Tay Ninh is a small provincial capital about 100 kilometres northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, best known as the seat of the Cao Dai religion — one of the most distinctive and unusual faiths in the world. Cao Dai blends elements of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism, and European humanism into a single syncretic religion with over a million followers in Vietnam.
The Great Cao Dai Temple, built between 1933 and 1955, functions as the religion's Vatican — a vast, vividly coloured building with twin towers, dragon-wrapped columns, and an enormous all-seeing eye above the entrance. The noon ceremony is the most popular with visitors: worshippers in white, blue, and yellow robes file into the nave while chanting fills the hall. You watch from the gallery above. The temple's pantheon of saints is one of the most eclectic in any religion: alongside the Buddha and Confucius sit Victor Hugo, Joan of Arc, and Sun Yat-sen.
Outside the town, Bà Đen Mountain — the Black Lady Mountain, at 986 metres the highest peak in southern Vietnam — rises dramatically from the flat plain and supports a complex of Buddhist and Cao Dai shrines that draw Vietnamese pilgrims in large numbers.
A visit to Tay Ninh is usually combined with the Cu Chi tunnels, which are on the way back to Saigon. Most visitors come on a day trip from Ho Chi Minh City — the drive takes about an hour and a half.