The Disappearance of Ghosts and Sacred Space Reconstruction Process in a Viet Village of Vietnam

Abstract

This article is the result of a research conducted in a Viet village in the suburbs of Hanoi; it describes the process of changing sacred spaces of the village and seeks to understand villagers’ adaptation to this process. The scaredness of a space is created by a set of ecological, cultural, social and religious factors expressed through the mystical phenomena and deified coincidence: awe-inspiring appearances of ghosts, white snakes, and other strange phenomena. The restoration of sacred places aims at meeting the spiritual needs of the elderly. It reflects the villagers’ behaviors towards spatial changes taking place in their families and villages. Obviously, it is necessary to consider the impacts of external factors at the macro level, such as governmental policies, on the internal transformation of Vietnam’s rural areas in general, and in the Viet villages in particular.