Goddess on the rise : pilgrimage and popular religion in Vietnam / Philip Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taylor, Philip, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vietnam, Southern--Religious life and customs.

Vietnam, Southern.

Southern Vietnam.

Physical Description:

x, 332 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawaiì Press, [2004]

Summary:

Since the early 1990s, the shrine of Ba Chua Xu, the Lady of the Realm, has become the most visited religious site in southern Vietnam, receiving more than a million visitors annually. Mother, benevolent creditor, healer, relationship advisor, business consultant, the Lady of the Realm is one of a group of goddesses whose shrines attract devotees from all corners of rural and urban society. Goddess on the Rise follows these pilgrims' pathways, taking readers on a journey through a cultural landscape of popular rites, beliefs, and exegesis into a world where female deities reign supreme. Philip Taylor's in-depth study of pilgrimage introduces readers to the practical expectations, passions, and controversies that surround the goddesses, bringing to life the effervescence, creativity, and flux of modern Vietnamese religion. He offers important insights into people's everyday experience of the profound economic, cultural, and social transformations underway in this socialist country.

Contents:

Spiritualizing the borders

The ethnicity of efficacy

Embodying market relations

Reinscribing rural religion

Familiar journeys

The experience of festival

Magical fame and symbolic ambiguity

The Lady and the Buddha

Goddess of freedom.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-326) and index.

ISBN:

0824826485

0824828011

OCLC:

52980440