• Journal of Korean Historical Folklife
• /
• no.34
• /
• pp.253-281
• /
• 2010

This study has its purpose on figuring it out to the religious notion in Vietnam with the material of the divinity construction of Den Hang Pho in Sapa where is the northern region of Vietnam. To make this, the study divides the type of Vietnamese temples into four parts; Chua, Den, Dinh, and Mieu. Among them, the study pays attention to 'Den' because Vietnamese historical heroes are seated as divinity. This reason makes a reasonable case to this study to figure out a typically and generally religious faith. First of all, the study analyzes immaculate divinity, which generally consists of three and four layered system. The study confirms that the immaculate divinity started from the goddess and then extended to the concept to dominate the sky, the ground, the sea(river), and the mountain(forest). General Tran Hung Dao is the best historical hero in Vietnam and has been placed in temples called Den. The study exams the context that the divinity extended to the religious beliefs, for examples, the belief related in a childbirth by lots of narrations and ceremonies and the belief to treat a sickness, and also exams the context that the divinity placed in a divinity to make a symmetrical relation with immaculate faith. The study exams the divinity construction of Den Hang Pho as its authentic case. In this case, the study could verify a case emphasized by mountain Holy Mother among immaculate faiths. Especially, the study can confirm that General Tran Hung Dao was apotheosized as a concept to be symmetrized with immaculate divinity, and futhermore, a couple of snakes was emphasized by their positioning to every room. Tri-system lays stress on the aboriginality(locality) centered on minority races in the northern Vietnam, the national identity of Vietnam, and the ecological condition of rivers flowing the valley of high and steep peak. The confirmed facts could be said to a construction what the religious notion of tri-system makes. The study makes a conclusion that this kind of conversion-oriented religious notion naturally corresponded with region, nation, and ecologically environmental condition, and extended to the Vietnamese faith with polytheistic divinity.