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Friday, March 9, 2018

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Cao Dai temple--Phnom Penh 2








Lower floor of Cao Dai temple. There was a long table, chairs and six hard beds, with one here beneath the hammock. They're rented out, at minimal cost, to Cambodians also, not just Vietnamese.

The Vietnamese Cao Dai in Cambodia perform a curious charitable function. From "The Cao Dai in Phnom Penh: A Unique and Surprising Expression of Faith and Development":
Nat and I had initially been drawn to Cao Dai because we had been told that the adherents provided free burial services to anyone—whether they were Cao Dai or not. We considered this a fairly unique example of faith-inspired development work, which addresses an extremely specific need, and we were looking forward to exploring the free burial service further. The Cao Dai members we interviewed showed us the car in which they drive around Phnom Penh and the surrounding countryside, collecting any dead bodies they find and interring them. This “death-mobile” was bright blue with white curtains, with dragons protruding from it and, of course, the divine eye of Cao Dai.



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