Caodaism arose in southern Vietnam during the period of French colonial rule, emerging from the vibrant spiritist séance culture of the early 1920s. Its roots lie in attempts to communicate with the unseen world through devices akin to a Ouija board, where messages were believed to come from a supreme deity calling itself “Cao Đài,” literally “High Tower” or “High Palace.” These revelations presented a vision of a new, syncretic faith that would harmonize elements of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, and other major traditions. In this sense, the birth of Caodaism can be seen as both a spiritual experiment and a cultural response to a time of intense social and political upheaval.

The figure most often associated with the origin of this movement is Ngô Văn Chiêu, a Vietnamese civil servant in the French administration, regarded as the first disciple to receive and heed the messages from Cao Đài. Through a series of séances in the mid‑1920s, he and other early participants came to understand these communications as a divine mandate to establish a new religion. A key moment in this revelatory process occurred when the deity was said to announce explicitly the founding of a new faith, giving shape and direction to what had previously been a more diffuse spiritual exploration. From that point, the movement began to crystallize into a distinct religious community.

The formal establishment of Caodaism took place in 1926, when it was publicly organized as a new religion in southern Vietnam, particularly associated with Tây Ninh province, which became its central seat. This institutional phase drew in additional leaders and spirit mediums, such as Lê Văn Trung and Phạm Công Tắc, who played crucial roles in codifying teachings, organizing the hierarchy, and building the first major temple. Thus, while Ngô Văn Chiêu is honored as the initial recipient of the divine call, the concrete shaping of Caodaism as a structured religious body was the work of a broader circle of early adherents. The result was a faith that sought to weave together diverse religious lineages into a single, overarching spiritual tapestry, reflecting both the pluralism and the aspirations of its time and place.