Four Sacred Animals Of Vietnam

Mention about the sacred aminals in Southeast Asia, we always think about the Long (Dragon), Lan (Unicorn), Qui (Turtle), and Phung (Phoenix). But do you know the symbol of each and the differences between Vietnamese sacred animals and the four sacred animals of ancient China?

In this article, Hoi An Private Taxi Travel will tell you detailed information about the 4 Holy animals in Vietnam and how important they are in Vietnamese spiritual life before and nowadays.

• If you would like to learn more about Vietnamese culture, and customs, you should book our Hue Tours such as the Hue city private tour, Hue city group tour, Hue city tour half day, Hue royal tombs tour, and Hue cycling tour.

FOUR SACRED ANIMALS OF VIETNAM

To understand more about the function of the Four Mythical Creatures in Vietnamese Culture, we should go back to history. Just under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), Vietnam followed Confucius. So the Four sacred animals took an important part in the spiritual life of people.

The emperor or the King is the highest and the most powerful person, they were compared as the sons of Heaven so the Dragon is the symbol for their highest power. Enter the monuments of the royal area, you can see all the decorations on the roof, inside the buildings, and even on the robes of the emperors have the dragons.

Phoenix represents the richness and purification of the female such as the princess, the queens, the emperor’s mother, grandmothers. So absolutely in the architecture of the high-level female, the phoenix decoration is very common.

Turtle is the symbol for education and longevity. It is very easy to see the stone turtles carrying the tablets which are mentioned the names of the doctors in the Temple of literature in Hanoi. In Hue, it is normally in the temples or pagodas. Some students come to touch the heads of turtles as the way they get good luck on the tests.

What about the last one? It is the Unicorn. Why do we mention this one at least? Because Hoi An Private Taxi Travel would like to help you understand clearly about this creature in different cultures.

We all know that in the US or Europe, Unicorn is a horse with a horn on its head. Littles boys or girls always love them and it is kind of a cute animal.

But because in Vietnamese/ Chinese, we don’t have an exact word to describe this animal. Plus, we have to follow the set of the 4 sacred creatures in English so we all use the unicorn for it.

So what are the differences between Vietnamese and Chinese Unicorns?

Well, the Chinese always want to influence the Vietnamese and in history, we were colonies of China for thousands of years. Honestly, Vietnamese culture is affected and influenced by Chinese culture a lot.

But Vietnamese have been trying to keep our own feature in culture, customs and we haven’t wanted to be influenced by Chinese. So we still keep our difference.

Chinese unicorn is called Qilin the combination basically between 2 animals, the dragon head, body of the lion.

But the Vietnamese Unicorn is called ” Con Nghê” is a combination basically between the dragon head and body of a dog. They are all symbols of the power and loyalty of civil and military servants (the government officials).

Nowadays, the Four Holy Beasts of Vietnam is still existed and take an important part in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people. But compared with the old days, they are not really at the highest role because of the disappearance of Confucius. Vietnamese people always try their best to keep the tradition as well as the beauty in spirit.