Lên đồng
Vietnamese shamanic ritual / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lên đồng (Vietnamese: [len ɗə̂wŋm], chữ Nôm: 𨖲童), votive dance, "to mount the medium",[1] or "going into trance"[2]) is a ritual practiced in Vietnamese folk religion, in which followers become spirit mediums for various kinds of spirits.
There is a common confusion between "lên đồng" and "hầu bóng" (which is the most prominent ritual of Đạo Mẫu). During a ceremony of "Hầu Bóng" (lit. Serving the Holy Reflections), a priest or priestess would mimic the deities by dressing and acting like them. The priest is in full control of their body. A successful ceremony is one in which the priest feels the deities' essences but it does not mean the deities' spirits enter the priest's mortal body. As a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities, the "thanh đồng" in Đạo Mẫu is more of the equivalent of a priest rather than a medium or a shaman.[citation needed]