Cao Dai

A VISIT TO THE TOMB OF VICTOR HUGO AND TO ALLAN KARDEC SPIRITIST CENTER

Updated 2012-08-10 11:43:56

(Reported by Tua Le. Paris, April 3^rd, 2012- Translated by Tuan Em)

After making a presentation on Caodai Religion at Vienna University in Austria, the delegation of Caodai religion’s overseas missionary comprising of 13 members from different states such as Washington DC, Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York headed for Paris, the capital city of France on March 30^th, 2012.

[ Detail ]

The path to studying Caodaism

Updated 2012-05-14 13:40:20

It was a Tet eve in 1984, when a one-day trip to Tay Ninh was arranged for a group of Russian oil experts from Vung Tau, including the author - still Moscow University undergraduate student, who worked at Vietsovpetro joint venture as an interpreter. Tay Ninh Holy See really proved a fascinating scene! Even for unprepared curiosity seekers a huge complex of temples - with a visible sign of a new religion, an eye surrounded by sunrays - looked amazing. The icon of “Three Saints” - Victor Hugo, Sun Yat Sen and a Vietnamese poet-prophet Nguyen Binh Khiem - near the entrance into the main temple clearly showed that the visitors faced an unparalleled religious phenomenon.

[ Detail ]

Why be a Caodai scholar ?

Updated 2012-05-14 13:40:20

My name is Chris Hartney and I have been a student in religion at the University of Sydney for more than seven years. The study of religion is one way of glimpsing the thoughts and the consciousness of the people of the world, and I have come to realise that Caodaism is playing a significant part in changing that consciousness.

Caodaism came to Australia only after 1975. By 1983 Caodaists had started gathering together and began building a community of believers. Since then a dynamic and hard-working community has evolved based mainly in Sydney but also working in the other capital cities of the Australian states. By the time I came to study religions at the University of Sydney, Australian Caodaists had already held their Fifth Convention. This meeting gathered Caodaists from all over our continent and took place in the Women’s College of the University.

[ Detail ]

Cao Dai in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Updated 2012-05-14 13:40:20

The CAO DAI religion (published in The Cambodia Daily, edition June-July 2005)

Tom Farrell

On 17 September last year, the mid-morning monotony of the Mao Tse Tsung Boulevard was interrupted by an unusual spectacle. Amid the petrol fumes and incessant growl of engines, twelve people in long white robes marched towards the Intercontinental Hotel. There the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was holding its Inter Parliamentary

[ Detail ]

Caodai in Cambodia

Updated 2012-05-14 13:40:20

CAO DAI IN CAMBODIA

(published in The Cambodia Daily, edition June-July 2005)

 
On 17 September last year, the mid-morning monotony of the Mao Tse Tsung Boulevard was interrupted by an unusual spectacle. Amid the petrol fumes and incessant growl of engines, twelve people in long white robes marched towards the Intercontinental Hotel. There the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was holding its Inter Parliamentary Organisational Summit (AIPOS). Adherents of ‘Cao Dai’, a syncretic religion indigenous to southern Vietnam, the six men and six women had sailed by boat up the Mekong to highlight a lack of religious freedom in Vietnam, a one party communist state since 1975.

[ Detail ]

Institutionalising Spiritism and The Esoteric

Updated 2012-05-14 13:40:20

Note - Christopher Hartney has a BA Honors in Religious Studies from the University of Sydney where he is currently completing a Masters of Philosophy on the history of Caodaism in Australia. He tutors and is a part-time lecturer at the School of Studies in Religion and also works as a broadcaster for religious affairs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The following is Chris Hartney’s presentation at CESNUR (Center for Studies of New Religions) Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 3, 1999.

[ Detail ]

What is the meaning of the ...

Updated 2012-05-14 13:40:20

What is the meaning of the HO PHAP altar at the Cao Dai Holy see in Tay Ninh ?

The altar consists of five semi-circular steps surmounted by three thrones (exactly one throne and two pedestals). It is on these steps that the twelve Lords of the Zodiac stand during ceremonies. These Zodiacal Lords serve as the official mediums of the religion and assist during seances.

[ Detail ]

CAODAISM TAUGHT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DHAKA, BANGLADESH

Updated 2012-05-14 13:40:20

Dr. Mohammad Jahangir Alam, Lecturer at the Department of World Religions, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, also a specialist in Caodaism, just informed that his department has approved the Cao Dai religion course to be included in the curriculum for third year students of the M.A program, starting with this academic year 2008-2009. The number of students registered for this course is 35, which is, according to Alam, a small number because the course is new, but hopefully this number will increase in the following academic years based on his estimate and discussion with the students.

[ Detail ]

Cao Dai Understanding of God

Updated 2012-05-14 13:40:20

About the author : Mohammad Jahangir Alam is a Lecturer at the Department of World Religions, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is in charge of the course in Caodaism there and is considered one of a few specialists in Caodaism in the Islamic world. Mr. Alam got his Ph. degree with the thesis paper “The Concept of Unity in Bahaism and Caodaism : a comparative study”. The following article is published in the research magazine “Philosophy and Progress”, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 2007 issue.

[ Detail ]

Dr. Joe Hobbs visit the Cao Dai temple in Saigon

Updated 2012-05-14 13:40:20

On May 20, 2009, at 10:00am, the dignitaries at the Cao Dai temple in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam), Bishop Thuong Minh Thanh and Priest Thai Tho Thanh had the honor to receive a prominent personality from the University of Missouri at Columbia. It was Dr. Joe Hobbs, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Geography at the University of Missouri in Columbia (also called Mizzou University, or MU), who is also Program Director of Viet Nam Institute of the University.

[ Detail ]