Cao Dai's History in Vietnam | The Story of God

[music playing]

MORGAN FREEMAN: The Cao Dai religion, an unusual blend of eastern and western faiths, appears to be flourishing in Vietnam. Across the country, there are almost 400 temples. Followers worship openly. But it wasn't always that way. I've been offered an audience with Cao Dai senior cardinal [inaudible] to understand the religion's secretive history.

How do you do, sir? Very pleased to meet you. Can you give me a brief history of the religion?

[vietnamese]

INTERPRETER: The purpose of Caodaism is to unite the traditions of all religions in the world.

[vietnamese]

INTERPRETER: Caodaism was established in Vietnam in 1926. And Vietnam, at that time, was under the control of the French administration.

I understood that some of your leaders were imprisoned by the French. Is that so?

CARDINAL: [vietnamese]

INTERPRETER: There was some misunderstanding between the French and Caodaism at the time.

[vietnamese]

INTERPRETER: The leader was arrested and sent in exile for five years. But after that, when they understood the purpose of this religion, the French administration let His Holiness return to Vietnam.

MORGAN FREEMAN: But Caodaist struggles did not end with the French. In 1943, they took up arms against Japanese invaders. The Cao Dai army established a semi-autonomous state in the Mekong Delta that survived for a decade after the Japanese left. When the communists took control of Vietnam in 1975, Caodaism was banned for more than two decades.

It wasn't just because the government feared Cao Dai's military history, or its blending of faiths from all over the world. It was also because of the secret ceremony that lay at the heart of the religion.

[vietnamese]

So those mediums were used to establish the religion.

[vietnamese]

INTERPRETER: Those mediums received a message from God to establish and write down religious regulations, the constitutions. And now, we use those as the basis of Caodaism.

MORGAN FREEMAN: The details of what happened in these seances is still secret, known only by high dignitaries. What is known is that there were always two mediums controlling some sort of instrument-- someone to read the instrument, and a secretary to write down the message. When the Vietnamese government made it legal to practice the Cao Dai religion in 1997, one of the conditions was that seances would remain banned.