Religion
The Dong people are traditionally polytheistic with many elements of animism (Geary 2003). Totems include turtles, snakes, and dragons, and worshipped ancestors include the mythical figures of Song Sang, Song En, Zhang Liang, and Zhang Mei (Geary 2003:149-151). The Dong people also use rice grains, bamboo roots, snails, and chicken bone, eyes, blood, and eggs for divination. Today, Taoism, Buddhism, and to a lesser extent Christianity are also practiced by the Dong people.
Read more about this topic: Dong People
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“Since belief is measured by action, he who forbids us to believe religion to be true, necessarily also forbids us to act as we should if we did believe it to be true.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“In the religion of all nations a purity is hinted at, which, I fear, men never attain to.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In the latter part of the seventeenth century, according to the historian of Dunstable, “Towns were directed to erect ‘a cage’ near the meeting-house, and in this all offenders against the sanctity of the Sabbath were confined.” Society has relaxed a little from its strictness, one would say, but I presume that there is not less religion than formerly. If the ligature is found to be loosened in one part, it is only drawn the tighter in another.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)