Five Elements in folk culture beliefs

In the origin of Vietnamese culture, from the beginning, people have understood and considered the Five Elements as the concretization of the law of movement and transformation of all things and phenomena and have been effectively applied in many areas of life and beliefs. The ancients still knew that all things are born, exist and develop in the natural environment based on 5 basic elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, called the Five Elements.

Five Elements Belief

The custom of worshiping the Five Elements is associated with the first generations of immigrants, right from the beginning of land opening, since then accompanying the development of society and now has become a lively and quite popular form of belief.

Thanh Minh Temple - Temple of the Five Elements.

In general, it can be said that the residents of villages and communes in Binh Thuan hundreds of years ago all originated from agriculture and partly from fishing. When settling in a new land, always having to live depending on nature, so in the eyes of generations of migrants, nature was always majestic, threatening life. So they deified the shapes and phenomena of nature and worshiped them to avoid disasters, as well as seek blessings and protection. Therefore, gods originating from nature such as: earth, mountains, water, fire, trees... were formed long ago through folk beliefs, in which the Five Elements belief had a great influence on the village and commune communities and was passed down through many generations until today as a legacy of ancestors.

Professor Tran Ngoc Them said: “The ancient Vietnamese people had a tradition of living on wet rice farming , which is a culture that tends toward the feminine. The starting point of the social lifestyle was emotional, respected women, and in the field of beliefs, worshiped many goddesses. And the destination of our ancestors' natural worship beliefs was to aim for fertility, growth, and development; to achieve that, we must respect and worship…”.

In folk culture, the concept of the five elements that make up the universe is: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth are five great gods with different powers for occupations related to land, firewood, metal, water, and wood. People call her Ba Ngu Hanh (five Mothers) and she has her own temple to worship, not worshiped with other gods in the village temple or other religious establishments. Because the Five Elements can give birth to everything, they also have their own world and must be worshiped separately.

Surveys and research on folk beliefs about the ways of worshiping gods in communal houses, temples, shrines, etc. in all localities in the province show that several centuries ago, most of the relics or religious structures worshiped the Five Elements but in different forms; depending on the perception and location of the land, the objects of worship and the worship of each village, commune, and region.

In fact, the Ngu Hanh Nuong Nuong was originally a folk belief so it was located separately from the communal house, temple, shrine, temple... but according to the historical process later, due to the need for annual worship many times, and each time worshiping the main god, other folk gods around had to be worshiped. Seeing the inconvenience of time and offerings, people gradually moved the Ngu Hanh temple to the grounds of the communal house, temple, shrine, temple... to facilitate worship and perfect the religious institutions of the village. In some places, the ancients reduced the Ngu Hanh temple to a smaller size to put it in the place to worship the main gods; in other places, the Ngu Hanh was worshiped around the main god.

However, not all places worship the Five Elements together with other gods, but worship the Five Elements separately in a spacious temple, right next to the village communal house or temple (in the case of the Five Elements temple in the Thanh Minh Tu area - Phan Thiet coastal tourist urban area). This proves that the ancient custom still highly values the power of the Five Elements in beliefs.

Five Elements Temple in Thanh Minh Temple

This is an ancient temple, with a fairly large area located in the Thanh Minh Tu campus. According to the scientific records established by the Department of Culture - Sports and Tourism, Ngu Hanh Temple was built at the same time (second half of the 19th century) with cultural and religious institutions such as Phat Quang Pagoda, Ong Co Communal House and Palace, Thanh Minh Tu on the land of the old Minh Long village (now Phu Thuy and Hung Long); at this time, Minh Long village was under Duc Thang commune, Tuy Dinh district, Ham Thuan prefecture, Binh Thuan province.

As the name of the ancient temple suggests, the temple worships Lady Ngu Hanh with 5 large statues, in order: Kim Duc Thanh Phi (white shirt), Moc Duc Thanh Phi (blue shirt), Thuy Duc Thanh Phi (black shirt), Hoa Duc Thanh Phi (red shirt) and Tho Duc Thanh Phi (yellow shirt). Although worshiping 5 deities like that, people still consider them as one Lady, so they are called Lady Ngu Hanh.

In the Ngu Hanh temple there is a parallel sentence in Chinese characters, transcribed:

“All things are born from causes and conditions,

The Five Elements are contained in Yin and Yang.

Translation:

“All things are formed by causes and conditions,

The Five Elements are included in Yin and Yang.

According to the concept of the people here (the owner of the temple), the Five Elements Lady often has a supporting role in occupations related to elements such as farming, which is related to elements such as Lady Tho, Lady Thuy; fishing, which is related to Lady Thuy, Lady Moc... The Ladies have great power, always indirectly affecting occupations in society. Thus, there is no occupation that is not related to the Five Elements, especially the sea occupation. In the thinking of the coastal people in this area, from fishing equipment to fishing space and even living space, all have a close relationship with the Ladies. Boats are related to Lady Moc, Lady Kim, Lady Hoa, water is related to Lady Thuy, shores are related to Lady Tho...

The worship of the Five Elements in Phan Thiet in general and in the ancient Minh Long village is extremely important. For that reason, for many generations in the ancient Minh Long village as well as more than half a century later, the Five Elements temple has always been separate, on par with other religious establishments, and not grouped together in the worship, ceremony, and offering position with other gods. The ancient Five Elements temple was near the sea and because of the importance and belief in the beliefs of the profession, before going to sea, fishermen always visited the temple to pray for a safe trip and a calm sea. Even today, that custom still exists, even though the land of the surrounding villages has turned into a prosperous urban area.

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