Of vietnamese Taosit dieties

During the time of our family early migration into Melbourne, Chinese and asian food was scarce and costly . The only available places to eat were the various Vietnamese resturants and Vietnamese chinese supermarkets run by the local communities. One incident was when my fatyher and I ate Vietnamese satay beef kuay tiow and I saw the Vietnamese chinese local owner offer a sacrificial food offering of a bowl of yellow egg noodles or mee pok soup at to his earth god shrine . The Vietnamese and khmers also had their own earth god or god of fertility and fortune known as the om khar . It is an indian figurine wearing a turban and fanning himself laughing . He is prayed to by bakers , confectioners and butchers alike . Another incident occurred humorously when the Nanyang Asian supermarket ran out of the Chinese wife biscuits which I loved due to my sweet tooth and I asked the shop assistance when it will be available . He told me there and then I had to wait for 2 weeks for them to replenish the stock as they were imported by ship so I suggested to them to pray and ask some diety to hasten the shipping delivery! Upon inquring which god would they resort to in supplication, his answer was none other than the river goddess Mahzu or Empress of heaven known amongst the seafaring communities and my interest in Vietnamese taoist dieties and customs developed from then onwards . However, being male, I had no interest in the empress of heaven being a mere river goddess so I did my own research and found out that Shang di or Di Gong which is the male Hokkien seafarers god alongside Dou Mu the astral queen and the nine princes . It was transplanted into Phuket in Thailand and the Vietnamese Mekong delta since the later Ming dynasty by migrants refugees. In Ming dynasty China , Emperor Yong le raised the north pole star-god or beiji gong as the absolute divine ruler during the building of the forbidden city in line with feng shui astrology taosit architecture . On the Vietnamese side , it was the fourth Nugyen Emperor Thu Duc who built the famous memorial garden palace . Emperor Thuc Duc was the last independent emperor to rule Vietnam before French colonial rule was established . http://home.earthlink.net/~vieticons/taoistdeities.html