Abstract
Religiously inspired travel has burgeoned in Vietnam in recent years, amidst rapid economic development and a booming tourist industry. Buddhist pilgrimages particularly attract older women, who compose the majority of temple goers in Vietnam. Having lived through volatile historical periods of war, economic hardship, and political transformations, travelling on pilgrimage is the first opportunity for many older Vietnamese women to enjoy new places and experiences. Drawing on data collected during my field research among Buddhist women pilgrims in their sixties and seventies from Ho Chi Minh City, I show how pilgrimage is seen as a journey of a lifetime and how it reflects the perception of life and self-transformation along the life course. Drawing on Victor and Edith Turner’s (1978 [2011]) discussion of pilgrimage as the antistructure of everyday social life, this paper explains why pilgrimage is markedly different from other life experiences of Vietnamese women, and how religious travel positions old age not as the culmination of self-development, but rather as an ongoing process of gaining wisdom.
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Notes
One reason for this strong presence of women in Buddhist temples is the gender imbalance among older persons. In the 2021 report of General Statistics Office, men over 60 years old occupy 41.18% of the older age population, and the older the age group the greater the majority of women (General Statistics Office 2021b). Soucy’s (2005) research in northern Vietnam also notices the strong presence of women in Buddhist temples not only among the older-aged groups, but also among the younger ones. Soucy’s (2005: 131) study shows that young men are more reluctant to engage in religious activities as they tend to dismiss these practices as superstitious, and therefore feminine.
“Đi cho biết đó biết đây.
Ở nhà với mẹ biết ngày nào khôn?”
(Translated by the author of this paper)
Buddhists believe that by doing good deeds they can create good merit, that will bring them good luck in life, such as health, wealth, happy family, etc.
According to the Population and Housing Survey conducted by General Statistics Office in 2019, educational levels of Vietnamese elders vary according to age, gender and region. The older groups, women and rural residents received less formal education than younger, men and urban dwellers. This survey shows that more than 70% of Vietnamese people in their 60s, more than 80% in their 70s, and more than 90% in their 80s completed only primary school or lower (General Statistics Office 2021a: 19).
The mantra that is to be found in sutra books in Vietnam is in Vietnamized Sanskrit.
Other adages include: “If you want to sew you must find needle; if you want to know you must find old people” [Muốn may thì phải tìm kim; muốn hay thì phải đi tìm người xưa]; “The old know things, the young know eating” [Già quen việc, trẻ quen ăn]; “Wisdom is not for the young, health is not for the old” [Khôn đâu đến trẻ, khỏe đâu đến già].
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Prof. Philip Taylor for his guidance during my doctoral research. I also wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their comments on the earlier drafts of this article.
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This publication was funded by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant number 19K13476).
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Thu, L.H.A. Journey in the Impure Land: Buddhist Pilgrimage and Perceptions of Life and Old Age in Vietnam. J Cross Cult Gerontol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-024-09509-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10823-024-09509-6