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Short Description: NV Huy - birdie.ic.nanzan-u.ac.jpThe votive image of the One-Eyed God, newly installed and ritually animated in
the communal house of Họa village near Hanoi, precipitated a quarrel between
the donor and the managers of the communal house on the one ha
Content Inside: Nguyen Vn Huy
Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
Phm Lan Hng
University of Culture, Ho Chi Minh City
The One-Eyed God at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
The Story of a Village Conflict
The votive image of the One-Eyed God, newly installed and ritually animated in the communal house of Ha village near Hanoi, precipitated a quarrel between the donor and the managers of the communal house on the one hand and a grass-roots movement of villagers led by a member of one of the old village families on the other. In the end, the statue was deanimated and given to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. Retrospective interviews with villagers who had been party to the quarrel and a review of existing documentation from the incident reveal a complex struggle between old families with long prestigious lineages and new families who had acquired leverage in the local administration, between popular religion and its perceived abuses, and between established local authority and grass roots democracy. "What happened in Ha village" emerges as a "Rashomon"-like layering of local rivalries and religious and political motivations carried out through an argument about the propriety or impropriety of installing a tutelary god's statue in a village communal house.
keywords: Vietnam--museum--popular religion--communal house--
village conflict--animation ritual
Asian Ethnology Volume 67, Number 2 2008, 201218 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture
