Vietnamese words in place of Chinese characters

I did a talk at the Theosophical society last night, in the course of which I showed this photograph.

A friend with an eye for detail approached me later and asked me about the words running up the sides of the shrine. I explained that they were Vietnamese words shaped to look like Chinese characters. Monks have always been able to read Chinese, but have for centuries pronounced them in the Vietnamese language. These wonderful little motifs take the translation a step further, writing the actual words in Vietnamese, but leaving them roughly the same size, shape and look that the Chinese characters would have taken.
It was the first time in a long time I'd thought of this peculiar phenomenon. When I first went to Vietnam in the early 90s this was a very common motif in popular art (especially in Lunar New Year decorations), and it really struck me at the time. The words take on a wonderfully goofy 60s look, which is when I imagine they were first designed. Obviously the use of them has a vaguley nationalistic undertone, i.e. "We have perfectly good words in Vietnamese, we don't need to use Chinese to convey lofty sentiments."
I also realised that this convention is dying out in contemporary Vietnam. Partly because I imagine it appears dated to modern-day Vietnamese, bringing back as it does memories of the harshest days. I also think that with the ubiquity of Chinese-produced goods - especially in the area of Buddhist paraphernalia and New Year decorations - it is simply cheaper and easier to buy the mass-produced Chinese stuff.
So I imagine this quaint tradition is a dying art, but I have suddenly fallen in love with it.
IN a less decorative manner, I noticed that the memorial tablets on Cao Dai shrines are decorated with rather unadorned Vietnamese words. Usually such tablets would be written in Chinese.

Dia Tang Vuong Bo Tat

Dia Tang is the Vietnamese name for an important Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisattva known more commonly in the West by his Japanese name, Jizo.

Dia Tang is a central figure of worship because he is the protector of the dead, and is the Bodhisattva people appeal to for information about their loved ones who have passed on. In the main hall of most temples, he is the figure to the left of the main shrine, and is distinguished by his crown-like hat and the pilgrim's staff he is usually holding. He is also normally the central object of worship in the Hall of the Dead, that part of the temple where people's ashes are normally kept in porcelain urns.

So while he is an important part of religious life (the memorialising of the dead is one of the central religious duties of all Vietnamese people) I wouldn't suggest he was a "popular" figure. You never encounter busy shrines to him that have been erected by lay-people in the way they are for Kwan Yin, for example. And he is rarely to be found as a statue in people's homes. I think the associations of death that surround him are simply too strong for people to feel comfortable in his presence.

You do encounter him, however, in graveyards (and there is an enormous graveyard on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City), often in large and expensive statues that have been erected on top of graves. I have wanted to go to the Ho Chi Minh City cemetery and photograph it for many years, but my Vietnamese friends refuse - they think it is too spooky, and too disrespectful to the dead.

In Japan, of course, the figure of Dia Tang (or Jizo), while still considered the special protector of the dead, is an altogether more popular figure, and is frequently represented as an adorable baby monk. The complicated reasons for this are set out in Jan Chozen Bays' fascinating book Jizo Bodhisattva - an essential read for anyone interested in Buddhism.

This photograph was taken in a monk's cell in Quy Nhon. The pink porcelain Dia Tang in the foreground is new and is an import from China. Obscured behind him is a much older Vietnamese plaster statue of the Bodhisattva in a glass case.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Today is the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday on the Vietnamese calendar.
In Vietnam people have spent the weeks leading up today in a frenzy of activity - cleaning their house and doing necessary repairs, settling outstanding debts and, in many cases, arranging to go home for the holidays. People go to th impromptu flower markets that spring up in every town and city and buy cherry blossom blooms, little potted cumquat trees, pots of flowering chrysanthemums and even little chili bushes thick with colourful fruit. All are symbolic decorations for the period of Tet.
People also decorate their homes with calligraphy of special poems, sayings and couplets expressing seasonal wishes.
In Vietnam the main time of celebration is the New Year's Eve, when most people will go to temple to make an offering of money and incense in order to smooth their karma out for the year ahead.
These pics were taken at the little temple just up the road from my house in Cabramatta, Chua Minh Giac. It was particularly beautifully decorated this year.