Cao Dai Holy See
The town of Tay Ninh is home to Cao Daism, an indigenous hybrid religion founded in 1926 by a mystic named Ngo Minh Chieu, and its impressive and brightly colored temple, the Cao Dai Holy See. The noon ceremony (others are held at 6 am, 6 pm, and midnight) at the temple is a fascinating and colorful religious vignette. A finely tuned hierarchical procession of men and women of all ages parades through the temple's great hall, where painted columns twined with carved dragons support sky-blue arched vaulting. Panels of stained glass with a cosmic-eye motif punctuate the walls. You are permitted to watch and take snapshots from the mezzanine. Ignore any feeling of complicity in what appears to be a collective voyeuristic sacrilege; the ceremony goes on as though you were not there.
