The majority of Vietnamese do not follow any organized religion, instead participating in one or more practices of folk religions, such as venerating ancestors, or praying to deities, especially during Tết and other festivals. Folk religions were founded on endemic cultural beliefs that were historically affected by Confucianism and Taoism from ancient China, as well as by various strands of Buddhism (Phật giáo). These three teachings or tam giáo were later joined by Christianity (Catholicism, Công giáo) which has become a significant presence. Vietnam is also home of two indigenous religions: syncretic Caodaism (Đạo Cao Đài) and quasi-Buddhist Hoahaoism (Phật giáo Hòa Hảo).
Officially, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is an atheist state, although its constitution guarantees freedom of religion. While the communist government implemented atheistic policies and severely restricted religious freedom from 1975 to the late 1980s, Vietnam's current constitution explicitly protects religious freedom under Article 24, stating that "all religions are equal before the law."Constitution of Vietnam 2013, Article 24
According to statistics from the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, as of 2023, Buddhists account for 13.3% of the total population, Christians 7.6% (Catholics 6.6% & Protestants 1%), Hoahao Buddhists 1.4%, and Caodaism followers 1%. Other religions include Hinduism, Islam, and Baháʼí Faith, representing less than 0.2% of the population combined. Folk religions (worship of ancestors, gods and goddesses), not included in government statistics, have experienced revival since the 1980s.Philip Taylor (2004). Goddess on the Rise: Pilgrimage and Popular Religion in Vietnam.
Overview Although according to a 1999 census most Vietnamese list themselves as having no religious affiliation, religion, as defined by shared beliefs and practices, remains an integral part of Vietnamese life, dictating the social behaviours and spiritual practices of Vietnamese individuals in Vietnam and abroad. The triple religion (), referring to the syncretic combination of Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, and Vietnamese folk religion (often assimilated), remain a strong influence on the beliefs and practices of the Vietnamese, even if the levels of formal membership in these religious communities may not reflect that influence. One of the most notable and universal spiritual practices common to Vietnamese is ancestor veneration. It is considered an expression of hiếu thảo (filial piety), a key virtue to maintain a harmonious society.Trần Quốc Anh (2015). "Giáo lý Tam Phụ và Đạo Hiếu" Regardless of formal religious affiliation, it is very common to have an altar in the home and business where prayers are offered to their ancestors. These offerings and practices are done frequently during important traditional or religious celebrations (e.g., death anniversaries), the starting of a new business, or even when a family member needs guidance or counsel. Belief in ghosts and spirits is very common; many believe that the traditions are important links to culture and history and are enjoyable, while others believe that failing to perform the proper rituals for one's ancestors will literally cause them to become hungry ghosts ()."If properly buried and worshipped, the dead would be happy to remain in their realm and act as benevolent spirits for their progeny. But those who died alone and neglected, and to whom no worship was given, disturbed the dead and preyed on the living."
A 2002 Pew Research Center report claimed that 24% of the population of Vietnam view religion as "very important".
History The earliest forms of Vietnamese religious practice were animistic and totemic in nature. The decorations on Đông Sơn bronze drums, generally agreed to have ceremonial and possibly religious value,"It is generally agreed that Dong Son drums were used for ceremonial purposes (e.g. Higham 1996: 133), and it could be argued that they were produced within a particular religious context, so we might talk about Dong Son religion, in the sense we talk about the Buddhist religion, as a cultural production but one which we know little about specifically." depict the figures of birds, leading historians to believe birds were objects of worship for the early Vietnamese. Dragons were another frequently recurring figure in Vietnamese art, arising from the veneration of Lạc Long Quân, a mythical dragon-king who is said to be the father of the Vietnamese people. The Golden Turtle God Kim Quy was said to appear to emperors in times of crisis, notably to Lê Lợi, from whom he took the legendary sword Thuận Thiên after it had been dropped into Hoàn Kiếm Lake. Contact with Chinese civilization, and the introduction of the triple religion of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, added a further ethical and moral dimension to the indigenous Vietnamese religion. A recent research using folkloristic computations has provided evidence on the existence of "cultural additivity" by examining the interaction of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism throughout the history of Vietnam.
Statistics Varied sources indicate very different statistics of religious groups in Vietnam.
Religiousgroup % Population 2009Full results of the 2009 Population and Housing Census of Vietnam, part #1. % Population 2010 % Population 2014Vietnamese Government Committee for Religious Affairs (2014). Cited in the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. "Press Statement on the visit to the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief". Hanoi, Viet Nam 31 July 2014. Vietnamese. % Population 2018Vietnamese Government Committee for Religious Affairs (2023). Cited in the US % Population 2019% Population 2023 Vietnamese folk religion Non-religion/atheism Buddhism Christianity └ Catholicism n/a └ Protestantism n/a Hoahaoism n/a Caodaism n/a Other religions
Statistics controversy Government statistics of the religion in Vietnam are counts of members of religious organization recognized by the government. Hence, this does not include people practicing folk religion, which is not recognized by government. Also, many people practice religion such as Buddhism without taking any membership of specific government organization. Official statistics from the 2019 census, also not categorizing folk religion, indicate that Catholicism is the largest (organized) religion in Vietnam, surpassing Buddhism. While some other surveys reported 45–50 million Buddhist living in Vietnam, the government statistics counted 6.8 million. The Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam, however, does not report official statistics on its adherents. The great gaps in statistics on the number of Buddhist adherents is due to disagreement on the very criteria of what constitute a Buddhist.
Folk religions
Scholars such as Toan Ánh (Tín ngưỡng Việt Nam 1991) have listed a resurgence in traditional belief in many local, village-level, spirits.Philip Taylor (2007). Modernity and Re-Enchantment: Religion in Post-Revolutionary Vietnam. page 163 "Toan Ánh lists more specific examples [Tín-ngưỡng Việt-Nam 1991] ... Both Cổ Nhuế village in Hà Đông (Hanoi), and Đông Vệ village of Vĩnh Tường prefecture, Vĩnh Yên (Vĩnh Phú) province, worship the spirit who handles excrement."
Đạo Mẫu
Đạo Mẫu is a branch of shamanism of Vietnamese folk religion, it is the worship of mother goddesses in Vietnam. There are distinct beliefs and practices in this religion including the worship of goddesses such as Thiên Y A Na, Bà Chúa Xứ, Bà Chúa Kho and Liễu Hạnh, legendary figures like Âu Cơ, the Trưng Sisters (Hai Bà Trưng), Lady Triệu (Bà Triệu), and the cult of the Four Palaces. Đạo Mẫu is commonly associated with spirit mediumship rituals—known in Vietnam as lên đồng. It is a ritual in which followers become spirit mediums for various deities. The Communist government used to suspend the practice of lên đồng due to its superstition, but in 1987, the government legalized this practice.
Đạo Dừa
Ông Đạo Dừa (1909–1990) created the Coconut Religion (Vietnamese: Đạo Dừa or Hòa đồng Tôn giáo), a syncretic Buddhist, Christian and local Vietnamese religion which at its peak had 4,000 followers, before it was banned. Its adherents ate coconut and drank coconut milk. In 1975 the Reunited Vietnam authorities forced this religion to go underground.
Minority faiths
Buddhism
Buddhism came to Vietnam as early as the second century CE through the North from China and via Southern routes from India.Cuong Tu Nguyen. Zen in Medieval Vietnam: A Study of the Thiền Uyển Tập Anh. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997, pg 9. Mahayana Buddhism first spread from India via sea to Vietnam around 100 CE. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Theravāda became established as the state religion in Cambodia and also spread to Cambodians living in the Mekong Delta, replaced Mahayana. Buddhism as practiced by the ethnic Vietnamese is mainly of the Mahayana school, although some ethnic minorities (such as the Khmer Krom in the southern Delta region of Vietnam) adhere to the Theravada school.Cuong Tu Nguyen & A.W. Barber. "Vietnamese Buddhism in North America: Tradition and Acculturation". in Charles S. Prebish and Kenneth K. Tanaka (eds). The Faces of Buddhism in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, pg 130.
Today, more than half of the Vietnamese population, consider themselves as adherents of Mahayana Buddhism. Theravada and Hòa Hảo Buddhism are also present in significant numbers. Buddhist practice in Vietnam differs from that of other Asian countries, and does not contain the same institutional structures, hierarchy, or sanghas that exist in other traditional Buddhist settings. It has instead grown from a symbiotic relationship with Taoism, Chinese spirituality, and the indigenous Vietnamese religion, with the majority of Buddhist practitioners focusing on devotional rituals rather than meditation.Cuong Tu Nguyen & A.W. Barber 1998, pg 132.
Thiền tông
Chan Buddhism arrived in Vietnam as early as the 6th century CE, with the works of Vinītaruci. It flourished under the Lý and Trần dynasties. Trúc Lâm Zen is the only native school of Buddhism in Vietnam.
Pure Land Pure Land Buddhism is a broad branch of Mahayana Buddhism and is said to be one of the most popular schools of Buddhism in Vietnam, in which practitioners commonly recite sutras, chants and dharani looking to gain protection from bodhisattvas or Dharma-Protectors.Cuong Tu Nguyen 1997, p. 94. While Pure Land traditions, practices and concepts are found within Mahayana cosmology, and form an important component of Buddhist traditions in Vietnam, Pure Land Buddhism was not independently recognized as a sect of Buddhism (as Pure Land schools have been recognized, for example, in Japan) until 2007, with the official recognition of the Vietnamese Pure Land Buddhism Association as an independent and legal religious organization.
Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương
Hòa Hảo Hòa Hảo is a religious tradition, based on Buddhism, founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ, a native of the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam. Adherents consider Sổ to be a prophet, and Hòa Hảo a continuation of a 19th-century Buddhist ministry known as Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương ("Strange Perfume from Precious Mountains", referring to the Thất Sơn range on the Vietnam-Cambodia border). The founders of these traditions are regarded by Hòa Hảo followers as living Buddhas—destined to save mankind from suffering and to protect the Vietnamese nation. An important characteristic of Hòa Hảo is its emphasis on peasant farmers, exemplified by the old slogan "Practicing Buddhism While Farming Your Land." Hòa Hảo also stresses the practice of Buddhism by lay people in the home, rather than focusing primarily on temple worship and ordination. Aid to the poor is favored over pagoda building or expensive rituals.