The Filial Gratitude to Parents in Religious Action of Khmer Community in Southern Vietnam

Abstract

The filial gratitude to parents is an action of every person to show her/his respect and love, thankfulness, and requitement to parents’ bringing-up. This action always is greatly appreciated in life by most ethnic peoples in the world. However, according to conception, living style, and behavior of each ethnic group, the actions of filial gratitude are different. This writing investigates into the filial gratitude to parents of Khmer, an ethnic group has its quite crowded population in Southern Vietnam through their actions in religious life. It bases on the field data collected by a team of faculty and students of the Department of Anthropology for two years (2010 - 2011) in the Cham community in Tra Vinh province. This writing is presented in the interpretive viewpoint of the conception and meaning of the word “filial gratitude” among Khmer people and their behaviors to show the filial gratitude in religious life. Based on this, it makes a number of initiative remarks of value of action of filial gratitude in religious life of Khmer people in Southern Vietnam.