If beliefs in fertility associated with aspiration of reproduction remains as a cultural sediment; beliefs in ancestor worship exist in various forms not only in the Việt communities but also in the lives of many ethnic groups; beliefs in village titulary worship make communal houses to become special space for religious activities; then beliefs in the Mother Goddesses has not only spread widely, but also formed large worship centers exceeding a village’s and a commune’s space. In other words, the development of beliefs in the Mother Goddesses is a spatial expansion from the North to the South, from coastal region across the delta to the mountains; from remote areas to urban centers in Viet Nam. Beliefs in the Mother Goddesses is a process of integrating and combining folk beliefs and religious activities of the Việt people and of other ethnic groups such as the Tày, Nùng, Tai, Dao, Cham, Khmer, etc which forms a specific type of Vietnamese folk belief sustainably developed for a long time.

Established on 1 April 1971 as the Institute of Arts, after several name changes, the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts Studies (VICAS) adopted its current name pursuant to Decision No 2845/QĐ – BVHTTDL on 25 June 2008 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MoCST).

Phú Thọ - a midland province in northern Vietnam, is about 100 kilometres northwest of Hanoi where the sacred mountain Nghĩa Lĩnh also known as mountain Hùng exists. On Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain, there are Lower (Hạ), Middle (Trung) and Upper (Thượng) temples together with legends about 18 Hùng Kings of the Vietnamese people. Around Nghĩa Lĩnh mountain, there are hundreds of temples, communal houses and shrines located in villages and communes, which forms a religious space to worship Hùng Kings.