There is an ancient tale–more like a myth really–that has to do with two non-human entities called Sơn Tinh (the mountain god) and Thủy Tinh (the water god). My family told me of this tale (and other) myths and legends when I was a kid, so I knew the gist of this story which was quite interesting. You have to admit. Gods fighting each other made … Continue reading Mountain God vs Water God
(Continued from Following the Ancient Scent of Trầm Hương 1) In one of my previous posts, Following the Ancient Scent of Trầm Hương 1, I touched upon the agarwood tree and how oud was processed. This post digs deeper into the dendrology (study of trees) of agarwood and the various types of agar resins. Ancient Origins of Dó trầm (Agarwood) Around 570 million years ago, when … Continue reading Following the Ancient Scent of Trầm Hương 2
I have a very ancient multi-millennial ancestral grandpa. His name is Khương Thạch Niên (姜石年). Most folks know him as the farmer god. Yes. THAT farmer god known as Thần Nông (aka Shennong), the same one who gave us tea (among other things). Now, I don’t like people who falsely claim famous relatives just to bolster up their sense of importance, and I would never … Continue reading Ancient Việt 13: My Ancient Ancestral Grandpa
(Continued from Ancient Viet 2: Sunken Paradise) As a young Viet-American child growing up smack dab in the middle of the US (New Orleans no less), I quite often identified with the Vietnamese/Chinese community living in and around the south because there weren’t really that many of us Asians in that part of the neighborhood where I grew up. Heck, I was even hanging out … Continue reading Ancient Việt 3: Following the Genetic Trail
(Continued from Lên Đồng 2: Mounting the Medium) Folk beliefs are all the rage nowadays. Everybody wants to go tribal. It is the hottest new trend. The Japanese have their Shinto. The Chinese have their Zhōngguó mínjiān xìnyǎng. And us Việts, we have our Đạo Mẫu. I am not surprised that this is so. Remember, we were a matriarchal society, which meant women were valued … Continue reading Lên Đồng 3: Mother Goddess
If anyone told you that they had a firm grasp of history because they went through years of university, studying through historical books on the subjects, don’t walk—run away from them. Run far, far away. They only have the officially sanctioned, creative-writing version of what actually happened. This version is fine if all we want to do is pass our college exams and get our degrees, … Continue reading Ancient Việt 08: Lý Giang Nam
(Continued from Ancient Việt 7: Văn Khoa Đẩu) I am one of those individuals who never learned my people’s ancient history from a classroom. Everything I have learned all came from ancient books which I have had to painstakingly translate and/or decipher, using a very thick ancient Viet dictionary. Famous foreign sources (Chinese) usually have English translations, so that is a great help, but most ancient Viet … Continue reading Ancient Việt 8: Bách Việt
I always knew my family’s spoken language was slightly different than what was spoken on the streets. There were many terminology which didn’t fit in with the Việt vocabulary that I learned in school and on the playground. For example, my father called his mother, my paternal grandmother, by the word Bu (母) pronounced as in the English word ‘boo’. I never understood why. I just … Continue reading Ancient Việt 4: Ancient ties between Taiwanese and Vietnamese
Vietnamese Women Rule. OK, so maybe not at this time, but in the past we did…kinda, sorta, in a way. Even as early as two-thousand years ago, we were a Matriarchal society. In my previous post on the Trưng sisters, I noted that not only were they twin queens of a huge geographic area, their generals were also women of great note. But they were … Continue reading Ancient Việt 14: Matriarchy and the Female Lineage
Picture credit: Linh Nguyen We are an ancient people. Việt history goes back far, far beyond what is the current accepted history of what Vietnam is suppose to be, spanning over four thousand years into the murky past. Unfortunately, much of it was destroyed by the Han dynasty during the third (as well as the fourth) invasion and domination, to be eventually replaced by Chinese customs and … Continue reading Ancient Việt 05: Văn Khoa Đẩu
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