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T
he
chau van
rites ceremony
is colourful and festive, usu-
ally taking place in temples
where people worship deities
and saints. A medium, called the thanh
dong, incarnates many deities, while
the
van
singers
(cung van)
sing the
ritual of the spirit process with lyrics
that tell of legends and extol the merits
of deities or national heroes.
After giving offerings to the souls
of the dead and the deities, the me-
dium will invite the deities to possess
her body. The medium is a person
who feels they have been selected by
saints and deities. The role may bring
them great favour and relief; however,
if they reject it, they will suffer from
internal imbalances.
The singers have a choice of 12
tunes called the
van tho
; they serve
to hypnotise the medium and make
it easier for them to be possessed by
deities.
The
art of belief
Dating back to the 16th century, the
chau van
rite is a ceremony of the Moth-
er Goddess religion. Having been restricted for some years, it is now emerging
from the shadows, with Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism put-
ting it forward as a candidate for UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage desig-
nations. Story by
Hong Nhung
.