What is the Hmong traditional religion?

The majority of the Hmong people practice the religion of worshiping the spirits.   Although sociologists and anthropologists labeled the Hmong religion as animism; however, for the Hmong, their religion is known as “The Ways of the Spirits”. 

Some of the spirits are good while others are bad.  The good spirits—mostly are the spirits of their dead ancestors--can be called to help in time of need.  The bad spirits—mostly are the spirits of the wild--can cause harm to them at anytime.  They believe that the spirits of the decease ancestors are still alive and have influenced on the living. 

At times they called on the ancestral spirits to help them, and at times the ancestral spirits come to protect the living and at another times caused them to be sick because the children had caused the spirits to be angry or forgot to make sacrifices to the spirits, etc.

They also believe that there is the devil.  The devil is always an evil spirit.  In the back of their mind there is also a King of the Universe or an Almighty God.  They also called on this God for help in time of sickness or when bad things happened to them.  However, the core belief of the Hmong religion is re-incarnation. 

They believe that a person has multiple souls.  After death one of the person’s souls stay with the body at the grave.  One soul travels on a journey to be with his/hers ancestors in a place where they will continue to desire food and material possessions. Another soul re-incarnated into this world to be a different person, thing, or animal, etc. and the process will start over and over again.  With this type of faith, they practice animal sacrifices and shamanism.  Seventy percent of the Hmong in North America still believe in their traditional religion.  We must pray for them and work together to bring them the Good News that Christ is the Ultimate sacrifice.  Though Christ they have eternal life with the Creator of the Universe.