The Ca Ong (Whale) belief followed by the inhabitants of the Ly Son island District – Quang Ngai

Abstract

The Ca Ong (whale) belief is one of the folk beliefs in Vietnam. The Ca Ong belief followed by the inhabitants of the Ly Son island district not only reflects their spiritual needs, but also educates people in the value of gratefulness. Thus, at the temple, the practitioners of the Ca Ong belief often hang many horizontal lacquered boards (hoành phi) with parallel sentences in the main hall, with the purpose of explicating the aforementioned values. This belief also reflects the aspirations of the island inhabitants, who wish to have their lives blessed with happiness by the god. Particularly, this paper explores the divergence of the Ca Ong belief that can be found in this island. Namely, this belief is not only worshipped at the temple by the community, but also privately within the Dang family, where they worship Ca Ong as a god. This is something never happening in other regions such as the South Central coast or the South of Vietnam. Furthermore, this paper focuses on the change of the title system within this belief. Whereas titles were previously bestowed by the Nguyen dynasty, family titles in the Ly Son Island are bestowed by the Shaman.