In Tay culture, the tradition of worshipping folk paintings has been preserved from generation to generation, creating a unique cultural beauty. These devotional paintings contain profound humanistic values, expressing people's belief in the natural world , and admonishing them to do good and eliminate evil.
In Tay rituals, the altars often display paintings of beautiful women, Quan Am (Guan Yin), Buddha, and incense burners belonging to the Then shaman. The arrangement of the altar shows that Then has retained its original form from its time in folk traditions. However, throughout its existence and with societal changes, Tay Then has been influenced by various religions that entered Vietnam over the past thousands of years, becoming a creative blend of indigenous beliefs and the Three Religions (Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism). Then is a synthesis of Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist deities and folk beliefs, creating a unique system of Then rituals.
In the book "Then Tay," Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Thi Yen from the Institute of Cultural Studies mentions Buddhist elements, specifically the practice of hanging five devotional paintings of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara during the ceremony; and Taoist elements (identity, seals, knives, scissors, stone axes, rattles, and gongs) in the ritual of controlling the spirits. The decree states: "...The Jade Emperor grants his disciple..." written in Tay Nôm script on dó paper.
The painting depicts two dragons on either side of the border, and the interior is adorned with 15 red lacquer seals, representing the rank of Then. The seals are made of wood, square in shape, with the Chinese characters "Jade Emperor" carved on the front and the character "Supreme" carved on the handle. The left side of the seal is carved with the character "Soldier," and the right side with the character "Accompanying." This is influenced by Taoism.
The Tay people envision the universe not only as the surrounding world, but also as encompassing all of nature, people, and things in three realms, corresponding to three levels: Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld. This concept is clearly expressed in their legends, myths, fairy tales, and through the content of their altar paintings. Particularly noteworthy is the "Ten Courts of Yama" altar painting, depicting majestic and even fierce deities to warn and educate people to submit to goodness.
In Then worship paintings, the system of deities mainly consists of nature gods, celestial gods, and in some cases, human gods. The nature gods in Then beliefs are indigenous deities with local characteristics (earth gods, forest gods, mountain gods, river gods, or gods of trees or animals closely associated with human life).
Angels are primarily deities originating from Taoism, such as: the Jade Emperor, Nam Tao, Bac Dau, celestial beings, celestial generals, celestial soldiers, the Nine-Layered Goddess, Yama, and Do Thien Dai Thanh… Human deities are those of human origin, in the case of Then belief, there is the figure of Be Van Phung (a real person from the Mac dynasty).
A unique feature of the Tay people's devotional paintings in Binh Lieu is the depiction of four Vietnamese girls with their hair styled in ponytails, wearing traditional five-panel dresses, and each holding a different pose: one playing a flute, one holding a coin rattle, one holding a fan, and one playing the moon lute. The Then nuns in Binh Lieu believe these are images of fairies. Clearly, this is also influenced by Taoism.
Associate Professor Pham Van Loi, Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Science , Vietnam National University, Hanoi, assessed: On the walls of the house, behind and to the right of the Then altar (facing the Then goddess during the ceremony), in the Then ritual in Binh Lieu, there are several paintings or pictures. There are a total of 12 pictures, divided into 3 groups, not including the decorative images hanging in front of the ancestral altar nearby. The outer group, near the edge of the door leading to the raised floor of the house, where the wine is stored and some of the family's altars are placed, is close to the entrance of the house, in the middle, behind the Then altar, and the second group, located slightly inward, from the inner edge of the wall outward, each group has 4 pictures, each picture depicting a woman or young girl, in the style of the four-panel paintings of the Kinh people. The four young girls in the first group are each holding/playing a musical instrument (moon lute, two-stringed fiddle, flute, pipa); Four women/girls in group 2: the one on the far left plays a flute, the one on the far right plays a stringed instrument, and the two in the middle are as follows: the one on the left holds something in her right hand, possibly a sound-making instrument; the one on the right holds a fan in her right hand and performs a dance move with her left hand.
The third group, hung on the inner wall, adjacent to the second group, is more colorful. All four paintings depict the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara standing on a lotus pedestal or in a lotus pond, with a halo above. This suggests that the Then ritual of the people of Binh Lieu, and the Then ritual of Binh Lieu in general, has been somewhat influenced by Buddhism. The paintings in groups 1 and 2 contain quite a few Chinese characters or Nôm characters, Nôm-Vietnamese or Nôm-Tay characters; the paintings in group 3 have no characters, neither Chinese, Nôm, nor common Vietnamese.
Based on his analysis, Mr. Loi suggested that specific research is needed on these decorative images and paintings in order to develop this form of decoration into a marketable product for people to decorate their homes and as souvenirs for tourists .
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