Cao Dai and Cu Chi

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29th October 2006

Today I went on a one day group tour, first, to "Cao Dai" temple in Tay Ninh (96km north West of Saigon) near Cambodian border and on the way back to Saigon to famous "Cu Chi" tunnels of Cu Chi guerrillas of Vietnam war.

"Cao Dai" temple

Traffic here is chaotic, but they drive slow, it took us almost 3 hours to reach the Cao Dai Temple at Tay Ninh. Cao Daism is an unique Vietnamese religion, developed quite recently, around 1920 by an ex Vietnamese civil servant named "Ngo Minh Chieu". This is an hotchpotch religion combining bits from most major religions -more like Indian Emperor Akbar's Din-E-Elahi. However, it took root in that part of Vietnam and currently it has more than two million followers. Not only that, at one stage they became quite powerful and had their own army and for a number of years even ran an armed struggle for autonomy. Eventually, they were subdued by the South Vietnamese government and they collaborated with the South Vietnamese government during the war. After the communist victory of 1975 they paid dearly for that.

The temple complex is huge 1km by 1km with an uniquely designed very colourful temple - mainly a large prayer hall, extensively decorated with a large floor to ceiling EYE dominating the far end of the prayer hall. like the religion, the temple architecture borrowed heavily from all kind of church and temple architectures. They call their high priest "Their Pope or Holy See" - the last Pope went into exile in Thailand after the communist victory of 1975. He died there few years later and the Vietnamese Government did not allow his body to return to the temple or Vietnam. Now there is no Pope, only a number of High priests - they say none of them are fit to become The Pope. The Government now use many buildings within the complex for other purposes.

Cao Dai's pray at their temple four times a day (probably borrowed from Islam) - we attended the noon prayer - Women priests are dressed like catholic nuns while male priests are dressed in white robes complete with a Malay style Topi - their prayer style is somewhat like Namaz, all lining up and bowing down towards the huge eye at the far end of the temple - off course there are other rituals- god knows, borrowed from which other religion - what a hotchpotch of a religion.

Cu Chi Tunnels of Cu Chi guerillas

Cu Chi is just about 30km outside HCMC - it is now part of greater HCMC. During the whole Vietnam war (Vietnamese cal it "the American War") American's were never able to subdue this area though they had few American and South Vietnamese divisions permanently based in huge Military base in and around Cu Chi. So much so even they were unable to secure their base parameters. The key to the persistence of the Communist guerrillas was this vast network of underground tunnels - from where they appeared through 60cm by 80cm undetectable camouflaged trap doors, and attacked the Americans and then disappeared under ground leaving the bewildered Americans wondering where they came from and where did they go.

Eventually when the American's realised the existence of the tunnel network, they formed special units composed of small sized soldiers and tried many of their high tech weaponries without much success - they tried to hunt down the guerillas by crawling into the tunnels with high tech weaponries, Bangalore Torpedoes (a chain of explosives tied to a long wire) , gassing, pouring chemicals, flooding the tunnels, carpet bombing with B52s, shelling - but without much success. They hardly ever reached the second or lower layers of the tunnels separated by concealed trap doors or water plugged like a toilet U-bend. Eventually, out of frustration, the Americans designated the area 'A free fire Zone" - every American pilot or soldier were allowed to bomb or shell this area at their free will - Cu Chi area became the most bombed and shelled area in the history of world warfare - more than half a million tonnes of high explosives were dropped in this small are - the area is at the foothill of mountains lying along the Cambodian border. The area is now covered with thick vegetation, trees, rice fields and rubber plantations - during the war it became almost barren - villages were uprooted wholesale to deny the guerillas their support base - which in reality never worked, guerillas were the sons and daughters of the villagers and they were only stepping into the shoes of their parents, who fought the French from the same underground tunnels.

These tunnels originally started as small family hideouts behind every home in Cu Chi areas during the fight against the French colonialists - to hide from the French raids. Then, during the war with the Americans, gradually families connected with each other - villages connected with each other - provinces connected with each other - tunnel network eventually reached from outside Saigon to near Cambodian borders covering hundreds of kilometres. Kitchens, sleeping quarters, workshop, weapon factories, hospitals and command centres were built underground - even stripped down 105mm howitzers were stored in the underground tunnels for the final push towards Saigon. However, most of the network and communication tunnels were built narrow and zig-zag in order to withstand the bomb shocks and to make it difficult or impossible for big Americans to crawl into them - many of them tried and got stuck to die there.

The fighting was so savage and American bombing so intense that by the end of the war about 22,000 Americans died in this area and about 10,000 of 16,000 Cu-Chi guerillas died - and many more innocent villagers.

Now, after thirty years, most of the tunnel network has collapsed and only a small section has been preserved within the Vietnamese Army base in Cu-Chi. For the benefits of mostly American and western tourists a small section of the tunnel has been enlarged so that they can explore and experience the tunnels - I tried a 30 meter semi crawl - it gives one some idea - what extreme resolve, motivation, determination and courage were required to live and fight for many years from those claustrophobic tunnel networks - both young men and women took part equally.

There are other life scale displays of life in the tunnel, and indigenous low-tech but highly weapons, traps and booby traps effectively used by the guerillas.

I was never politically active - but just politically conscious - growing up hearing and reading about Vietnam war I always wanted to come and see where it all happened - well after thirty years, it is difficult to even imagine what horror these people had endured.