Hero and Deity is an eloquent and fascinating journey into the world of the worshippers and the cult of Tran Hung Dao. The legendary fourteenth-century hero and savior of Vietnam has evolved as a key symbol of the nation as well as an efficacious deity in its spiritual pantheon. Today he is a ubiquitous, multivalent symbol of the contradictions of contemporary Vietnamese society.

Intertwined with this rich ethnography is a work of self-interrogation and engagement with the author's complex and changing ?home, ? and with the diverse women and men ? intellectuals, Communist...