Students at EMASI interpret themes from the People, Victory and life After the War exhibition
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April 2021
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A tour guided by Tản Mạn Kiến Trúc
The Year Is XXXX re-examines the so-called adventures of missionaries and explorers during the pre-colonial and colonial era. On each vessel traveling to Indochina, these foreigners brought with them not only ambitions of physical extraction and exploitation, but also of intangibly transforming local spiritual and religious practices. Religious symbols and imagery thus went through their own transformations, transcending the fixedness of place and XXXX time markers, forming a hybrid of the foreign and local.
Following the adventures of these symbols, this public program invites participants on a field trip to Cho Lon. Led by Tản Mạn Kiến Trúc (Architecture Excursions), participants are invited to examine the introduction and changes to the image of the goddess through figures of the Guanyin, Tianhou, and Virgin Mary.
The veneration of goddesses has long been part of spiritual worship for both Vietnamese and Chinese Vietnamese people (người Hoa) living in Gia Dinh – Sai Gon – Ho Chi Minh City, and especially in Cho Lon. The Vietnamese worship Guanyin not only as a Bodhisattva but also as a gentle mother figure; indeed, many Vietnamese pagodas feature statues of Guanyin holding a small child. Statues of the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus in Roman Catholic churches are sometimes placed in octagonal towers, similar to how Guan Yin statues are placed in front of the main hall of a pagoda. Meanwhile, for the Chinese Vietnamese, Tianhou was a famous goddess from the 17th or 18th century who protected boat people and migrants.
The goddess imageries mentioned here come from different cultures, but often represent similar traits such as an utmost maternal instinct, kindness, compassion, care for the suffering and troubled, and a willingness to endure hardship. For the program, Tản Mạn Kiến Trúc (Architecture Excursions) will take participants on a focused survey of the image of the goddess at the following architectural and religious sites in Cho Lon:
- Quỳnh Phủ Guildhall – dedicated to the Tianhou Goddess
- Tuệ Thành Guildhall – dedicated to the Tianhou Goddess
- Ôn Lăng Guildhall – dedicated to Guanyin of the Southern Sea
- Cha Tam Church – associated with the history of Catholicism in Chợ Lớn
With the listed destinations, the group explored the intriguing interconnections among the goddess archetypes of Guanyin, Tianhou, and the Virgin Mary in the spiritual lives of Vietnamese, Chinese, and Catholic communities in Cho Lon. The trip revealed how these female divinities were localized and acculturated, transcending cultural differences to become shared symbols of protection and maternity.