As part of our trip to South Vietnam last month, we had a chance to go observe the Cao Dai worshippers at a town called Tay Ninh about 1.5 hours from Ho Chi Minh City.
Cao Daism (the belief of the Cao Dai religion) is the concept of a "Single Unifying Religion" and is a unique eclectic cocktail of fragments of Chritianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Confusionism, and a sprinkling of Animism ALL IN ONE under a single Flag Of The One Nameless Divinity! No conflict, no discussion, no disagreements, no differences......not a bad concept academically.
I shall take a quote on the Principals of the Cao Dai religion from their website - http://www.caodai.org/
QUOTE - Cao Dai is a universal faith with the principle that all religions have one same divine origin, which is God, or Allah, or the Tao, or the Nothingness, one same ethic based on LOVE and JUSTICE, and are just different manifestations of one same TRUTH."
"The noble effort of Cao Dai is to unite all of humanity through a common vision of the Supreme Being, whatever our minor differences, in order to promote peace and understanding throughout the world. Cao Dai does not seek to create a gray world, where all religions are exactly the same, only to create a more tolerant world, where all can see each other as sisters and brothers from a common divine source reaching out to a common divine destiny realizing peace within and without. - UNQUOTE
The Cao Dai Church/Temple/Mosque/etc boast of some 6-7 million devout followers in Vietnam and mostly concentrated in the town of Tay Ninh where they have a massive walled self governing compound resembling a Cao Dai city (aka Caodaijaya). A bit strange and contradictory to that might be expected of a communist country but the Cao Daist are well tolerated by the government (or seem to be superficially anyway).
Cao Daist dress in white robes and men wear a skull cap. They pray 4 times a day and Noon is a major time of worship for believers. Men & Women are segregated during worship and elements of all the major religions are demonstrated in their acts of praying - such as kneeling with the head to the floor (Islamic), chanting (Taoism / Buddhism) and making the sign of the cross (Christianity).
Exotic huh? I am not making this all up.
Tourist are tolerated inside the church but they have to go up to a balcony for viewing away from the worship floor when noon comes along.
Cao Dai Churches/Temples/Mosques are built in the same basic architectural layout all over Vietnam with a basic rectangular shape like a very long boat. There are 2 tall towers at the entrance. The main altar is at the other extreme end of the long rectangular hall.
The symbol of the Cao Dai religion is the all seeing Eye. A symbol of Single Eye in center of a Triangle. The eye is the left eye because they believe that it is nearer the heart and thus truer than the right eye. Closer examination will reveal that there are artistic subtleties in the eyebrow / border area that does indicate that this cannot be a right eye. Look closely.
