The Exhibition: “Worshipping the Mother Goddess: Pure Heart– Beauty - Joy”

 For many years now, the Vietnamese Party and State have made great efforts to restore, preserve and develop national culture in general and folk beliefs in particular. Thanks to those efforts, a number of Vietnam’s intangible cultural heritages have been recognized by UNESCO as world cultural heritages such as Hue Royal Court Music, Bac Ninh Quan Ho Folk Singing, and A Dao Singing. Van singing and hầu đồng or spirit medium ritual are also given attention with the organization of Chau Van Singing contests and festivals, bringing the Mother Goddess worship ritual on stage as an art performance that attracts great public interest.

To continue the mission of preserving and developing the cultural values of our nation and Vietnamese women, since 2009, Vietnamese Women’s Museum started implementing an exhibition project on “Worshipping the Mother Goddess” which remains a gap in our permanent exhibitions.

After more than two years of implementation, with great support and active cooperation from agencies, organizations and national and international experts and the community of Mother Goddess worshippers in Hanoi and some northern provinces, the exhibition “Worshipping the Mother Goddess: Pure Heart-Beauty-Joy” has been completed and open to public on the occasion of the New Year.  

Mother Goddess worship is a folk belief, very sacred and close to the daily life of Vietnamese people for many generations now. In modern social life, it demonstrates its vitality with the practice of rituals very common and diverse in all parts of Vietnam and overseas.

In implementing this exhibition, the curators’ team of Vietnamese Women’s Museum has conducted hundreds of interviews with Mother Goddess worshippers living in Hanoi, Lao Cai, Thanh Hoa, Nam Dinh, Hung Yen, Bac Ninh; collected many objects and taken thousands of photos and nearly a hundreds of video tapes. The most typical materials, images and objects have been selected and displayed in this exhibition under four topics: Mother Goddess – Pure Heart - Beauty – Joy, corresponding to four typical colours of the four palaces: red (Palace of Heaven), white (Palace of Water), yellow (Palace of Earth), and green (Palace of Mountains and Forests). Different voices on the Mother Goddess worship will bring visitors unique impressions amidst the typical colours of the four palaces; the sounds of chau van folk music; the sacredness of the altar and offerings to the Mother Goddess, dresses, headscarf and jewelry used during hau dong ritual; quotes from interviews telling different stories, and lively images of rituals etc. All of these create a sacred and lively ritual space, unique values and profound explanation of the everlasting vitality of the Mother Goddess worship in our contemporary life.

 It is hoped that through this exhibition, the public will not only improve their knowledge, have a comprehensive and profound insight into this typical and long lasting folk belief of the Vietnamese but also experience a surprising discovery of a new, creative, interesting and lively exhibition style. In addition, the exhibition will contribute to raising public awareness to have proper behaviors to this typical folk belief which has a long standing tradition of the Vietnamese. With this significance, may I declare open the exhibition “Worshipping the Mother Goddess: Pure Heart-Beauty-Joy”.

To have this exhibition, Vietnamese Women’s Museum would like to express our sincere thanks to the Presidium of the Vietnam Women’s Union for its direction and leadership, the Ford Foundation for its assistance and Michael Di Gregorio- former representative of the Ford Foundation in Vietnam for his support for the success of this project. We would also like to thank the Centre for Research, Support and Development of Culture (A&C), Ass. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Huy – former Director of Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and Prof. Dr. Laurel Kendall – Chair of Asian Ethnology Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History for her support by accompanying the curators’ team during their field visits in many parts of North Vietnam over the last more than two years. Our thanks also go to James Hicks, Senior Designer from Washington DC, USA for his unique, new and extraordinary design ideas and Prof. Dr. Tran Lam Bien from the Cultural Heritage Review for his advice. Our special thanks go to Ms. Tran Thi Duyen, temple keeper of Tien Huong Palace, Nam Dinh province for her donation of Mother Goddess statues, horizontal lacquered board, and the couplet boards etc. worth VND 400 million; the Temple of Mother Goddess of Water, Dinh Vuong Long Temple and Mr. Nguyen Dac Trung for their support to the Museum to complete this exhibition. In particular, we would like to thank the community of Mother Goddess worshippers, collaborators and partners of Vietnamese Women’s Museum for their warm cooperation and strong support for the completion of this exhibition.