Vietnamese folk religion

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Vietnamese folk religion (Vietnamese: tín ngưỡng dân gian Việt Nam, also known as đạo lương, bên lương) is a group of spiritual beliefs and practices adhered to by the Vietnamese people. About 86% of the population in Vietnam are reported irreligious,^[1] but many among them practice folk religious traditions.

Vietnamese folk religion is not an organized religious system, but a set of local worship traditions devoted to the "thần", a term which can be translated as "spirits", "gods" or with the more exhaustive locution "generative powers". These gods can be nature deities or national, community or kinship tutelary deities or ancestral gods who are often deified heroic persons. Vietnamese mythology preserves narratives telling of the actions of many of the cosmic gods and cultural heroes. Ancestral veneration is practiced by most Vietnamese to varying degrees.

Đạo Mẫu is a distinct form of Vietnamese shamanism, giving prominence to some mother goddesses into its pantheon. The government of Vietnam also categorises Cao Đài as a form of Vietnamese indigenous religion, since it brings together the worship of the thần or local spirits with Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, as well as elements of Catholicism, Spiritism and Theosophy.^[2][3]