How to visit pagodas, temples and mosques

For pagodas and temples, the Việt Nam News guide asks for sleeves to the elbows and trousers or a dress below the knee, and rules out transparent clothing, sleeveless tops and shorts above the knee. For the Cham mosques, cover shoulders and knees, and women should bring a scarf to cover their hair.

In practice, the simplest kit for the delta’s heat is light long trousers or a long skirt, a loose shirt with sleeves, and a scarf that can cover shoulders or hair. Slip-on shoes save time: you will take them off many times a day. Carry a small towel; the courtyards are hot underfoot by late morning.

A Khmer pagoda compound usually has an ordination hall with the main Buddha image, a sala where the community meets and eats, monks’ living quarters and often a school. You may walk in the grounds freely; enter halls only where the door is open or a monk or caretaker invites you.

• Take shoes off before stepping into a hall where asked
• Do not touch offerings on the altars or put money on statues; use the donation box
• Do not step on raised areas where monks keep books or prayer drums
• Keep your voice down, and do not point at the statues
• Ask before photographing a ceremony or a monk; some halls do not allow photos at all
• Before offering anything to a monk, ask your guide how it is done

If you arrive during a meal or a chanting session, wait outside or leave quietly and come back later. Pagodas are working places, and your guide checks ahead on festival or ordination days.

The Bà Chúa Xứ temple is busy with pilgrims buying offerings, lighting incense and praying. Move with the flow rather than against it, keep to the sides when people are kneeling, and do not photograph worshippers at close range. During the festival in the fourth lunar month, the palanquin procession and the bathing ceremony of the statue are sacred moments: watch from where your guide places you and never cut across the procession.

At Tây An pagoda and other Vietnamese pagodas the same rules apply: covered elbows and knees, quiet voices, no photos in the main back altar area, and donations in the box. Sam Mountain has many small shrines; you do not need to make an offering at each one.

• Visit outside prayer times; non-Muslim visitors generally do not go in during prayers
• Shoulders and knees covered for everyone; women cover their hair with a scarf
• Take shoes off before the prayer hall
• Ask before entering a home or a weaving workshop; stilt-house doors are low, so bow as you go in
• Men and visitors do not go into the inner, family part of a house
• Ask before photographing people

The Chau Giang guide we rely on also notes that boat rides, souvenirs and snacks in the village are paid in cash. We time village visits for mid-morning or mid-afternoon and avoid Friday midday.

Every journey on this site includes sacred places: the Khmer Delta is almost entirely pagodas; the Four Cultures and Delta to the Sea add mosques and Chinese halls; the Festival Journey puts you among pilgrims. For background, read the four cultures; for the places, start with Chau Doc.