Vietnam / Attractions around Ho Chi Minh City / Tay Ninh

The town of Tay Ninh, some 100 kilometres northwest of Saigon, is the center of the Cao Dai religion, which includes and unifies elements of Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam and possibly a number of other religions.

The religion worships as saints such different characters as the Hindu deity Brahma and Sir Winston Churchill, Moses and the French author Victor Hugo. The religion was founded in the 20's of the 20th century by the Vietnamese government official Ngo Van Chieu.

In Tay Ninh is the most important cathedral of the religion, the Great Cao Dai Temple. Apart from the cathedral, the complex includes a number of other buildings, among them a school. All buildings are painted pastel yellow. The cathedral is build in a style mixing oriental and European elements.

Women and men have to enter the cathedral by different portals.

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