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ivil servant by day and practitioner of traditional
spiritual possession rituals when the mood takes
her, Nguyen Thi Hoa is clad in a richly embroidered
red robe as she performs a Len Dong ceremony at a
private Hanoi temple.
“I have no idea what I’ve been doing,” Hoa said after the five-
hour performance, which involved at least 15 costume changes.
“I could not believe I had smoked like a chimney and
drunk like a fish,” the normally teetotal 52-year-old said.
“Could you tell me what I told you to do?” Hoa, who is not
a professional Len Dong shaman and only undertakes the ritu-
als when the spirits move her, asked friends who had watched
the entire performance.
Len Dong, which uses musical invoca-
tions to lure spirits to possess mediums
and communicate with others, has been
performed in Vietnam for centuries.
Practitioners and attendees - peo-
ple can donate to help cover the costs
of a Len Dong performance without hav-
ing to directly participate - usually turn to
the ancient ritual to ease stress or hoping
for help from the spirits with romantic or
professional problems.
Old cure for new ills?
Six years ago, Hoa began suffering from insomnia, lack
of appetite and tiredness. Conventional doctors could not rid
her of her ills.
On the advice of a friend, she visited a Len Dong practi-
tioner, who told her to try performing the spirit possession
ritual herself.
“To my surprise, my health started improving at once,”
she said, adding that she started seeing positive changes at
work as well.
Len Dong is an ancient Vietnamese custom which in-
volves “calling the spirits of the dead into the bodies of the
living to connect past and present,” one of the main research
books on the topic says.
Musicians play traditional songs to help the shaman en-
ter a trance. Multiple assistants help the shaman to change
costumes or prepare offerings - from chickens to “ChocoPie”
snack cakes - for the altar.
During the ceremony - an auspicious date for the event is
carefully picked in advance by the shaman - the practitioner
will seemingly drift in and out of a trance, singing, chanting
and dancing to the minimalist, rhythmic music.
“It’s not just the insane dancing of people who have lost
their dignity,” said cultural researcher Ngo Duc Thinh.
The practise of Len Dong can help people under intense
stress or suffering from low-level psychological disorders,
Thinh, a renowned professor of Vietnamese culture at a top
state research institute, said.
“They practice Len Dong to rid themselves of their prob-
lems and return to their normal life,” the professor, who has
spent more than three decades studying Len Dong, told AFP.
“As society develops, spiritual pressures multiply. Stress
becomes more serious - and this creates more chances for Len
Dong,” according to Thinh.
Social stigma
Hoa practices Len Dong at least twice a year.
Votive paper horses, used as offerings, are placed outside
a Hanoi temple.
“I don’t dare tell my mother as she would say I was crazy,”
said Hoa, who spends around 40 million dong (nearly $2,000)
to put on each performance.
Her work colleagues are also not aware of her Len Dong
practice - the ritual has at times been considered heresy, and
was totally banned until the 1980s, al-
though rituals continued in secret.
“I received several warnings from po-
lice, asking me to stop my prac-
tice,” said a professional Len
Dong practitioner, speaking
on condition of anonymity
about that period of time.
Even now, practicing Len
Dong can carry a government fine
of around $250 which aims to prevent private for-profit prac-
titioners rather than genuine Len Dong devotees like Hoa.
“It’s impossible to ban Len Dong,” researcher Thinh said.
But it might be necessary to regulate it, some experts say.
Len Dong practitioners usually offer their services at tem-
ples between Vietnam’s lunar new year - usually around late
January - to the end of the third lunar month in April.
Since restrictions on the practice were lifted, business is
booming and some newly wealthy Vietnamese are willing to
pay up to $50,000 for a Len Dong service.
The trouble is, it is hard for people to tell the difference
between genuine Len Dong practitioners and con artists.
“Several practitioners, who have only some ability, have
used that to cheat people for money,” one practitioner said.
“That makes people confused - they can’t differentiate
between real and fake Len Dong.”
Dong
SHAMAN DANCE
CULTURAL WINDOW
Several practitioners,
who have only some
ability, have used that
to cheat people for money