• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.129-148
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• 2023

Using sociohistorical approaches, the paper shows that before the 15th century, myths of Hùng Kings, considered to be the descendants of the Dragon race and ancestors of the Vietnamese people, may have existed locally. Vietnamese rulers and people strongly supported the integration of these myths into indigenous culture to form a new belief: the worship of Hùng Kings. By way of discovering the transformation process from the founding myths to the modern national beliefs of the Vietnamese, this paper attempts to demonstrate that both myths and worship of Hùng Kings were politically created and encouraged. The article also focuses on the reasons why these myths and worship reached a broad public as these were integrated into Vietnamese culture.