The Canon · No. 100
Caodaism
Cao Đài; the Great Way of the Third Era of Salvation
1926 CE – present · New Religious Movement · Living · Vietnam, especially Tây Ninh; diaspora in the US, Australia, France
VII. THE MODERN AGE — 1800 – 1945
How many
Roughly 4–6 million, making it the third-largest religion in Vietnam.
Who began it
Ngô Văn Chiêu, a colonial civil servant who reported spirit communications from 1921, and Lê Văn Trung, who organised the church publicly in 1926.
What it is for
To unify all religions in a final revelation. Caodaism holds that God previously revealed himself through local teachers, which produced division, and is now revealing himself directly and universally.
What it worships
Cao Đài, the Highest Power, represented by the Divine Eye — a single left eye inside a triangle, which appears on every altar. The Holy Mother (Diêu Trì Kim Mẫu) is venerated alongside. A pantheon of venerated figures includes Buddha, Laozi, Confucius, Jesus, Guanyin, the Chinese general Guan Yu, and — most famously — the poet Victor Hugo, the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen and the Vietnamese prophet Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, depicted together signing a covenant between God and humanity.
What it holds
Three eras of salvation, of which this is the third and last. All religions share one origin and one truth. Karma and reincarnation. The goal is escape from the cycle of rebirth. The syncretism is deliberate and systematic rather than casual: Caodaism is an argument that religious plurality was an accident of geography that modern communication has ended.
What it does
Four daily prayer times at 6am, noon, 6pm and midnight. Vegetarianism, at least ten days a month and permanently for clergy. A hierarchy explicitly modelled on the Catholic Church, with a pope, cardinals, bishops and priests, arranged in three branches. Elaborate coloured robes: yellow for Buddhism, blue for Daoism, red for Confucianism, white for laity. Spirit mediumship as the mechanism of revelation, using a beaked basket (ngọc cơ) to write messages — historically the source of doctrine, and now heavily restricted.
After death
Reincarnation under karmic law through 72 planets and 36 levels of heaven, with earth at the 68th planet. Souls ascend or descend according to conduct and practice. Escape from the cycle into union with Cao Đài is the goal. Funeral rites are elaborate and are held to assist the soul's ascent.
Its texts
Thánh Ngôn Hiệp Tuyển (Compilation of Divine Messages) and the Pháp Chánh Truyền, the religious constitution — both produced through mediumship.
Its branches
Tây Ninh (the largest and state-recognised); Bến Tre (Ban Chỉnh Đạo); Chiếu Minh, the small esoteric branch founded by Ngô Văn Chiêu, who declined the office of pope and withdrew to meditative practice.
Of note
Caodaism is the most explicitly designed syncretism in the dossier — a religion that read the world's traditions as source material and built a single institution from them, complete with a papacy and a saint who wrote Les Misérables.
Its timeline
- 1921 CE Ngô Văn Chiêu's first vision of the Divine Eye at Phú Quốc.
- <strong>1926 CE</strong> Public declaration at Tây Ninh; the religion grows to hundreds of thousands within a few years, drawing heavily on colonial-era clerks and small landowners.
- 1927–1955 CE The Great Temple at Tây Ninh built — an extraordinary building combining a Gothic nave, Chinese dragon pillars and a Buddhist rooftop.
- 1940s–50s CE Caodaism maintains its own army, of perhaps 25,000, manoeuvring between the French, the Japanese, the Việt Minh and the Saigon government.
- 1955 CE Ngô Đình Diệm's forces break the Cao Đài army; the religion is politically neutralised.
- 1975 CE After reunification the communist government seizes Caodaist property, bans mediumship and suppresses the hierarchy.
- 1997 CE The state grants legal recognition to a reorganised, state-approved Tây Ninh church; some branches refuse to join and remain unrecognised.
- Present Substantial diaspora communities; Tây Ninh is a major tourist site.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.