Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- 1 Modernity and Re-enchantment in Post-revolutionary Vietnam
- 2 Returning Home: Ancestor Veneration and the Nationalism of Đổi Mới Vietnam
- 3 Ritual Revitalization and Nativist Ideology in Hanoi
- 4 Feasting with the Living and the Dead: Food and Eating in Ancestor Worship Rituals in Hội An
- 5 Unjust-Death Deification and Burnt Offering: Towards an Integrative View of Popular Religion in Contemporary Southern Vietnam
- 6 Spirited Modernities: Mediumship and Ritual Performativity in Late Socialist Vietnam
- 7 Empowerment and Innovation among Saint Trần's Female Mediums
- 8 “Buddhism for This World”: The Buddhist Revival in Vietnam, 1920 to 1951, and Its Legacy
- 9 The 2005 Pilgrimage and Return to Vietnam of Exiled Zen Master Thích Nhẩt Hạnh
- 10 Nationalism, Globalism and the Re-establishment of the Trúc Lâm Thiển Buddhist Sect in Northern Vietnam
- 11 Miracles and Myths: Vietnam Seen through Its Catholic History
- 12 Strangers on the Road: Foreign Religious Organizations and Development in Vietnam
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Contributors
- Publications in the Vietnam Update Series
12 - Strangers on the Road: Foreign Religious Organizations and Development in Vietnam
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- 1 Modernity and Re-enchantment in Post-revolutionary Vietnam
- 2 Returning Home: Ancestor Veneration and the Nationalism of Đổi Mới Vietnam
- 3 Ritual Revitalization and Nativist Ideology in Hanoi
- 4 Feasting with the Living and the Dead: Food and Eating in Ancestor Worship Rituals in Hội An
- 5 Unjust-Death Deification and Burnt Offering: Towards an Integrative View of Popular Religion in Contemporary Southern Vietnam
- 6 Spirited Modernities: Mediumship and Ritual Performativity in Late Socialist Vietnam
- 7 Empowerment and Innovation among Saint Trần's Female Mediums
- 8 “Buddhism for This World”: The Buddhist Revival in Vietnam, 1920 to 1951, and Its Legacy
- 9 The 2005 Pilgrimage and Return to Vietnam of Exiled Zen Master Thích Nhẩt Hạnh
- 10 Nationalism, Globalism and the Re-establishment of the Trúc Lâm Thiển Buddhist Sect in Northern Vietnam
- 11 Miracles and Myths: Vietnam Seen through Its Catholic History
- 12 Strangers on the Road: Foreign Religious Organizations and Development in Vietnam
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Contributors
- Publications in the Vietnam Update Series
Summary
Introduction
When news of the disaster in Tân Cảnh village reached the office of “Protestant Aid”, the project officer, Mr Ðỗ, left immediately with his assistant and driver in their white Land Cruiser. It was early in the morning, yet there were already many people on the road. When Mr Ðỗ stopped by the side of the road to ask for directions to Tân Cảnh, another car went by with several white faces inside and an unfamiliar logo on the side door. Mr Ðỗ did not recognize them, and the car passed on. Less than a minute later, a second car pulled up alongside the Land Cruiser. In the back seat were two monks in orange robes. Mr Ðỗ did not recognize them either, and the car passed on. Following them, a third car with tinted windows and blue license plates travelled down the road. Mr Ðỗ could not see inside the car, and it too passed on.
Having found the correct way to Tân Cảnh, Mr Ðỗ stopped in a field near the village gate. To his amazement, not only were the three cars that passed him on the road parked nearby, but several other vehicles and dozens of motorbikes as well. Some of these were marked with organizational names and symbols; others were unmarked. “Who are all these people?” he asked himself. From one of the unmarked cars, a well-dressed Asian stepped out carrying two large suitcases. Mr Ðỗ had brought nothing but his notebook. At this point, he wondered if he should go on.
Mr Ðỗ's fictional predicament is becoming increasingly common in Vietnam. Of course, not all communities in need attract as many good Samaritans as the one in this retold parable. However, hundreds of foreign religious organizations are currently operating in different ways, alongside greater numbers of secular non-governmental organizations (NGOs), larger multilateral and bilateral development programmes, and existing programmes of the Vietnamese state. This expansion of development and charitable activity has occurred quietly since the mid-1990s, paralleling rapid growth in domestic religion.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Modernity and Re-EnchantmentReligion in Post-Revolutionary Vietnam, pp. 399 - 444Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak InstitutePrint publication year: 2007