India-Vietnam Religious Interactions through A Study of Hindu Temples in Ho Chi Minh City

Tóm tắt

With the Indians’ arrival in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in the 19^th century, the first Hindu temple was erected to meet their worshipping demands. Currently, there are three remaining Hindu temples in the city, namely Mariamman, Sri Thenday Yuthapani and Subramanyam Swamy temples. Initially meant for Indians only, they later became places of cultural interaction between a culturally rich India and the prosperous modern city of Saigon. This paper is an attempt to study the cultural-religious interaction between India and Vietnam through the study of Hindu temples in Ho Chi Minh City. Based on John Wesley Powell’s concept of acculturation and Itamar Even Zohar’s theory of polysystem in cultural and literature research, the paper argues that the blending of aspects of Indian traditional religion with new elements of Vietnamese religion created unique features of religious activities of Indian diaspora in Vietnam.