Offering at the Đức Ông shrine in a pagoda

Culture and belief A record of custom.

About this rite: when it is held and for whom

Also called: Đức Chúa Ông, Văn khấn ban Đức Ông, Tu Đạt tôn giả

By custom, the Đức Ông shrine honours the guardian of the pagoda grounds, so worshippers place offerings and burn incense here first, then worship the Buddha. The prayer asks Đức Ông to observe and protect the family.

When
When visiting a pagoda, make this offering before going up to the main hall
For whom
Đức Ông Tu Đạt tôn giả, Già Lam Chân Tể, Thập bát Long thần

Prayer text for the Đức Ông offering

  • Used across Vietnam
  • Folk practice

What this prayer says

Prayer text for the offering to Đức Ông at the pagoda, presenting offerings and purified money before the hall of Đức Ông Tu Đạt Tôn giả, the Eighteen Dragon Deities, and Già Lam Chân Tể; asking them to look upon and protect the family from illness and misfortune and to grant wealth and good fortune. Recited when visiting the pagoda, before proceeding to the main hall.

The prayer below is kept in Vietnamese, the language it is read aloud in during the rite.

Fill in before the rite

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Showing the version used across Vietnam.

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Other texts for Offering at the Đức Ông shrine in a pagoda

Versions by region, by tradition and for each part of the rite.

Offerings and how the rite is done

As commonly practised and recorded by the sources. Each family and each region may do it differently.

Used across Vietnam, Folk practice

When
On the fifteenth day and the first day of the lunar month, on Tết holidays, and when there is an important matter
Where the offerings are set
The main altar of the main hall (Tam Bảo) and the altars in the pagoda

Offerings

OfferingNotes
Incense, fresh flowers, ripe fruit, oản phẩm (rice-flour offerings), xôi chè (steamed sticky rice and sweet soup)Required. vegetarian offerings; only vegetarian and pure offerings are placed at the main hall
Lotus flowers, huệ flowers (tuberose), mẫu đơn flowers (peony), ngâu flowers (Aglaia)do not use mixed flowers or wild flowers
Savory offerings (chicken, giò, chả)Optional. only placed at the altar of the Thánh, the Mẫu, or the Đức Ông altar if the pagoda has one; not placed at the Buddha hall
Vàng mã (votive paper), tiền âm phủ (hell money)Optional. not offered at the Buddha and Bodhisattva altars; if there is any, it is placed at the altar of the Thần linh, the Thánh Mẫu, or the Đức Ông altar
Donation moneyput into the merit box, not placed on the main altar of the main hall

Steps

  1. Place the offerings, light incense, and make offerings at the Đức Ông altar first
  2. Place the offerings on the main altar of the main hall, light the lamps and incense, strike three rounds of the bell, then make offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
  3. Light incense at the other altars of the Bái Đường (worship hall), three or five offerings at each altar; if the pagoda has a Mẫu điện or Tứ Phủ, go there to place offerings
  4. Make offerings at the Tổ (patriarch) shrine (nhà Hậu)
  5. Make a farewell offering, lower the offerings, greet the monks, and donate according to one's heart
  6. When lowering the offerings: wait about one incense stick's time, bow three times before each altar, burn the sớ, then lower the offerings from the outer altars to the main altar

Things to avoid

  • Do not prepare savory offerings (tam sinh feast, meat, chicken, giò, chả) to offer to the Buddha
  • Do not place real money, hell money, or votive paper on the Buddha and Bodhisattva altars
  • On the full moon of the seventh lunar month, do not prepare hình nhân thế mạng (substitute effigies)
  • Before the day of offering to the Buddha, one should keep pure: eat vegetarian food, keep the precepts, do good deeds

Where the sources differ

  • On savory offerings at the outer altars of the main hall: vankhan.vn writes that savory offerings are accepted if offered only at the altars of the Thánh, the Mẫu, and the Đức Ông; hoatieu.vn advises not to use savory food when going to the pagoda, and if one wants to use it, to buy vegetarian food shaped like chicken, giò, and the offerings to the Thành Hoàng and Thư điền also use vegetarian food.

The wording is kept exactly as published by the source. The dotted italic words are blanks for you to fill in.

Sources

  • Văn khấn lễ Đức Ông (vankhan.vn)
  • Văn khấn tại chùa (vankhan.vn)
  • Bài khấn đi lễ chùa (hoatieu.vn)

Part of the open dataset Types of Vietnamese offering rites and Vietnamese offering procedures, licensed CC BY 4.0.

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