學界或佛教界一般認為佛教傳到越南約當在公元2世紀，士燮擔任交阯太守時期（187-226年），期間牟子以《理惑論》傳世，其後有康僧會避居交阯，解明三藏。至3世紀末，有天竺沙門耆域與丘陀羅同來交、廣之地，此外，並無其他記載。故多以為如同朝鮮、日本之佛教，越南之有佛教亦自中國傳來。本文認為越南佛教並非北傳來自中國，而是海陸南傳而來，東漢交州羸（Luy Lau）和彭城（徐州）、洛陽成為三大佛教譯經中心。作者以田野調查配合由口傳歷史撰成之古典文學〈蠻娘傳〉，解釋丘陀羅和當地之「母」（mẫu）信仰結合，形成以佛母信仰和法雲、法雨、法雷、法電四法信仰在交阯地區廣為傳播流佈，蠻娘傳奇形象說明早期佛教傳入，得以在越南北部在地化的過程。

Previous scholarship and the Buddhist community share a consensus that Buddhism was transmitted to Vietnam around the second century CE from China, which is similar to the dissemination pattern to Korea or Japan. But there is no solid evidence concerning such Buddhism’s transmission to Vietnam. Instead, Leilou, a coastal area northeast of today’s Hanoi, emerged as one of the three major Buddhist scripture translation centers in East Asia. The “Tale of Man Nương,” a native Vietnamese classical literature based on oral narratives, well illustrates the early transmission of Buddhism to Vietnam. This article pairs anthropological fieldwork with an analysis of the “Tale of Man Nương” to elaborate the association of the Indian Śramana Khâu Đà La with the local “Mother Buddha” (mẫu) beliefs and the latter’s dissemination. Thus, we can better understand Buddhism’s localization in northern Vietnam. We argue that Vietnamese Buddhism was not transmitted from the north via China but from the south by way of the sea.