The Revival of Deity Worship in the Đổi Mới Period: A Study of Three Temples in Kim Lũy Village, Nghệ An Province

Abstract

Since the implementation of Đổi Mới (Renovation), there has been a widespread phenomenon of restoring the worship of village deities in rural areas of Vietnam. Beyond repairing and rebuilding dilapidated places of worship, many communities have faced the complex challenge of recovering the identities and historical narratives of their deities. During the prolonged periods of war (1945-1980s), the prohibition of ritual practices, the destruction of temples and shrines, the loss of sacred objects, and the erosion of collective memory resulted in numerous villages losing accurate information about their worshipped figures. Kim Lũy village, the focus of this study, experienced the gradual dismantling of its ritual structures after 1945. Crucially, its hagiographic texts (thần tích) were lost, and no archival copies could be found. Consequently, despite preserving eighteen original royal decrees (sắc phong), villagers were unable to determine the names or deeds of the specific deities they once worshipped. By early 2020, after decades of dedicated searching and with the sustained perseverance of three generations of local intellectuals, the identities of the deities worshipped in the village’s three temples were finally clarified. This article elucidates the unique historical and cultural characteristics of Kim Lũy village in Nghệ An province and provides a detailed overview of its three temples and the successful revival of their deity worship in the period of Đổi Mới.