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Potent rituals and the royal dead: Historical transformations in Vietnamese ritual practice

This article considers the intricate entanglements of ritual, history and power by focusing on the recent rejuvenation of ritual practices pertaining to former kings as enacted in contemporary Huế, the former imperial capital of Việt Nam (1802–1945). It examines how the Nguyễn monarchs, who were previously repudiated by the early socialist regime, have been ritually reinstated as extraordinary ancestral figures and acknowledged as potent spirits to whom many turn for blessings. Drawing on ethnographic and historical material, the article traces changes in the locals' ritual engagements with the royal dead and pays attention to fluctuations in the posthumous fate of the Nguyễn royalty while highlighting the city's transformation from imperial capital to a tourist marketplace via the horrors of the battlefield.