Bà Chúa Xứ

Bà Chúa Xứ (chữ Nôm: 婆主處, Vietnamese: [ɓâː cǔə sɨ̌]) or Chúa Xứ Thánh Mẫu (chữ Hán: 主處聖母, Holy Mother of the Realm) is a prosperity goddess worshiped in the Mekong Delta region as part of Vietnamese folk religions.

She is considered prestigious and is worshipped in her temple in Vĩnh Tế village at the foot of Sam Mountain, An Giang province.

Bà Chúa Xứ reached her peak of popularity in the 1990s and still endears pilgrims and followers in and outside Vietnam with her responsiveness to fervent, devout and sincere prayers.

The legend states that his wife, Chau Thi Te, went to Bà Chúa Xứ's shrine on Sam Mountain to pray for her husband to defeat the enemy and bring peace to the land.

Thoại Ngọc Hầu was able to fend off the Khmer troops, and Chau Thi Te showed her gratitude to the goddess by rebuilding the shrine that held her.

[4] Popular tales regarding the discovery of the goddess begin with either the statue appearing on the peak of an island as the water level in the Mekong Delta recedes, either because she was placed there many centuries before, or because she grew naturally from the stone.

Another origin story of the Lady of the Realm states that she was the wife of a general who fought for Vietnam against an invading enemy.

This largest festival begins at the temple of Bà Chúa Xứ in Sam Mountain, in southern Vietnam.

[5] The Lady of the Realm is a painted statue made of stone and cement, depicted with large eyes and clothed in brocade sequin robes and housed in a great shrine decorated with offerings that were given to her.

During the festival at the beginning of the rainy season, she is bathed in rainwater mixed with perfume, and her robe is changed by elderly women of the village.

Thoai Ngoc Hau, who also has a mausoleum in the village, has a statue paraded into the goddess’ room to stay as a guest during the festival.

The area around the shrine comes alive with markets and entertainment, including cải lương, beauty queen contests, slideshows, magic acts, a house of horrors, karate, gambling, restaurants, cafes, bars,[6] and a popular sideshow of dancing cross dressers which was banned in the late 1990s.

A leader in peril receives assistance from a spirit and remains indebted to her forever, thereby holding legitimate authority to the land in question.

However, her site on Sam Mountain stands as a boundary marker to dramatically define where Vietnam ends and Cambodia begins.

[8] The worship of goddesses is understood by many Vietnamese people as the natural religious practice of the country from an ancient matriarchal society.

Therefore, after dramatically altering social events such as Doi Moi, people turned to goddesses such as the Lady of the Realm as a symbol of consistent and traditional aspects of their society.

These goddesses represent a country woman, unscathed from the rapid transformations of the city and urbanization, one which guards the border as a feminine representation of Vietnamese religious values.