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HERO AND DEITY: Tran Hung Dao and the Resurgence of Popular Religion in Vietnam. By Pham Quynh Phuong. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Mekong Press (Silkworm Books); distributed outside Southeast Asia by University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2009. 227 pp. (Maps.) US$25.00, paper. ISBN 978-974-303-157-1.
Pham Quynh Phuong's Hero and Deity is a welcome addition to the emerging scholarship on Vietnamese popular religious beliefs and their significance in the context of late-socialist modernity. Rich in ethnographic detail and theoretical analysis, the book traces the transformation of a thirteenthcentury military hero into a "key cultural symbol" through a multi-sited and multivocal edinography that follows the various manifestations of Tran Hung Dao through time and space.
Towards the end of the thirteenth century, Vietnam (then known as Dai Viet) faced a number of serious attempts by die Mongol army under Kublai Khan to invade the country. Tran Quoc Tuan (1228-1300), a prince of the ruling Tran dynasty, was appointed commander-in-chief of the armed forces and given the title "Hung Dao." General Tran Hung Dao, as he became popularly known, launched several massive counteroffensives that ultimately led to the defeat of the powerful enemy. In the centuries after his glorious achievements, historical facts intertwined with myth and popular belief and "Saint Tran" took a prominent place in die Vietnamese...