and immigrated to
Cambodia in 1980 in search of economic opportunities. He obtained Cambodian citizenship
through his marriage to a local Chinese Cambodian woman and, over the years, became fluent in
Khmer.
In 2001, a delegation of Caodai leaders from the Holy See visited the Kim Bien Temple.
A year later, Mr. Ngo was ordained as a priest (lễ sanh) by the Tay Ninh Holy See. This entitled
him to the highest position at the Kim Bien Temple, which had not had a Holy See-ordained
dignitary for more than two decades. Thereafter, Mr. Ngo established the first Holy See-
recognized Pastoral Committee, with himself as its first president. On January 29, 2003, he
registered the leadership body with the local Cambodian government and obtained its approval.
15

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
14
This is a pseudonym. Mr. Ngo, interview, June 15, 2010, Kim Bien Temple, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
15
Committee on Rituals and Religion of Phnom Penh, 2003, “Letter to the Kim Bien Temple regarding the
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In March 2003, the Kim Bien Temple formally declared its affiliation with the Holy See at a
grand celebration of its newly established Management Committee. The event was attended by
Caodai leaders from Vietnam as well as Cambodian and Vietnamese politicians, including
representatives from the Organization of Cambodian People of Vietnamese Ancestry.
In order to maintain affiliation to the Tay Ninh Holy See, KBT has become much more
centralized and dependent on it. First, it has been keeping a record of all members and submitting
it to the religious center. This has been necessary in order to obtain member identity cards issued
by the Tay Ninh Holy See. Second, the Pastoral Committee has to be sustained by regular
elections for leadership positions. These leaders have been responsible for meeting with the
Management Council in Tay Ninh on a regular basis. They have been accountable for reporting
news about their temple as well as enforcing religious orders from the Tay Ninh Holy See.
However, during my fieldwork, I learned that not all elected candidates know their roles and
responsibilities. They often followed the orders of Mr. Ngo. Third, KBT has integrated regular
religious rituals and changes according to the doctrines of the Holy See. This has been
challenging for many Cambodia-born KBT members because they do not understand the
significance of these religious practices. They have learned most of them through observations of
older Caodaists. As a result of these new challenges, KBT has continued to depend on the Tay
Ninh Holy See for guidance and leadership.
The centralization around the religious center has also suppressed different forms of
opinions and practices, thus further strengthening the local basis of KBT. For instance, there is a
Buddhist temple where a Khmer man has had a long history of venerating Law Protector Tac.
Historically, KBT members regularly met with him and his followers. However, the exchanges
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !
establishment of a new Management Committee” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: January 16).

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ended since KBT became affiliated with the Holy See. Likewise, a number of KBT members
have opposed affiliation with the Tay Ninh Holy See, but they have not dared to speak their
opinions openly. Since not even an important and large international agency such as UNTAC
could not guarantee them full protection, ethnic Vietnamese Caodaists at KBT have become
more aware of their inter-dependence on each other. Most of them are poor and their survival is
dependent on networks of support established through the temple. Moreover, they value
identification cards issued by the local government and Holy See that recognize them as a
Caodaist. It is a legal form of protection that they can use in the face of interrogation about their
faith. However, if they oppose the Pastoral Committee, they would be expelled from KBT and
would not be permitted to register themselves with the Cambodian government. For example, on
February 16, 2009, two members of the Management Committee were formally forbidden from
returning to the temple because they openly criticized the Holy See’s Management Council.
16

The Pastoral Committee interpreted their opinions and opposition as an attempt “to subvert” the
temple’s leadership and “divide the community of the faithful.”
17

As a result of these vulnerabilities and fears, KBT members have generally not expressed
their opposition to the Pastoral Committee’s decision to re-establish ties with the Tay Ninh Holy
See. Only five KBT members have privately shared with me their dissent. They have claimed
that, since 1975, the Tay Ninh Holy See has been desecrated because of its control by the
Vietnamese government. In particular, they have maintained that the establishment of the
Management Council in 1977 violated the religious charter written by the Caodai founders
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
16
Kim Bien Temple, 2009, “Blue Record Book of Temple Activities: Nguyen Thi Ngoc and Nguyen Ngoc Long are
not permitted to return to the temple” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: February 16).
17
Ibid.

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because it was never mentioned in the charter. However, ironically, despite their opposition, they
have continued to assist the Pastoral Committee in its relations with the Tay Ninh Holy See.

Political Leverage and Influences

Through its affiliation and working relations with the Tay Ninh Holy See, KBT has
garnered more protection from the Vietnamese government because it has been seen as an ally.
First, KBT has benefitted from the Overseas Vietnamese Organization (OVO), an institutional
arm of the Vietnamese government that has been transplanted and become more involved in
Cambodia since the late 1990s. KBT members have regularly sent their children to the
Vietnamese language classes organized and funded by OVO. KBT has also received charitable
contributions from OVO and its affiliates. During my fieldwork, OVO members regularly
stopped by KBT for casual conversations with the temple’s leaders and contributed large sums of
money (as much as $100 on one occasion, which is much more than the normal monthly $1 and
$2 donations by KBT members).
More importantly, KBT has elevated its status to that of a trusted community center for
all Vietnamese, regardless of their religious affiliation, through its favorable relationship with
OVO. The temple has been one of the oldest surviving Vietnamese institutions in Cambodia. Its
central role within the Vietnamese community in Cambodia has dated back to as far as the
1970s, when many Vietnamese flocked here for safety from anti-Vietnamese attacks because
they knew that it was a safe place, according to my interviewees.
As there are not many centrally located and resourceful Vietnamese institutions in
Cambodia by the since the 1990s, KBT has become very popular among Vietnamese in
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Cambodia and Vietnam. The temple is opened daily and twenty-four hours a day and is well
known for distributing coffins to poor families and assisting them with funeral services. Its
members have a wide range of local knowledge, from language skills to business networks. They
have often served as tour guides to these visitors and played an important role in helping newly
arrived Vietnamese to become familiar with Cambodian society. For example, the visitors may
be Vietnamese migrants who want to establish business ventures in the country and need KBT’s
cultural, political, and linguistic assistance. During the course of my eight-month fieldwork in
2010, I met a successful businessman from Vietnam who gave up his work in Vietnam in order
to volunteer for KBT and strategize a new business plan in Cambodia. I also met three
Vietnamese businesswomen who were able to establish local business contacts through KBT.
Perhaps because of these resources that Caodai and non-Caodai Vietnamese economic migrants
make up a significant proportion of the congregational membership at KBT beginning in the
1990s, a representation that is nearly 50% by 2010. These cross-border exchanges have also
benefited ethnic Vietnamese whose families have been living in Cambodia for many generations.
Several Caodaists at the temple informed me that they have re-established relations with lost
family members and friends through meetings with visitors from Vietnam. They have also
received generous support in the forms of charity, including rice, money, and books.
KBT’s role as a cross-border mediator has also been embedded within the politics of
Vietnam–Cambodia relations. The temple has become a meeting ground for Cambodian and
Vietnamese politicians, who visit regularly, not only to express friendship and financial support,
but also to share news and discuss political matters. In turn, the temple’s Management
Committee is responsible for informing the Vietnamese and Cambodia governments on issues
pertaining to the ethnic and migrant Vietnamese populations. The committee has also been
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obligated to facilitate exchanges between the two governments. For example, in August 2010,
members of the temple were requested by the Holy See’s Management Council to lead a
delegation of Cambodian politicians, including the Minister of MOCAR, to attend the autumn
Mother Goddess ceremony in Tay Ninh. Leaders of the Holy See welcomed the Cambodian
politicians and introduced them to their Vietnamese counterparts. Although the two sides had
met previously in private settings on occasions in the past, this was the first time that they met
publicly at the largest annual Caodai event in Vietnam. Mr. Ngo privately complained to me that
his temple had to bear the entire cost of bringing the Cambodian politicians to Tay Ninh.
However, he hoped that the visit would gain sympathy for the KBT community from both the
Vietnamese and Cambodian governments.

Legal Demands

As KBT’s political outreach expanded through reconnections to the Tay Ninh Holy See,
it decided to flex its political muscles to reclaim its lost property in court. It successfully
convinced Mr. Tran Quang Canh, a Tay Ninh Caodaist based in the United States, to contribute
$4,000 toward the cost of the legal proceedings.
18
On June 6, 2003, three months after it had
celebrated the establishment of its first Holy See-recognized Management Committee, the Kim
Bien Temple submitted letters to the Court of Phnom Penh concerning the continuing illegal
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
18
Mr. Tran Quang Canh first visited the Kim Bien Temple in 2001 along with the delegation from the Holy See. His
father, Tran Quang Vinh, played an important role in the temple’s early years. He was a bishop who worked closely
with Law Protector Pham Cong Tac on the religion’s missionary programs, as well as on founding the Caodai Army.
He served briefly as the Minister of Defense of (southern) Vietnam in the early 1950s. The young Tran followed his
father’s footsteps in the United States; he was the president of the Overseas Caodai Mission based in Washington,
D.C. Jammes’s (2009) article notes that Mr. Tran’s global aspirations eventually encouraged him to re-establish ties
with the Holy See. However, it does not mention that the majority of Caodaists in the United States opposed Mr.
Tran’s action and accused him of condoning the Vietnamese communist government’s control of the Holy See. This
opposition gradually led to the disintegration of Mr. Tran’s organization in the early 2000s.
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construction on its property.
19
It stated that the construction had stopped as a result of UNTAC’s
order in 1993, but had recently resumed. On June 16, 2003, Mr. Ngo represented the Kim Bien
Temple in a Phnom Penh court case demanding the return of property from the resident of house
#288 on Mao Tse Tung Street. Mr. Ngo won the case in early July 2003 as well as its appeal later
in the same month.
20
However, the battle did not end. On February 16, 2006, the case was
brought before the Highest Court of Cambodia.
21
On September 9, 2010, Mr. Ngo lost the case.
22

Caodaists shared with me that they had expected the defeat because they did not have as much
money as the defendant to bribe the judge and politicians. The legal defeat meant that the Kim
Bien Temple could not reclaim its land from surrounding businesses.
Despite religious recognition under UNTAC and political leverage through the Tay Ninh
Holy See, the court’s recent decision has reflected ethnic Vietnamese Caodaists’ precarious lives
because of their ethnicity and religious affiliation. In the case, Mr. Ngo has advanced Decree 2 of
Law 42, signed on November 27, 1993 by Hun Sen to defend and demand for the return of
KBT’s property.
23
The decree’s translation is as followed: “II. All governmental centers and
citizens who have built land on religious property for a place of residence, business, trades,
manufacturing, and industry must return it to the monk in management.”
24

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
19
Kim Bien Temple, 2003, “Letter to the Court of Phnom Penh regarding the construction on temple ground”
(Phnom Penh, Cambodia: June 6). Ibid., 2003, “Letter to the Phnom Penh Court requesting it to stop Mr. Kim
Navan from building and engaging in business activities on temple property” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: June 25).
20
Court of Phnom Penh, 2003, “Decision letter stating the case application submitted by Mr. Vo Quang Minh is
accurate and legal” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: July 1). Ibid., 2003, “Decision letter stating ‘the court upholds the
decision made on July 1, 2003’” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: July 30).
21
Highest Court of Cambodia, 2006, “Letter regarding case involving Mr. Vo Quang Minh and Mr. Kim Navan”
(Phnom Penh, Cambodia: February 16).
22
Ibid., 2010, “Decision letter regarding case between Mr. Kim Navan and Mr. Vo Quang Minh” (Phnom Penh,
Cambodia: September 9).
23
Hun Sen (Prime Minister of Cambodia), 1993, “Decree #42: Decree Regarding the Fundamental Supervision of
Temples and Their Properties” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: December 27).
24
Hun Sen (Prime Minister of Cambodia), 1993, “Decree #42: Decree Regarding the Fundamental Supervision of
Temples and Their Properties” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: December 27).
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However, when applying this decree, the court’s reasoning has revealed its own inherent
biases and discrimination toward Caodaism because it is religion conflated with Vietnamese
ethnicity. It has denied legal protection to Caodaists by claiming that the “Caodai Religion” is
“only a congregation” and therefore “does not have a relevant legal basis
25
to “demand for the
return of…ownership before 1979.”
26
Simultaneously, the court has argued that Theravada
Buddhism, on the other hand, is a “national religion” and thus could assert its right of ownership,
even if the property was owned before 1979.
On the surface, the court’s decision may not reflect its anti-Vietnamese inclination until
the case of the Catholic Church is juxtaposed in comparison. As I have discussed in the previous
chapters, the MEP-led Church has been able to either reclaim or repurchase most of its
properties. This has been a smooth process after it was allowed to return to Cambodia and
Catholicism was recognized as a religion during the early 1990s (Ponchaud 2003:37). Thus,
Catholicism has not been treated unequally in relations to Theravada Buddhism even though, like
Caodaism, it is an imported religion and does not have a large Khmer following as Theravada
Buddhism. This protection of religious freedom, regardless of the faith tradition, has been
guaranteed by the 1993 democratic constitution although it has also declared Theravada
Buddhism as a state religion.
The unequal legal and political treatments toward KBT, in contrasts to the Catholic
Church, are largely due to the fact that Caodaism has been conflated with Vietnamese ethnicity.
Although the religion has been in Cambodia since 1925, before its official declaration in
Vietnam a year later, and attracted Vietnamese and Khmers alike, this history has been tarnished
due to decades of anti-Vietnamese Khmer nationalism. Furthermore, the process of obtaining
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
25
Ibid.
26
Highest Court of Cambodia, 2010, “Decision letter regarding case between Mr. Kim Navan and Mr. Vo Quang
Minh” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: September 9).
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205
religious recognition under UNTAC has compelled KBT members to further hyper-emphasize
association with Vietnamese ethnicity, as I have illustrated through the discourses of rooting in
the Tay Ninh Holy See. The conflation of Vietnamese ethnicity with Caodaism has also been
assumed by highly well respected leaders such as King Sihanouk. In his 1993 letter to Hun Sen
inquiring about the KBT property, he refers to “ethnic Vietnamese of the Caodai religion” and
distinguishes them from “our people,” which references Khmers.
27
Although Vietnam-Cambodia
and Vietnamese-Khmer relations have been much friendlier beginning in the late 1990s, this
court decision in 2010 has discriminated against Caodaism on the basis of ethnicity.
It has remained as a “religious congregation” that is legally inferior to Theravada Buddhism and
cannot fully claim its right as a recognized religion of Cambodia.

Restricted U.S.-Cambodia Relations

KBT’s submission to the Tay Ninh Holy See has restricted the temple from establishing
ties with co-religionists in the U.S. When a delegation of Vietnamese Caodaists and other
followers from California and Texas visited KBT in 2006, the community welcomed the visitors
and, as a friendly gesture, accepted their gift of a statue of Law Protector Tac. However, the
temple could not fulfill the delegation’s request to install and display the statue permanently in
its compound because of disapproval from the Tay Ninh Holy See. Mr. Ngo explained, “The
Holy See informed us that, according to religious laws, only it could house any statue of Pham
Cong Tac. It is a blasphemy to have his statue elsewhere” (Mr. Ngo 2010). However, when I
asked him for the details of the religious law, he said that the Holy See did not share this specific
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
27
Norodom Sihanouk (Former King of Cambodia), 1993, “Letter to Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia” (Phnom
Penh, Cambodia: January 24).
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206
information with him. Currently, the statue of Law Protector Pham Cong Tac is enclosed in a
glass case and concealed under a thick opaque sheet of fabric. It is hidden in the Management
Committee’s private office. On June 12, 2009, the US-based Vietnamese delegation sent a letter
on the letterhead of the “Vietnamese-American Republican National Heritage Federation
Council of USA” requesting the Kim Bien Temple to return the statue.
28
However, the Kim Bien
Temple never replied. On November 10, 2010, one of the delegation’s members visited the
temple but was not greeted by its Management Committee.
29

Similarly, in 2006, the Kim Bien Temple did not heed co-religionists in the United States
when they protested vehemently against the transfer of Law Protector Tac’s remains from
Cambodia to Vietnam. According to Mr. Ngo, the temple had to collaborate with the Tay Ninh
Holy See because the Management Council had received approval and support from the
governments of Vietnam and Cambodia. As Mr. Ngo elaborated on August 7, 2010:
Everything had already been planned and so we had no choice but
to accept and collaborate with the request [to transfer the remains
of Pham Cong Tac]. Because of my prayers, along with a number
of brothers in the Management Council and the Management
Council, the event went smoothly and peacefully. Here in
Cambodia they [the government] helped us by providing three
ferry-boats . . . When we arrived to the other side of the border
with Vietnam, our brothers and sisters were waiting for us in as
many as 500, 700 cars. . . . So the Cambodia [government] side
helped out a lot with security and we did not encounter any
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
28
Vietnamese-American Republican National Heritage Federation Council of USA, 2009, “Letter to the Kim Bien
Temple requesting the return of the statue of Law Protector Pham Cong Tac” (Irondequoit, NY: June 12).
29
Kim Bien Temple, 2010, “Blue Record Book of Temple Activities” (Phnom Penh, Cambodia: November 10).
Chapter 5 God Needs a Passport NINH

207
problems along the roads . . . the Vietnamese [government] side
also supported this effort.
His comment revealed the major challenges for ethnic Vietnamese Caodaists in Cambodia and
the U.S. to establish cross-border relations. For this case, KBT either had to or wanted to
collaborate with the Tay Ninh Holy See and the governments of Cambodia and Vietnam.
Whatever the case may be, they were already in association with the Tay Ninh Holy See. Thus,
they were unable to negotiate the decision with their co-religionist counterparts in the U.S., who
had been distant from them for decades.
When I asked my U.S.-based informants about the transfer of Law Protector Tac’s
remains from Cambodia to the Tay Ninh Holy See, many knew about the event only through
international media outlets. The news was a surprise and shock to most of them. They had never
been in touch with co-religionists in Cambodia and nearly all did not know much about KBT and
the remains of Law Protector Tac. Most of them protested against the removal through online
petitions, diplomatic meetings, and letters. However, their interventions were too late.
The restricted relations between KBT and Vietnamese co-religionists in the U.S. have
permitted the Vietnamese communist government to further centralize Caodaism in Vietnam and
under its authority. In 2007, ten years after Caodaism was recognized as a religion, the
Vietnamese government officially recognized it as “an indigenous religion of south Vietnam”
(tôn giáo bản địa), with the publication of Pham Bich Hop’s state-sponsored work, People of the
Southern Region and Indigenous Religions: Buu Son Ky Huong – Caodaism – Hoa Hao
Buddhism (Người Nam Bộ và tôn giáo bản địa: Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương - Cao Đài - Hòa Hảo)
(Pham 2007). Although Caodaism has been locally known as a domestic religion among
Caodaists and non-Caodaists alike, the book is a symbolic political recognition of Caodaism in
Chapter 5 God Needs a Passport NINH

208
Vietnamese society. It reaffirms Vietnam as the root of Caodai religious life and practices, and in
effect marginalizes the oppositional voices of anti-communist Caodaists in the United States.
Today, the Tay Ninh Holy See has become a stage for Vietnam to display Caodaism to
the rest of the world in an officially monitored setting, distant from the protests of oppositional
Caodaists. Tour agencies throughout Ho Chi Minh City have been offering one-day bus travel
package tours to the Tay Ninh Holy See and to the Cu Chi Tunnel. Usually, tourists arrive daily
at 11.00 a.m. to observe the noon ceremony at the Holy See before heading to the Cu Chi Tunnel
on their way back to Ho Chi Minh City. Often, they cannot interact with Caodaists due to
language barriers. As a result, their introduction to Caodaism has been limited to information
about the religion given by tour guides or a colorful English brochure produced by the Holy See.
In addition to these daily visits, the Holy See also regularly hosts important diplomatic meetings.
In 2010, during the Mother Goddess Annual Festival at the Tay Ninh Holy See, the Vietnamese
government granted permission to the Holy See to receive cultural and political representatives
from Cambodia and Bangladesh. State-owned national television stations interviewed the visitors
and boosted Vietnam’s image as a country of religious tolerance.

CONCLUSION

The Kim Bien Temple in Cambodia has not been able to establish relations with co-
religionists in the U.S. A large part of this is because its members have continued to be
marginalized in Cambodian society on the basis of their Vietnamese ethnicity and Caodai
religious affiliation despite the interventions of UNTAC and improved relations between
Vietnam and Cambodia. As I have illustrated with the 2010 court decision, KBT members have
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209
continued to face anti-Vietnamese sentiments within the legal system even though their religion
has become an official religion since 1993. They have tried to leverage their marginalization by
surrendering their submission to the Holy See in exchange for its Vietnamese government-
backed political support. However, because of this dependence, KBT has also been closed off
from co-religionists in the U.S., who are generally known for their staunch opposition to the Tay
Ninh Holy See and the Vietnamese communist authority. The Tay Ninh Holy See and its
government have perceived U.S.-Cambodia relations among Tay Ninh Caodaists as a threat to its
influences over Caodaism. They have aimed to re-centralize the religion within Vietnam.

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 210
CHAPTER 6
CONCLUSION

In May 1992, a group of Vietnamese American Catholics and Caodaists joined nearly
200 other Vietnamese religious leaders and representatives from other parts of the world in
Rome to participate in “Prayer Day for Peace in Vietnam.” This was the first time in the
Vatican’s history that such an international meeting was organized around a shared concerned
for Vietnam. Missing from the represented countries were Vietnam and Cambodia, which were
loosening strictures on religious practices in order to become more integrated into the
international community. After the event, religious representatives from the U.S. continued to
meet on a regular basis and, a year later, formed the Vietnamese Inter-faith Council (Hội Đồng
Liên Tôn). The organization has become one of the most influential political advocacy groups in
the U.S., from endorsing political candidates to running voter’s registration drive and raising
funds for humanitarian social causes. Clearly, Vietnamese Catholics and Caodaists have been
part of the revival of religion in American life. However, the question has remained as to why
they are organized around ethnic lines in one of the most ethnically and religious diverse
countries. When Vietnam and Cambodia opened its borders, relations with ethnic co-religionists
in these countries factored significantly in how Vietnamese American Catholics and Caodaists
mobilized their local ethnic-religious communities and expanded their outreach across borders.
My dissertation has examined how and why, after decades of isolation from each other,
ethnic Vietnamese religious groups in the U.S. and Cambodia are motivated to establish cross-
border ties, and whether or not they have been able to materialize them. It contributes to
discussions within literatures on immigration, diasporas, and racialized religions about the

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 211
growing number of transnational religious communities maintained by ethnic minorities. Current
studies have generally been confined to one country or limited to homeland relations. This
methodological approach has privileged center-periphery dynamics and undermined the
significance of circulation, mobility and varied nodes that anchor exchanges among ethnic
minorities dispersed throughout the world (Azria 2008, Gilroy 1983). Moreover, research has
predominantly been based at Christian congregations and has not systematically engaged in
cross-group comparisons in order to trace the impacts of religion for defining the ethnic contours
of transnational religious relations.
My research has aimed to address these research gaps. I have investigated the structural
socio-political conditions that have facilitated, circumscribed, and hindered exchanges between
ethnic Vietnamese religious followers in the U.S. and Cambodia. I have anchored these
phenomena within historical, pre-migration experiences in the country-of-origin (Vietnam) and
traced their developments during resettlement in host countries and within contemporary
globalizing contexts. Among ethnic Vietnamese, I have made comparisons between those who
are following Catholicism (a foreign religion introduced to Vietnam by Europeans) and
Caodaism (a Vietnam-born indigenous religion). This means that my unit of analysis and
comparison is between the Catholic and Caodai Vietnamese transnational religious communities.
I have drawn my data primarily from interviews and participation observation in the U.S.,
Cambodia, and Vietnam. I have supplemented this with archival and online data and self-
publications by participants.
Theories about immigrant integration, diasporas, and racialized religions have presented
different explanations for the formation of ethnic-based cross-border religious ties. The first
perspective has emphasized shared ethnicity as the determining motivation. This view has been

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 212
complicated and, at times, contradicted by the diaspora framework. Diaspora scholars have
maintained that ethnicity cannot resist the pressures of assimilation and construct a cross-border
community. They have maintained that ethnicity will eventually fade over time because it is an
involuntary practice. On the other hand, voluntary forms of engagement, such as religion, can do
the ideological work necessary to initiate, motivate, and sustain transnational religious ties
among ethnic minorities.
However, theorists of racialized religions have asserted that believers do not always see
eye-to-eye with regards to religion because it is a site of conflicts that divides them based on
ethnicity and race. They have explicated that the asymmetries of power are simultaneous
processes within and between Christianity and non-Christian religions. First, ethnic minorities
who are Christians have been rendered as invisible because they are not ethnically
“representative” of the religion. Second, meanwhile, ethnic minorities who belong to a non-
Christian faith must continuously demand legitimacy and recognition as a religious group and
resist the conflation of their belief with ethnicity. Therefore, scholars of the racialization religion
perspective have contended that, rather than a common religion which the diaspora framework
has posited, the experiences of ethnic and racial marginalization within religious life are the
reasons why ethnic minorities are adamant about constructing cross-border ties with co-ethnic
co-religionists in other host countries.
My research has discovered that ethnic Vietnamese Catholic and Caodai co-religionists
have grounded their U.S.-Cambodia ties in racialized religious experiences. Despite the
constitutional protection of religious freedom in the U.S. and Cambodia, they have encountered
barriers to fully engage in their religious practices and beliefs. These hindrances have stemmed
from their racialized political positionality within their respective host societies, which has been

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 213
further compounded by international politics (e.g. Cold War). In the U.S., most Vietnamese have
attained citizenship rights based on their refugee status and yet have continued to be structurally
racialized as un-American despite their alliance in the war against communism. As Espiritu
(2006) has argued, this othering re-represents Vietnamese refugees as a group that needs to be
saved by American heroism and thereby necessary for the U.S. to redeem its political failures in
Vietnam. She has referred to this as the “‘we-win-even-when-we-lose’ syndrome.” In Cambodia,
Vietnamese have been denied citizenship status because of their ethnicity and have been forced
to conceal it as a strategy of survival. As a result, in both the U.S. and Cambodia, the inclusion of
Vietnamese believers as a religious group in the imagined community of the nation has been
predicated upon the very exclusion of Vietnamese ethnicity.
The local political reception of ethnic Vietnamese has impinged upon different religious
traditions and in turn has shaped varied trajectories of development toward religious
transnationalism. As a religion of the West, Catholicism in the U.S. and Cambodia has continued
to racialize ethnic Vietnamese as unrepresentative of the religion. In Orange County, the diocese
has embraced Vietnamese culture in order to perform and assert its claims of political correctness
within the American multicultural landscape. However, the church hierarchy has continued to
marginalize Vietnamese Americans from its leadership structure despite their large numerical
representation and high level of participation. This racialization has encouraged the erasure of
Vietnamese Americans’ history of traumatic flight from communism and the loss of a homeland,
as evident by the church hierarchy’s denial of a personal parish and the lack of support for the
Vietnamese Catholic Center. Likewise, in Cambodia, the Vicariate Apostolic of Phnom Penh has
racialized ethnic Vietnamese followers as foreign within the French-influenced MEP-led church.
The raciliazation has allowed the church to blame Vietnamese for its past and continuing failures

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 214
in Cambodia while elevating its status as an ally with Khmers, as evident by the church’s anti-
Vietnamese policies. Moreover, the racialization has systematically denied the recognition of
ethnic Vietnamese as the historical foundation of the church and continuing contributions to its
rebuilding efforts.
Consequentially, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in the U.S. and Cambodia have similarly
interpreted their ethnic marginalization as a form of religious persecution and that they have the
ethical responsibility to help each other through ethnic-based networks and institutions that exist
in parallel to the local ecclesiastical hierarchy. However, due to different local political
receptivity to their ethnicity, ethnic Vietnamese have strategized varied forms of collective
mobilization. In the U.S., they have leveraged their citizenship rights and expressed their
ethnicity within American multiculturalism, such as mobilizing the Vatican to recognize their
image of the Virgin Mary as a Vietnamese woman. In contrast, Vietnamese co-religionists in
Cambodia have become dependent on the Catholic Church for protection from their
statelessness. As a result, they have been vulnerable to the church’s anti-Vietnamese policies and
must conceal and suppress their ethnicity.
In contrast to Catholicism, Caodaism has been subjected to racialization because of its
status as a minority religion from Vietnam. It has been conflated with Vietnamese ethnicity in
the U.S. and Cambodia. In the former country, Vietnamese Caodaists have exercised their rights
as citizens and contributed to American multiculturalism by transplanting their religion. They
have claimed themselves as “God’s chosen people” because they have preserved the religion
from communist control and interferences in Vietnam.
However, their assertion has been obscured by the Christian-centric bias in the U.S.,
which cannot comprehend and interpret their “exotic” religious practices and beliefs. Thus, in

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 215
contrast to Catholicism, the untranslatability of Caodaism within Christian-based American
religious frameworks has made Vietnamese Caodaists unfamiliar and strange. This is very
similar to the experiences of many other Asian religions in the U.S., such as Hinduism (Kurien
2004) and Buddhism (Cheah 2011). Jacobs (2004) has argued that this religious blind spot
began as early as when the U.S. first established formal diplomatic relations with South Vietnam
and favored Catholic Ngo Dinh Diem over Caodai Pham Cong Tac largely because of their
religious affiliations.
The othering of Caodaism within Christian models is the main reason why, despite strong
efforts in the U.S., ethnic Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodaists have not been successful in converting
non-Vietnamese. At the same time, they must constantly clarify, advocate, and defend that their
form of Tay Ninh Caodaism is oppositional to the one located and based at the communist-
controlled Tay Ninh Holy See in Vietnam. Without a centralized hierarchy, as with the case of
Catholics, I have demonstrated through veneration to the Mother Goddess that Vietnamese
American Tay Ninh Caodaists have diverged into two main camps in their opposition to the Tay
Ninh Holy See: 1) non-denominational Tay Ninh Caodaists, those who have intentionally de-
emphasized the significance of the Mother Goddess in order to espouse religious universalism
beyond the confinement of the Tay Ninh Holy See and its main branch, Mother Goddess-
influenced Tay Ninh Caodaism; 2) sectarian Tay Ninh Caodaists who have revived devotion to
the Mother Goddess as an effort to preserve the purity of Tay Ninh Caodaism as it had existed
before the Vietnamese communist takeover of the religion in 1975.
These multiple structural and organizational developments have illustrated a maturing
Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodai community in the U.S. During their early years of arrival in the
1970s and 1980s, the immediate and traumatic experiences of displacement had unified

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 216
Vietnamese Caodaists across different perspectives for community rebuilding. They needed each
other in order to pool in enough resources necessary to transplant their religious. However, after
several years of resettlement that have brought stability to life in the U.S. by the 1990s,
Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodaists have began to assert distinctive visions for the development and
future of their religious community.
As in the U.S., Tay Ninh Caodaism in Cambodia has been racialized as a Vietnamese
religion. However, unlike in the U.S., it has not been able to thrive because of anti-Vietnamese
antagonism. Although international pressures on Cambodia eventually led to the official
recognition of Caodaism as a religion in 1993, four years before Vietnam, I have demonstrated
through official correspondences that it has not been followed by full legal protection from
ethnic discrimination and racism. Instead, the process of obtaining and maintaining recognition
has further conflated Caodaism with Vietnamese ethnicity. In order to verify Tay Ninh
Caodaism’ legitimacy as a religion, the recognition process has forced ethnic Vietnamese
followers to evoke discourses of religious rooting and associate with the Tay Ninh Holy See in
Vietnam even though such relations had been ruptured by war. Because of this orientation
toward Vietnam, ethnic Vietnamese Caodaists have become more vulnerable to anti-Vietnamese
hostilities although their religion had the strongest foothold in Cambodia and had many Khmer
followers during the its three decades (approximately 1925-1955).
However, while those in the U.S. could negotiate the conflation between Tay Ninh
Caodaism and Vietnamese ethnicity because of their citizenship rights (e.g., through claims of
religious universalism and purity), ethnic co-religionists in Cambodia do not have such freedom.
As stateless and ethnically excluded, ethnic Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodaists in Cambodia have
been forced to repress all forms of differences of opinions in order to sustain their solidarity and

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 217
facilitate the sharing of support among co-religionists. Consequentially, the Caodai community
in Cambodia has remained much more structurally cohesive and ethnically insular than its
comparison in the U.S.
As a result of the unfulfilled promises of religious universalism and inclusive belonging
due to ethnic marginalization, Vietnamese Catholics and Tay Ninh Caodaists in each country
have strategically valorized ethnicity in order to facilitate the exchanges of resources and
support. Beginning in the 1990s, after diplomatic ties among the U.S., Cambodia, and Vietnam
were re-established, they have been mobilizing and expanding these ethnic bonds across borders.
Vietnamese Catholics have grounded these ties in the shared sense of ethnic-based religious
persecution and ethical responsibility to help each other. Through informal institutions and
networks that exist outside of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in the
U.S. first established re-connections with co-religionists in Vietnam. At the turn of the century,
they worked together to outreach to ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia, whom they have
never met or have not been in touch with for as long as three to four decades.
Unlike their co-ethnic Catholic counterparts, Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodaists have
divergent transnational orientations. As those in the U.S. have been more concerned with
elevating and preserving their status as “God’s chosen people,” they have increasingly been
oppositional to the ecclesiastical hierarchy in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnamese Tay Ninh
Caodaists in Cambodia have continued to evoke and uphold their religious roots in the Tay Ninh
Holy See. This has been their strategy to leverage political protection from the religious center
and the Vietnamese communist government. The Vietnam relations have in turn restricted all
channels for ethnic Vietnamese Tay Ninh Caodaists in Cambodia to build ties with ethnic co-
religionists in the U.S.

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 218

RELIGION IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD

The “Ghettoization” of Religion

As a voluntary form of association protected by international human rights decrees and
national constitutions, religion has often been represented as a bridge that could traverse racial
hierarchy. It escapes nationalist paradigms that have often circumscribed ethnicity and
legitimized inequality and structural differences (e.g. multiculturalism, melting pot, and ethnic
cleansing) by promoting the teachings of acceptance, compassion, and tolerance. However, these
full promises of religion have been granted to only certain ethnic and racial groups. In the U.S.,
non-Anglo European immigrants and ethnic minorities have been able to slowly shed away their
“meltable” ethnicity and could use religion as a “backdoor to whiteness” (Twine 1997). In
Cambodia, non-Vietnamese ethnic minorities such as Chinese have the option to further express
their solidarity with Khmer people by adopting cultural practices such as Theravada Buddhism
(Tarr 1992).
Ethnic Vietnamese, like many other ethnic groups, have also been depended on different
religious traditions with the hope that they could be saved from their status as the “problem”
(Rutledge 1985; Ong 2003). However, they have not been able to use religion as a means to fade
away their ethnic backgrounds. They do not have “ethnic options” (Waters 1990). Instead, they
have become “ghettoized” by religion, segregated into sub-groups within a global religion such
as Christianity or restricted from spreading their homeland-grown religions to people of other

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 219
ethnic groups. Within Christianity, they have been rendered as invisible and unrepresentative of
the religion because they do not have “white faces” (Kim 2013:201).
Meanwhile, within non-Christian religious traditions such as Caodaism, their religion has
become orientalized and conflated with ethnicity. Thus, in contrast to those belonging to a
Christian religion, they are “hyper-visible” on the basis of their non-Christian religion and
ethnicity. Paradoxically, while they face the pressures to perform their exotic othering, they also
have to continuously see themselves through Christian hegemony. In order to legitimize their
religion, they have to “Westernize” to Christian normativity (e.g. congregational structure, social
services oriented, and bible classes) and recruit non-ethnic followers (Chen 2002 and 2008;
Carnes and Yang 2004; Yang and Ebaugh 2001).

Religion and the Specter of a Nation

Religion, as a “chain of memory” (Herview-Leger 2000), has been important in
facilitating continuity between the past and present for ethnic minorities. It has also been
significant for preserving memory as postmemory (Hirsch 1996), memory inherited and
maintained by the next generation despite the lack of direct contacts and experiences with it.
However, memory is not simply about nostalgia or melancholy (Nguyen-Vo 2006). It is a
contested site that must cross narratives of the nation. As Nguyen (2006) has claimed with
regards to Vietnamese in the U.S., they cannot navigate through their families’ legacy of exile
without “seeing themselves in the crosshairs of American solipsism and American memory”
(25). As refugees/immigrants/ethnic minorities in the U.S. and stateless persons in Cambodia,

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 220
Vietnamese believers are the rejected and orphaned children; they are the “problem” to the
“national order of things” (Malkki 1995).
As a “solution,” nation-state projects of “ethnic management” (e.g. assimilation,
multiculturalism, ethnic cleansing, cultural pluralism, etc.) have aimed to disconnect groups such
as the Vietnamese from their memory and past, representing their pre-migration history as an
aberration from the national imagery of the host society (Palumbo-Liu 1999; Espiritu 2003 and
2006). Thus, within such paradigms, “progress” toward belonging in the host society has been
measured by metrics such as the replacement of the native language and homeland loyalty with
that of the host society (Portes and Rumbaut 2006; Zhou and Bankston 1998). Although these
frameworks have been revised to consider contemporary exchanges that take place beyond the
borders of the nation, they have continued to emphasize local belonging as an “antidote” (Portes
1999:471) to the ethnic minority and immigrant predicament.
The case of ethnic Vietnamese religious followers in the U.S. and Cambodia has
illustrated that the site of “ in-between-ness, in-both-ness, and in-beyond-ness” (Fernandez
2003:265) is precisely where a different kind of nation could be defined. This is not a form of
“long-distance nationalism” (Anderson 1998) since the “homeland” is a source of trauma and
pain. For ethnic Vietnamese in the U.S., the Republic of South Vietnam is already dead. As for
co-ethnics in Cambodia, they have continued to be rejected by Vietnam. And yet, the ghostly
presence of the homeland has become real through their continuing exclusion by host societies.
Within cross-border religious life, ethnic Vietnamese religious followers in the U.S. and
Cambodia have looked to the homeland not simply as a place of constructed memory but what
Clifford (1994) would have called as “a place of attachment in a contrapuntal modernity” (256).
From this perspective, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics and Tay Ninh Caodaists in the U.S. and

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 221
Cambodia have juxtaposed the homeland and their places of resettlement in relations to each
other, neither of which defines their ethnic identity or constitutes the sole place of belonging.
Instead, it is from this point of the plurality of vision, seeing these worlds as occurring together
“contrapuntally” (Said 1984:172), that they have re-envisioned their nation of belonging
transnationally despite different local racialized ethnic and religious positions.
According to Hall (1990), it is precisely this juncture across differences that resists “the
imperializing, the hegemonising form of ethnicity” (235). It escapes the logic of essences vs.
differences and displacement vs. emplacement within nation-state projects of ethnic
managements, such as assimilation and multiculturalism. As Hall (1990) has argued, these
discourses of binary oppositions are produced from the same essentializing “dominant regimes”
that aim to “[impose] an imaginary coherence on the experience of dispersal and fragmentation”
(224). To cross these nation-based binaries, therefore, is to expose the violence and heal the
wounds of exclusion. As Cheah (2011) has observed in his study of Burmese Buddhists in the
U.S., domination and oppression on the basis of ethnicity and religion is the complicity of
multiple countries. Crossing these borders could produce a new kind of subject. One that is
neither simply ethnic nor diasporic but perhaps both or neither.

THE FUTURE OF ETHNIC-BOUNDED TRANSNATIONAL RELIGIOUS TIES

Will ethnic Vietnamese transnational religious ties be sustained in the future? Studies
have shown that, because overseas-born Vietnamese are moving away from the religions of their
parents and are not retaining their Vietnamese language and traditional cultures, they will not

Chapter 6 Conclusion NINH 222
have interests in maintaining ties with co-ethnic co-religionists in other countries (Dorais 2010
and 2001; Ha 2002). However, Espiritu (2002) has observed out that, despite their disconnection
from Vietnam, second-generation Vietnamese American college students have continued to
relate to it in their ethnic identification. This continuing affinity toward the country-of-origin,
despite long residency in the host society, has already been exhibited by ethnic Vietnamese in
Cambodia. Many are descendants of Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in the country as far
back as 150 years ago under French colonialism. Nevertheless, they have continued to identify
with their Vietnamese ancestry. This linkage, as I have argued, has been grounded in the
experiences of ethnic animosity and discrimination within their host societies.
Given these transnational and homeland orientations, U.S.-Cambodia relations among
Vietnamese religious groups may intensify in the near future. The community in the U.S. has
continued to show strength through institutionalization and collective mobilization, as is evident
in the growing number of parishes named after Our Lady of Lavang and the growing number of
new Tay Ninh Caodai temples. Meanwhile, ethnic Vietnamese Catholics in Cambodia may have
more legal protection for their ethnicity in the near future as bilateral relations between Vietnam
and Cambodia continue to improve. Together, ethnic Vietnamese religious communities in the
U.S. and Cambodia could continue to hold nation-states accountable to their promises of
religious freedom.
APPENDIX NINH 223
APPENDIX

CHAPTER 2

Figure 1: Our Lady of Lavang in the representation of Our Lady of Victories (presented
to the public in 1901, Lavang, Vietnam)

APPENDIX NINH 224

Figure 2: Our Lady of Vietnam (sculpted in 1995, Santa Ana, CA)

APPENDIX NINH 225

Figure 3: Our Lady of Lavang in the image of a Vietnamese woman (created in 1998 by
Vietnamese American sculptor Nhan Van, Lavang, Vietnam)

APPENDIX NINH 226

Figure 4: Khmer-looking Mary (created during the 1990s by MEP priests, Phnom Penh,
Cambodia)
APPENDIX NINH 227

Figure 5: Our Lady of the Mekong River (lifted from the bottom of the Mekong River by
Cham and Khmer men in 2008, Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

APPENDIX NINH 228
CHAPTER 5

Figure 6: Statue of the Mother Goddess inside the Tay Ninh Caodai Holy See.

Figure 7: The Mother Goddess shrine in Westminster, California.
APPENDIX NINH 229

Figure 8: Caodai Worshippers. Photo taken by Chestnut Temple,
Westminster, California.

REFERENCES NINH 230
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Asset Metadata

Creator Ninh, Thien-Huong T. (author)

Core Title Religion of a different color: Vietnamese Catholic and Caodai U.S.-Cambodia ties in comparative perspective

School College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Sociology

Publication Date 07/31/2013

Defense Date 05/14/2013

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Asia,Asian Americans,Cambodia,Caodai,Catholic,diaspora,Ethnicity,immigration,OAI-PMH Harvest,Race,Religion,transnationalism,U.S.,Vietnam,Vietnamese Americans

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Hoskins, Janet A. (committee chair), Gómez-Barris, Macarena (committee member), Nguyen, Viet Thanh (committee member), Saito, Leland T. (committee member)

Creator Email uscninh@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-310051

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