Temples

Temples are very common in Vietnam. Some are very big, like the ones I saw in Danang and Hue, and some are small, hidden among houses on a street. Some of them I miss completely even though I've walked the same street many times. I didn't realize there was a temple there until I saw tourists coming out of the building.
If I ask my Vietnamese friends what religion they belong to, they almost always say Buddhism. I also have some Catholic friends, by the way. However, when I visit the temples, I hardly see any statues of Buddha at all, like I would see in the temples in Cambodia or Thailand. What I see are mostly idols, the same kind that the Chinese worship.
I see many similarities between what the Vietnamese worship and what the Chinese worship. I would call this a blend of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Confucianism and Taoism are not really religions. They came from two famous Chinese philosophers, Confucius and Lao Tze, respectively. However, they have been so intertwined with the daily lives of the people that they become part of their religion. Somewhere, Buddhist doctrine is mixed in to form the religion of the Vietnamese.
You see a lot of ancestor worship, like burning joss papers, paper money and other paper objects as offerings to their ancestors. It is common to see a small altar for the "kitchen god" in homes and even restaurants.
I often get confused when my friends say they go to the pagoda to pray. So, what's the difference between a pagoda and a temple? From what I gather, a pagoda is a place where you go to pray and worship. It does not necessary have to have a pagoda, as in a building. A temple is a place to honor someone important in history. For example, one of the famous temples in Hue honors the Nguyen dynasty.
The slideshow above shows pictures of many temples or maybe pagodas that I took while walking around the streets of Hanoi and some from Danang and Hue.