The Mother Goddess religion is regarded by many as an indigenous religion of the Việt that is composed of local beliefs as well as imported institutional religions including Indian Buddhism, Chinese Taoism, and Confucianism. It is a syncretic religion including about 70 spirits in its pantheon. | Vietnam Social Sciences, No. 6(164) - 2014 THE MOTHER GODDESS RELIGION OF THE VIỆT PEOPLE AS RECONCILIATION NGUYEN THI HIEN* The Mother Goddess religion is regarded by many as an indigenous religion of the Việt that is composed of local beliefs as well as imported institutional religions including Indian Buddhism, Chinese Taoism, and Confucianism. It is a syncretic religion including about 70 spirits in its pantheon. This paper explores a very special aspect of this religion, that is the reconciliation of overseas Vietnamese spirit mediums in Silicon Valley, California, USA and mediums in Bắc Ninh province, North of Vietnam and the author, a researcher of the religion. A number of people of the old Saigon regime left South Vietnam and immigrated to California from 1954 to the 1980s. Some of them turned to the religion partly because it is truly Vietnamese. In this religion and in its temples, they see themselves as Vietnamese even though they are living in the United States. Their religious practice motivates them to travel to the North of Vietnam where the religion originated. The religion helps the northern people, including the author and overseas southern Vietnamese to understand each other, discover a common language and culture, and build friendly relationships. Such ritual activities help to ease tension in their interactions and relations. The Mother Goddess religion thus serves as a means of reconciliation bringing Vietnamese people together regardless of their political, cultural, and behavioral differences. 52 This paper explains how, from a religious point of view, the resentment, hostility, mistrust and suspicion are dissolved into a common faith and belief in the Mother Goddess Religion which allows people of different political views, language, cultures, and life perspectives the opportunity to discover their ethnic identities as the Việt people. Reconciliation is the dialogue that leads to the formation of a new mutually enriching .
