Caodaism: the founding of 1926, the Third Period of Salvation, the Divine Eye and the Tây Ninh Holy See

IA quick read in five points

One. The full name of the religion is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ, the Great Way of the Third Period of Salvation. Cao Đài 高臺 literally means "high tower" or "high platform". Here it is a title for the Supreme Being, and it became the everyday name of the whole religion.

Two. The religion took shape in Cochinchina during 1925 and 1926. Its founders submitted the Declaration of the Founding of the Religion (Tờ Khai Đạo) to the authorities on 7 October 1926, then held the great inaugural ceremony at Gò Kén pagoda in Tây Ninh province in the tenth lunar month of the year Bính Dần, that is, November 1926.

Three. The core of the teaching lies in eight words: quy nguyên Tam Giáo, phục nhất Ngũ Chi, returning the Three Teachings to their source and restoring the Five Branches to one. Caodaism does not present itself as a new religion built to replace the old ones. It presents itself as the third period of salvation following two earlier ones, in which the Supreme Being (Đức Chí Tôn) teaches directly through spirit writing sessions (đàn cơ) rather than entrusting authority to a visible founder.

Four. The object of worship is the Divine Eye (Thiên Nhãn), a left eye, placed at the center of the Globe of Heaven and Earth (Quả Càn Khôn). Followers pray at four set times each day, keep five precepts, and observe vegetarian days on a fixed schedule.

Five. Caodaism is not a single body. There are many Holy Assemblies (hội thánh) and branches, each with its own holy see and organization. The Cao Đài Holy Assembly of the Tây Ninh Holy See has the largest following.

IICochinchina in the 1920s

A religion does not spring up in a vacuum. To understand why Caodaism appeared precisely in the mid 1920s and precisely in the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam, one has to look at three layers of context laid on top of one another.

A colony with a legal opening

Cochinchina at the time was a directly ruled colony, unlike Annam and Tonkin, which were protectorates. French law applied here more directly, including the Law on Associations of 1901, which allowed groups to form and to register their activities with relative ease. That is why the founding group did not have to ask for permission. They only had to file a declaration.

Two streams of spirit communication meet

The first stream came from the West. Spiritism, spiritisme in French, flourished in France from the second half of the nineteenth century and reached Saigon through books and newspapers. Among Vietnamese civil servants who read French, table turning (xây bàn) became a familiar pastime: several people placed their hands on a small table, and the table tapped out letters of the alphabet with its legs.

The second stream was already rooted in the land. Cochinchina had séance groups of the Minh Sư, Minh Lý and Minh Đường lineages, which grew out of the Chinese and Vietnamese tradition of uniting the Three Teachings and used the great jade planchette (đại ngọc cơ) to receive messages. Ngô Văn Chiêu entered the religion through this stream, not through table turning. The two streams had different origins, but both treated the spirit writing session (đàn cơ) as a serious channel of contact with the sacred realm, and Caodaism was born where they met.

A land used to living with many faiths

Cochinchina was settled late. On the same stretch of delta there were already Vietnamese Buddhist pagodas, Khmer pagodas, Chinese temples and guild halls, Catholic churches, the worship of ancestors in every home, and indigenous religions that predated Caodaism such as Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương and Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa. People were used to a single village having many ways of worship, and used to the idea that all of those ways ultimately taught people to do good. Set against that background, the teaching that the great religions share one root and that the time had come to gather them back into one was no alien idea. It put into words what many people already felt but no one had yet built into a system. That is why the religion spread so quickly.

IIIThe founding of 1926

The story of the founding has two layers laid over each other, and readers easily blend them into one. The first layer is what the religion says about itself. The second is what outsiders can look up: dates, names, documents.

IVThe Third Period of Salvation

To understand how Caodaism sees itself, one must understand the phrase Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ 三期普度, the Third Period of Universal Salvation. Phổ means to spread everywhere, độ means to carry living beings across from the shore of delusion. Phổ độ is the opening of a teaching for the many. Cao Đài doctrine holds that Đức Chí Tôn has twice opened a way to save the world, that both of those periods faded over time, and that this is the third.

From that three period framework comes the eight word principle: quy nguyên Tam Giáo, phục nhất Ngũ Chi, returning the Three Teachings to their source and restoring the Five Branches to one. The Three Teachings are Buddhism, Taoism (the way of the Immortals) and Confucianism. The Five Branches of the Great Way (Ngũ Chi Đại Đạo) are five steps on a single path: the way of humanity, the way of spirits, the way of saints, the way of immortals and the way of buddhas. Returning to the source and restoring to one means bringing the branches back to their common root, not collecting a fragment from each place and mixing them together.

This point determines how Caodaism relates to other religions. Because it believes all three periods were opened by the same Being, Caodaism does not say the earlier religions were wrong. It says they were right for their time and then gradually lost their true transmission, like an oral instruction that drifts as it passes through many generations. The third period is therefore called the great amnesty (đại ân xá): those who practice in this period receive greater grace, may attain liberation in a single lifetime, and may deliver their ancestors across nine generations. This is what places Caodaism in a stance of continuation rather than denial, and it is the point outsiders most often miss.

VCore teachings

Đức Chí Tôn and Đức Phật Mẫu

The foundational scriptures are the Thánh Ngôn Hiệp Tuyển (Compilation of Divine Messages), the Tân Luật (New Code) and the Pháp Chánh Truyền (Religious Constitution).

Đức Chí Tôn is the Supreme Being, also called the Jade Emperor (Ngọc Hoàng Thượng Đế), whose sacred title in the religion is Cao Đài Tiên Ông Đại Bồ Tát Ma Ha Tát. He holds the Yang position and is the source from which the spirits of all beings are born. This is where Caodaism stands closer to religions that worship a single creator than to Buddhism.

But there is a second position. Đức Phật Mẫu, the Holy Mother, usually called Diêu Trì Kim Mẫu (the Golden Mother of the Jasper Pool), holds the Yin position and creates the perispirit and the bodily form of all beings. Put briefly: Đức Chí Tôn gives the soul, Đức Phật Mẫu gives the perispirit and the body. Đức Phật Mẫu is worshipped at the Báo Ân Từ temple and at the Holy Mother temples. Newcomers often assume Caodaism worships an eye and nothing more, and so miss an entire half of the system.

Soul, the three treasures, rebirth

A human being consists of three parts: the physical body, the chơn thần or perispirit, the intermediate subtle body, and the chơn linh or spirit, a spark of divine light drawn from Đức Chí Tôn. The spirit is never lost. It only changes its dwelling. The universe is a ladder of evolution with eight rungs, from matter, plants and animals through humanity and up to spirits, saints, immortals and buddhas. To be born human is already to stand at the middle of the ladder, so the religion regards a human body as a rare opportunity.

What makes up a human being the religion calls the three treasures (tam bửu) 三寶: tinh is the essence of the physical body, khí is the circulating vital breath, thần is the luminous spirit. The terms come from Taoist internal alchemy, and Caodaism placed them at the heart of its ritual: at every prayer time flowers are offered for tinh, wine for khí and tea for thần, that is, the whole of one's body, strength and mind.

Rebirth and karma remain as in the wider East: good deeds reap good, evil deeds reap evil, and after death one is reborn according to one's karma. What is distinctive is the phrase great amnesty: in the Third Period, a person who practices and earns merit may be pardoned part of their old karma. This is not a promise of unconditional debt cancellation. The scriptures tie it to the three kinds of work described below.

The five precepts and the four great rules

The five precepts (ngũ giới cấm) set down in the Tân Luật are: do not kill, that is, do not take the life of living creatures. Do not steal, that is, no robbery, fraud or borrowing without repaying. Do not commit sexual misconduct. Do not indulge in wine and meat to the point of losing one's mind. Do not lie, that is, no deceit or trickery.

If the five precepts are prohibitions, the four great rules (tứ đại điều quy) are four ways of conducting oneself. One, obey one's superiors and feel no shame in accepting good counsel from those below. Two, do not boast of one's talents, and forget oneself in doing good for others. Three, keep money coming in and going out clearly accounted for. Four, be the same person behind others' backs as to their faces. The third rule deserves notice: a newly founded religion placed transparent bookkeeping among its religious laws.

Vegetarian practice and the final goal

Vegetarian practice has clear grades: lục trai is six vegetarian days a month, thập trai is ten. Under the Tân Luật, only those who keep ten days or more may receive the esoteric method (bửu pháp) and enter a meditation house (tịnh thất) to practice. The highest grade is trường trai, lifelong vegetarianism, required of senior dignitaries. The reason is tied to the precept against killing: eating meat cuts across the upward path of another spark of divine light.

The ultimate aim is not wealth or long life, nor is it to reach a heaven and stay there. The scriptures call it returning to the origin (phản bổn hoàn nguyên): the spirit escapes the cycle of birth and death and reunites with Đức Chí Tôn. Every precept, every vegetarian day, every prayer time and every act of merit points toward that single destination.

VIThe Divine Eye

The Divine Eye (Thiên Nhãn) 天眼, literally "eye of heaven", is the principal object of worship, placed at the most honored spot in the main sanctuary. According to the religion's history, Ngô Văn Chiêu received this symbol on Phú Quốc in 1921 after praying for a form in which to worship the formless Being.

The teaching most often cited in the scriptures is the phrase 眼是主心, nhãn thị chủ tâm, lưỡng quang chủ tể, quang thị thần, thần thị thiên, thiên giả ngã dã. In plain terms: the eye is the master of the heart, the two lights hold sovereign power, that light is spirit, that spirit is heaven, and that heaven is I. To worship the eye is not to worship a part of the body. It is to worship the place where consciousness shows itself outwardly, and through it the Being who is master of consciousness.

Why the left eye

This is the question asked most often, and the religion's scriptures answer it directly. In the division of yin and yang, the left belongs to Yang and the right to Yin. Đức Chí Tôn governs the light of Yang, so the object used to worship Him is the left eye. By the same logic, at a ceremony men kneel on the left and women on the right, following the rule nam tả nữ hữu, men left, women right. As for why one eye rather than two, the scriptures explain it by number: one is the primal number of the universe, echoing the saying nhứt bổn tán vạn thù, one root scatters into ten thousand forms.

In the Great Temple at Tây Ninh, the Divine Eye is painted on the Globe of Heaven and Earth (Quả Càn Khôn), a sphere placed in the Bát Quái Đài (Tower of the Eight Trigrams), painted sky blue and bearing 3,072 stars. In local temples and on household altars, the Divine Eye is usually painted inside a circle.

VIIThe hierarchy of divine beings and the Three Saints

Caodaism worships one Supreme Being, but the Cao Đài altar holds more than one position. Beneath the highest is a whole ordered hierarchy of Beings that mirrors the framework of the three periods of salvation.

The Three Saints signing the covenant

The painting of the Three Saints signing the covenant (Tam Thánh ký hòa ước) is bound up with the Great Temple at Tây Ninh and is the thing that most intrigues visitors from afar. The three figures are Thanh Sơn Đạo Sĩ, that is, Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, the sixteenth century Vietnamese sage known as Trạng Trình. Nguyệt Tâm Chơn Nhơn, that is, the French writer Victor Hugo. And Tôn Trung Sơn Chơn Nhơn, that is, Sun Yat-sen of China. The three are writing on a stone tablet the covenant the religion calls the Third Covenant between Heaven and Humanity.

Its text is only eight Chinese characters, 天上天下 博愛公平, thiên thượng thiên hạ bác ái công bình, "above heaven and below heaven, universal love and justice", together with the French line DIEU et HUMANITÉ, AMOUR et JUSTICE. The painting is by Lê Minh Tòng, who held the rank of Hiền tài, measures 2.80 by 1.90 meters, and has hung on the wall of the Hiệp Thiên Đài facing the main entrance since August 1948. Those entering see it first. Those leaving have it at their backs, like an instruction to carry with them.

The three were not chosen at random: one Vietnamese, one French, one Chinese, representing the three cultures that met on the soil of Cochinchina in the early twentieth century. It should be made clear that this veneration took place after all three had died and belongs to Cao Đài doctrine. The painting also belongs to the tradition of the Tây Ninh Holy See, and not every Holy Assembly venerates the Three Saints.

VIIIReligious administration

A point few people notice: Caodaism had its organizational structure written down from its earliest years, in the Pháp Chánh Truyền. That structure rests on three towers (ba đài), not three levels one above another but three powers that check one another.

The nine ranks of the Cửu Trùng Đài

Three branches and women dignitaries

Male dignitaries are divided into three branches corresponding to the Three Teachings, distinguished by the color of their ceremonial robes: the Thái branch, corresponding to Buddhism, wears yellow. The Thượng branch, corresponding to Taoism, wears blue. The Ngọc branch, corresponding to Confucianism, wears red. The branch name is joined to the dignitary's religious name, so the branch can be read from the name itself.

The women's college has its own hierarchy of dignitaries, the highest rank being Đầu Sư. Under the Pháp Chánh Truyền, the women's college has no Giáo Tông and no Chưởng Pháp. Women dignitaries wear white. Ordinary followers also wear the white áo dài at ceremonies, and men add a black turban. The structure described here is that of the Tây Ninh Holy See. Other Holy Assemblies keep the three tower framework but use different titles for the ranks.

IXRitual and vegetarian days

The religious life of a Cao Đài follower is measured by the rhythm of the day, not only by the great festivals. That rhythm is the four daily prayer times (tứ thời cúng): the hour of Tý at midnight, the hour of Mão in the early morning, the hour of Ngọ at noon and the hour of Dậu in the evening. Those who live near a temple join the communal service. Those kept busy pray at home, and if they cannot manage all four times, they keep two.

At every prayer time the three treasures are offered: flowers for tinh, wine for khí and tea for thần, along with incense, lamps and water, together with chanted prayers and ritual music.

Vegetarian days on schedule

Vegetarian days are counted by the lunar calendar. Lục trai is six days a month: the 1st, 8th, 14th, 15th, 23rd and 30th, or the 29th in a short month. Thập trai is ten days, adding the 18th, 24th, 28th and 29th. An initiated follower keeps at least lục trai. The Tân Luật provides that only those who keep ten days or more may receive the esoteric method and enter a meditation house, while senior dignitaries must keep lifelong vegetarianism.

The three colors of the ceremonial robes, yellow, blue and red, are the most striking sight at a great ceremony: the ranks in yellow, blue and red go first, and a sea of followers in white áo dài follows. That arrangement is not for show. It expresses the doctrine of the Three Teachings returning to their source (Tam Giáo quy nguyên) in visual form, so that even those who never read the scriptures can see it.

XThe branches

This is what outsiders most often overlook. To speak of the Cao Đài religion is correct, but to speak of the Cao Đài Holy Assembly in the singular is not. From the late 1920s, over differences in religious practice and organization, the religion split into many branches, each establishing its own holy see and hierarchy of dignitaries. The branches still worship Đức Chí Tôn through the Divine Eye, keep the principle of the Third Period of Salvation, and share the five precepts and the vegetarian schedule. The differences lie in organization and in how much weight is given to outward mission or to inner meditation.

Chiếu Minh is the lineage associated with Ngô Văn Chiêu, the first disciple in the religion's own words, who declined the office of Giáo Tông. This lineage emphasizes personal meditative practice (tịnh luyện), does not build the large hierarchy of dignitaries found on the mission side, and requires its practitioners to be lifelong vegetarians. Anyone used to the crowded great ceremonies at Tây Ninh may be surprised by how quiet a Chiếu Minh gathering is.

Since 2008 the Cao Đài organizations have maintained a mechanism of cooperation in religious practice (liên giao hành đạo), meeting once a year with the chair rotating among them. By 2023 this mechanism had 18 members.

XINumber of followers

Asking how many followers Caodaism has looks easy but is not: official sources, the religion's own sources and international sources give figures that differ by nearly a factor of three. This library quotes them as given, with source and year, and does not choose any one figure as the standard.

Why the figures differ

First, the two sides count two different things. A Holy Assembly counts by its membership register (sổ bộ đạo), the list of people who have gone through initiation together with their families, a figure that only grows and is rarely reduced. State agencies and censuses count by self-declaration. A person who is on the register but who writes "no religion" or "ancestor worship" on a census form is immediately counted differently by the two sides.

Second, Caodaism has many Holy Assemblies. Each reports its own share, and adding them up produces both double counting and gaps. Third, many places count children born into a Cao Đài household as followers even if they have not yet gone through initiation (nhập môn). Fourth, a large number of people practice at home, praying before a Divine Eye altar without ever visiting a temple. This group is very hard to count, and it is precisely where the largest discrepancy lies.

To put it plainly: the gap between 1.1 million and more than 3 million is not a matter of anyone being wrong. It results from two different definitions of the single word follower. What can be said with certainty is that Caodaism is among the major religions of Vietnam, most concentrated in Tây Ninh and the southern provinces, and that it is the largest organized indigenous religion founded by Vietnamese people.

XIIThrough the eyes of feng shui

The east west axis, three towers and the number nine

What the religion says: the Great Temple at Tây Ninh is a long, narrow block. The main entrance is at the Hiệp Thiên Đài on the west. Beyond it lies the Cửu Trùng Đài, 81 meters long and 27 meters wide, divided into nine rising levels. At the eastern end is the Bát Quái Đài, where the Globe of Heaven and Earth stands. The three towers follow one another on a single straight axis, and worshippers face east. The nine levels correspond to the Cửu Trùng Thiên, the nine heavens of Cao Đài cosmology. The block of the three towers is 36 meters high.

The library's reading: this is a single axis layout, low at the front and high at the back, letting the qi flow in one unbroken line from the entrance to the far end without dispersing. The nine rising levels force anyone who enters to climb rather than walk on the level, using height to mark off the sacred from the ordinary. East belongs to Wood, which governs growth and emergence. The numbers likewise: 81 is nine times nine, 27 is nine times three, 36 is nine times four, and nine in the theory of the Changes is the number of old Yang. The religion explains all of this by sacred reasons, not by compass direction.

Three colors and the Globe of Heaven and Earth

What the religion says: the three colors of the ceremonial robes correspond to the Three Teachings, yellow for the Thái branch, that is, Buddhism, blue for the Thượng branch, that is, Taoism, red for the Ngọc branch, that is, Confucianism. The religion explains the three colors by the Three Teachings, not by the five elements. Also according to the religion, the Globe of Heaven and Earth is a sphere about 3.3 meters in diameter in the Bát Quái Đài, bearing 3,072 stars that represent the Tam thiên Thế giới and the Thất thập nhị Địa, that is, three thousand worlds and seventy two globes, with the Divine Eye painted on the Northern Dipper star in the upper part of the globe and eight dragon columns arranged around it in the pattern of the eight trigrams.

The library's reading: set against the table of the five elements, yellow belongs to Earth at the center, blue to Wood in the east, red to Fire in the south. By the cycle of generation, Wood generates Fire and Fire generates Earth, forming a circle in which no element overcomes another. This is a comparison, not something the religion teaches. As for the Globe: the end point of a long straight axis is a sphere, a shape with no direction, as if to say that the directed path of a human being finally leads to what has no direction.

The land of Tây Ninh and Bà Đen Mountain

What can be verified: the grounds of the Holy See cover more than a square kilometer of flat land in Tây Ninh province, with more than a hundred buildings and twelve gates. Not far away rises Bà Đen Mountain, the highest peak of the southeastern region, a place of worship long before Caodaism existed.

The library's reading: across a whole flat plain, a single solitary mountain rises. In feng shui, a lone peak amid level ground is read as the anchor of the entire region. But it must be said plainly: no document of the religion states that the site was chosen with Bà Đen Mountain in mind.

XIIICommon misunderstandings

Caodaism may be the religion most often written about wrongly in Vietnam, partly because it is young and partly because its architecture and symbols invite curiosity and so get told as a tale of the strange. The seven items below gather the errors met most often. Writing about a religion with millions of followers requires, at the very least, using their own terms correctly and describing accurately what they say about themselves.

?Quick Questions

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