The Holy See of the Cao Dai is in the Vietnamese province of Tay Ninh; close to the Cambodian frontier; and this syncretic religion - which counts Victor Hugo; Laozi and Jesus among its saints - has also made some Khmer converts.

Vietnam has two indigenous religious sects; both of which were established in the 20th century; and both of which are based firmly in the south of the country. Cao Dai or 鈥楽upreme Altar' is a syncretic faith combining aspects of the tam giao with Catholicism and is the larger of the two; with an estimated 2 million followers. Cao Dai is an eclectic amalgam of Confucianism; Taoism; Buddhism and Catholicism. The second sect; called Hoa Hao or 鈥楶eace and Happiness'; is centred on Chau Doc in the Mekong Delta. Its followers practise an ascetic and austere form of Buddhism.

The Cao Dai religion was founded in 1919 by a Vietnamese civil servant; Ngo Van Chieu and by the mid-1920s Tay Ninh had developed as the 鈥楬oly See' of the new religion; with a hierarchy organised under a Cao Dai pope. Initially persecuted by the communists; Cao Dai is now tolerated; and has an estimated two million followers; mainly in the south. Pictures From Asia David Henley