Photo Book “Hau Dong: The Spirit Mediums of Vietnam”

(VNF) - As Vietnam is seeking UNESCO recognition of Dao Mau and its ritual – Hau Dong to be inscribed in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list, American photographer Tewfic El-Sawy has published a photo book entitled “Hau Dong: The Spirit Mediums of Vietnam”.

The book comprises over 100 large color photographs and more than 60 pages of text, which explains the ancient religion of Dao Mau, its rituals, its pantheon of deities, along with a narrative of the photographer’s own experiences documenting it in Vietnam over almost two years.

It was his serendipitous attendance of a Hau Dong ceremony in northern Vietnam during a 2014 photo expedition that triggered his interest in documenting this form of indigenous worship and adopting it as a long-term personal photographic project.

The photo book is ready for sale. (Photo thetravelphotographer.blogspot.com)

“Over the years, I photographed faith-based festivals, events, and rituals; some pertaining to esoteric cults and others that are ancillaries to major world religions. While all have their singular ‘brand‘ of exoticism, I found the Dao Mau (Mother Goddess) rituals and ceremonies were the only ones that mixed religiosity with fashion, that merged choreography with theatrics, that involved soothsaying and mediumship, and engaged audiences in a way I hadn’t seen before.” El-Sawy wrote on his website.

“What a contrast to the dour and joyless rituals of the so-called monotheistic religions!”

Tewfic is the only photographer to have photographed Hau Dong ceremonies in such depth, and documented the maelstrom of trances, possession, spirit worship, fortune telling and clairvoyance, fashion and pageantry, sacred music and hymns, faith, belief, superstition, the supernatural, nationalism and history that constitute Vietnam’s Dao Mau and its ritual; Hau Dong.

Interested Hanoi’s expats and citizens will have chance to talk to Tewfic about Dao Mau and Hau Dong in November.

Hau Dong (also Len dong) is one of the main rituals of Dao Mau, and exemplifies the worship of mother goddesses in Vietnam. During these rituals, the mediums go into trances so their bodies can receive the spirits of various deities. The journey of the spirits into the bodies of the mediums is an incarnation, and the process involves the spirits briefly hovering then moving into the mediums. The mediums change their costumes to indicate which deity has entered their body.

Dao Mau and its ritual, Hau Dong were prohibited by the French colonials and by the Ho Chi Minh Socialist regime, but has been subtly encouraged since 2000 when it was officially considered as an ancient indigenous folk religion of Vietnam, and an important cultural heritage.

Tewfic El-Sawy is a New York City based freelance photographer specializing in documenting endangered cultures, religious rituals and traditional life-ways of Asia, Latin America and Africa. Known as The Travel Photographer, he also leads photography workshops and expeditions, author’s photo books and teaches multimedia and documentary photography./.

Tewfic El-Sawy shares the ceremonial wheat wine known as “ruou can”. (Photo thetravelphotographer.blogspot.com)

An application for UNESCO recognition has been filed for the practice by Vietnam. (Photo thetravelphotographer.blogspot.com)

Minh Phuong