In February 2000, Ly Van Hop was initiated into the Daoist sect known as the Three Originators, or Tam Nguyen. Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

The Yao people, who began migrating from China to northern Vietnam about 800 years ago, practice a religion heavily influenced by Daoism, a belief system traceable to China around 600 B.C. In the Yao form of Daoism, most boys become initiates of a Daoist sect. During an initiation into the Tam Nguyen sect, which may last several days, a boy’s multiple souls journey skyward to gain power from the gods.

At the climax of the initiation, the boy climbs a ladder to a platform, then pitches backward into a net held by ritual masters. His souls remain in the sky, gaining power from the deities, and must be recalled by the ritual masters. At the ritual’s end, the youth is considered spiritually reborn and may, with his future wife, join the ancestors in the Yao homeland after death. Such widespread initiation produces a strong community bond that helps explain the survival of this distinctive culture so far from its point of origin.

Mission to the Gods
During the initiation ceremony, the ritual masters invoke several powerful deities to guide and protect the initiate. The masters unroll scrolls bearing the deities’ images, hang them in a temporary initiation hut and make appropriate offerings of meat, drink and votive paper to the gods who reside in the paintings.

The temporary hut, the rolled, portable paintings and the initiation of most young men reflect the nomadic history of Yao who have maintained their distinctive culture far from its point of origin.

VIDEO: A Young Boy's Passage Rite This Tam Nguyen initiation ritual for Ly Van Hop, age 14, took place in Khe Mu village, Lao Cai Province, in February 2000. The ceremony was documented by anthropologists from the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. You will need to have the Real Player installed on your computer to view this video. (Program length: 4:30 minutes.)