{"id":9958,"date":"2019-04-24T21:01:27","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T21:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onemoredestination.com\/one-day-excursion-cao-dai-temple-and-cu-chi-tunnels\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T11:00:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:00:43","slug":"one-day-excursion-cao-dai-temple-and-cu-chi-tunnels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onemoredestination.com\/en\/one-day-excursion-cao-dai-temple-and-cu-chi-tunnels\/","title":{"rendered":"One-Day Excursion: Cao Dai Temple and Cu Chi Tunnels"},"content":{"rendered":"

The surroundings of Ho Chi Minh City offer a wide variety of activities<\/strong> to better understand Vietnamese culture and history. Just a few hundred kilometers from the city, as seen in previous articles, we find the Mekong Delta<\/a> territories, where infinite landscapes of rice paddies and lagoons transport us to rural Vietnam. On this occasion, we will travel not to the southwest but to the north of Ho Chi Minh City to visit, in a single day, a temple of the little-known Cao Dai religion<\/strong> and later delve into a very important part of Vietnamese history related to its contemporary past: the Vietnam War<\/strong>, which began in 1955. <\/p>\n

\"Cu<\/p>\n

Itinerary Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

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  1. Departure from Ho Chi Minh City at 8:00 AM<\/li>\n
  2. Arrival in Tay Ninh to attend the Cao Dai prayers at 12:00 PM<\/li>\n
  3. Transfer to Cu Chi and visit to the Viet Cong tunnels<\/li>\n
  4. Return to Ho Chi Minh City upon completion of the visit in the early afternoon<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Caodaism: Unity is Strength<\/h2>\n

    Cao Dai<\/a> is one of the so-called syncretic<\/a> religions. Anthropologically, syncretism is defined as any doctrine (not necessarily religious) that attempts to reconcile different beliefs under a single form of worship<\/strong>. Syncretism has occurred naturally throughout human history through simple cultural assimilation between different peoples or beliefs around the world. In the case of religion, syncretism has fostered the emergence of new gods, cults, and religions; it is the symbiosis between two distinct religious cults that has resulted in the birth of an entirely new one.<\/p>\n

    A Religion of Religions<\/h3>\n

    Cao Dai is a religion practiced in Vietnam and founded in 1926 that actively seeks to integrate believers of any other religion by gathering and assimilating the best aspects of each.<\/strong> Caodaism is based on the principle that all religions have the same divine origin, although named differently by each\u2014Allah, Yahweh, God…\u2014and that each of these religions is based on love and justice, with its own method of expressing that love. According to Caodaism, religious wars and killings in the name of various gods only cause us to forget the original message that any religion tries to convey, leading humanity to focus on material objects and money. <\/p>\n

    The Precepts of Caodaism<\/h3>\n

    Caodaism shares many aspects with Hinduism and Confucianism, considering humans as just another part of nature itself\u2014neither more nor less important. Furthermore, Cao Dai advocates for several mandates centered on respect and understanding<\/strong>, among which the following stand out: <\/p>\n