#2: Cao Dai

12.25: Cao Dai Temple

On the way back from Cu Chi, we stopped at the famed Cao Dai temple to watch the worshippers noon mass. Dao Cao Dai is a religion native to Viet Nam, and is the third largest religion in the country (after Buddhism and Roman Catholicism) with 7-8 million followers. It was founded recently, in the late 1940s, or something.

Caodaism is a syncretistic religion, which combines elements from many of the world's main religions, including Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, as well as Geniism, an indigenous religion of Viet Nam. Their temples look like Doctor Seuss books to me. The women all have to wear white. The men are dressed in different colors depending on what branch of Cao Dai they are. For example, if you are protestant cao dai, you wear red robes. Buddist cao dai has yellow robes. I'm a little fuzzy on the details of the whole thing, but here are some photos!