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Today we went on a tour to Cao Dai Temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels.
The bus picked us up at 8 am and we drove to the town of Tay Ninh. Tay Ninh serves as the headquarters of one of Vietnam's most intriguing and indigenous religions; Cao Daism. Cao Dai temple was built sometime between 1933 and 1955. Prayers are conducted four times a day. Women enter the temple through a door on the left side. Once inside they walk around the outside of the colonnaded hall in a clockwise direction. Men enter on the right and walk around the hall in an anticlockwise direction. The area in the centre of the sanctuary is reserved for Cao Dai priests.
I pulled up a little history on Cao Daism off the internet. This is what I found.
They regard the history of religion as being divided into three periods of revelation. The first was circa 2500 BCE, when God inspired selected religious leaders to found Judaism in the Middle East, Hinduism in India and Yi king (philosophy of transformation) in China. A few thousand years later, God led the Buddha to found Buddhism, Lao Tse to create
Taoism, Confucius to start Confucianism, and Jesus Christ to found Christianity.
They believe that, due to the frailty of those religious leaders, the truth became distorted. A number of religions were formed, but most flourished only in or near their countries of origin. Religions became adapted to the needs of individual cultures. Limitations in communication and transportation prevented the formation of a single, true universal religion which all of humanity could embrace. Followers of Caodaism believe that God was concerned that the multiplicity of religions prevented people from living together in harmony. God decided to initiate a third revelation, in which he communicated Caodaism by spiritist means.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/caodaism.htm
The Cu Chi Tunnels
During the American war 80,000 people lived in the district of Cu Chi. The tunnel network became legendary during the 1960's for its role in facilitating Viet Cong control of a large rural area only 30km to 40 km from HCMC. At its height these tunnels stretched as far as the Cambodian border. In Cu Chi alone, there were 250km of tunnels. The network, parts of which were several storeys deep, included innumerable trapdoors, constructed living areas, field hospitals, command centres and kitchens.
There
are 2 section of tunnels open to the public, we visited Ben Dinh.
The tunnels of Cu Chi were built ove a period of 25 years. During war times the American and Australian troops tried many times to find the tunnels, but never did. They trained dogs to go into the tunnels but the Viet Cong started washing with American soap so the dogs identified them as friendly. Dogs couldn't detect booby traps so many dogs were killed.
Over the years the VC developed simple but effective techniques to make their tunnels difficult to detect or disable. Wooden trapdoors were camouflaged with leaves and branches. Hidden underwater entrances from rivers were constructed. To cook they used 'Dien Bien Phu kitchens', which exhausted the smoke through vents many metres away from the cooking site.
Though the tunnels have been restored and enlarged for tourists, you get a real feel for the conditions they lived in when climbing through. It is really hot, only one person can go one way at a time, even now its dusty and its dark. We could at least bend over and walk through, where the VC were literally pulling themselves along with their
elbows at times.
There is a shooting range at the site. We each shot 5 bullets from an AK-47. See the vids!
On the drive back to HCMC it started to pour rain (Welcome to the rainy season). We went for some Pho soup, thought about buying bike helmets but decided tomorrow is better as the shop is probably closed, and relaxed for the rest of the night.
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