ARI Working Paper Series

This discussion of state and religion in Dai Viet focuses on ritual in the royal courts and how it is related to the varied beliefs of royalty, aristocracy, the literate, and the people. From the tenth to the nineteenth century, in the series of dynasties, each showed a different  pattern of religious belief and ritual. Different aristocracies, religious practitioners, and royal families led to shifts in the relationships among them and in the ways beliefs and ritual came to be performed in the royal courts of Dai Viet. The result was not a simple Buddhist/Confucian dichotomy, but a much more complex pattern  of belief and practice from the popular level to the royal court where cosmos and polity came together.