Vong Thi temple - West Lake

Vong Thi temple is a peaceful temple located among Vong Thi Architecture village, close to West Lake. My visit to this place after the rain on a Sunday was enjoyable time for myself., making my soul calm. I like the architecture and green garden of the temple. 

Tradition of the spirit in new year Part 2

3. Chùa Tảo Sách

After the lunch, leaving from the crowd of Phu Tay Ho, we headed to Tao Sach temple - a 600 year old temple.

 

The afternoon in West Lake was quiet. We got the photo shoot of the governmental guest houses. They will look amazing when lotus blossom in summer, believe me.

 

On our way, we passed by the Sen restaurant - a destination for whom loves Vietnamese cuisines. Sen means lotus. No wonder because West lake area is also the lotus land of Hanoi. Sen today were unfrequented unlike usual, because most Vietnamese were now busy visiting temples during these weeks

 If you are lucky, you can meet some local go fishing. Some stands in a "bamboo bridge" like the way we saw. Some choose their stand in a stable big stone just right underneath the water surface. We see the later more in other days of summer

Tao Sach temple, also called as Linh Son Temple or “Linh Sơn tự”, built  in 15^th century of Tien Le period of time, to dedicate to Uy Linh Lang Prince, the seventh prince of Kinh Tran Nhan Tong, is situated on 386 Lac Long Quan str. , Nhat Tan ward.  

The breeze from West Lake made us a bit uncomfortable but when reaching to Tao Sach's main gate, it seemed nothing more interesting now than coming again into the temple with a special name: Tao Sach  means reading books early in the morning. If you are the person who likes reading, the temple is a popular reading place to local people around here since long time. It is a quiet temple with a huge valuable library for any Han Nom researchers. The temple has retained many documents of Hán Nôm and other artistic relics such as: 42 couplets or “câu đối” among of which 39 ones are Chinese and 3 ones are Nôm, 23 pieces of capital letters or “đại tự”, 2 bronze bells one of which was molded in 1822, 29 inscriptions or “văn bia” among of which 12 ones were established in 1941,40 Buddhist statues from 17^th to 20^th century.

Unlike the crowded Phu Tay Ho, Tao Sach temple was much less crowded & peaceful. Even the offering sellers across the main gate were nicer to tell you the right price of their things. We headed to the main shrine house of Tao Sach. After its renovation in 1941 of Bao Dai period of time, the temple has been remaining as now & was recognized as national relic place in 1994. Due to its antique, impressive Buddhism space among the green garden with a lot of high trees in the temple, many art students or architects, painters really like to come here for their painting, reading & research, especially in summer, when the weather brings the wind from the lake & the quietness of the temple is an ideal atmosphere of learning.

The unique thing among the temples we visited is that Tao Sach is the only temple having lying Buddhist statue or “Phật Nằm” in the shrine of the main house in Tao Sach. 

Here once graciously welcomed the Ngọc Quan Âm statue who is one of sacred statues in Buddhism philosophy and was sent from Bangkok, Thailand - the country of many temples. This statue is 1.15m high and 251 kg weight being kept here for a period of time before being back to Thailand so that local people could come worship. I hope the statue will be delivered again soon in future to Hanoi. Definitely I would like to see in person.
 

One more thing about Tao Sach temple is they offer free Japanese evening class from 2009, cooperated with Trường Minh Language Center. This information interests me so much because I need to start ABC Japanese soon. Well, I should ask the nuns there next time when being back.

4. Chùa Vạn Niên

About 200m far from Tao Sach temple in the Lac Long Quan Str., we came to Van Nien temple , the last destination of our today tour. Unlike Tao Sach’s large area, Van nien temple is small but very close to West Lake, only less than 100m, dedicating to Buddhist and Lieu Hanh Princess. Among the composition of famous temples/pagodas directed to West Lake, Van Nien - a thousand  year old temple is the oldest one.

While people who want to wish good luck in business will go to other temples, they will visit Van Nien to pray for their peace, good health for family members. Van Nien, previously called Van Tue, means remain for ever with the time. Built during the 1014 of Ly Dynasty, the more than 1000 year-old Van Nien Temple has been  renovated many times & holds the Nguyen dynasty’s architectural style now.

The name "Vạn Niên tự" in the main gate of the temple

Here also reserves  the Phat Ngoc Tuong statue, which was sculpted from a 1 ton of the most precious gem from Myanmar when Đại đức Thích Minh with his nuns searched and asked for Chinese artists to help sculpting.

The view of Van Nien on the back side to West Lake.

As a small temple but long history, the temple  received the recognition as national relic place in 1996.

Visiting the temples in the beginning days of a new year is the Vietnamese popular custom. Taken in the yard of Van Nien temple.

A Buddhist statue in middle directed to the back gate of the temple to West Lake surface. Even though it is small yard, I love to walk around.

We left Van Nien with a great peace & happiness after spending whole day visiting temples around West Lake.  It was fun because we even made a ride around West lake, experiencing the daily life  surrounding. Behind the different beauties each temple has, there are their own historical values that every time visit, we’ve learned more their interesting stories. Thanks  for the warmhearted welcome & smile from whom work & keep the temples always clean & warm when we visitors come, thanks for a great accompanion I had today. Without that, our trip couldn’t have been such enjoyable.

Tradition of the spirit in new year Part 1

It has been a week after the Tet holiday and we have come back to work as normal. But the excitement of enjoying the Tet still remains. This morning of Saturday, we decided to visit some temples around West Lake, the most unique lake in Hanoi where there are most temples/ pagodas locating around like Den Quang Thanh, Den Tran Quoc, Phu Tay Ho, Chua Tao Sach, Chua Van Nien... By tradition, Vietnamese like to visit temples on the occasion of Vietnamese New year . So it's common that every temples in everywhere across the country are always most crowded in lunar January of a year. So here are our tour of temples around West Lake today:

1. Đền Quán Thánh

After a simple & favorite breakfast, we started to go to Đền Quán Thánh, where Thánh Trấn Vũ , Deity of the North in Taoism was worshiped by Vietnamese.This is one of the oldest temples in Hanoi, which was built since 11th Century (in Emperor Lý Thái Tổ dynasty reigned during 1010–1028).

The pagoda is on Thanh Nien street, opposite with West lake, a short walk from Tran Vu street around Truc Bach Lake where pilot and future United States senator John McCain was shot down in October 1967.

Being located on the corner of Quan Thanh Str. and Thanh Nien Str. facing West Lake in a nice and peaceful large yard,  Quan Thanh is one of the Four Sacred Temples of the capital (một trong bốn "Thăng Long tứ trấn" ngày xưa). The current architecture of the temple remained after a great innovation from 19th century (1838) including: tam quan, sân, ba lớp nhà tiền đế, trung đế, hậu cung.

This is the first time of my visit to this temple. I hope you won't much surprise because I am Hanoian ;-). I was amazed when after passing through 2 big shrines of the temple with common architecture as seen in other ones in Hanoi, I saw the Tran Vu's black bronze statue in main shrine. This second biggest bronze statue in Vietnam was introduced by a pagoda supervisor who I met  there as 4m high, almost 4 tons & made in 1677. What I can learn was that the posture of the statue says about Tran Vu's archivements for the local people's lives here during old time.

Photo from 1000 namthanglonghanoi

Bare feet, left hand prevent the ghosts, right hand take a sword in turtle's back, with a snake around the sword. In legend, snake & turtle are the symbols of Northern Deity. 

Many local visitors after praying want to touch the statue's bare feet with belief of receiving more good lucks.I got the chance to touch his feet while people around, mostly young women, were crowded waiting for their chance too.

The pagoda was crowded in about 8h30am since we came.  

2. Phủ Tây Hồ

Leaving Den Quan Thanh in Thanh Nien str., we rode around West Lake to reach further to Phu Tay Ho. It was a cold& a bit cloudy morning today, but scenery on our way still looked nice. 

View in other side of the lake on our way to Phu Tay Ho

A coffee shop with great view to the lake first floor & a nice restaurant in second floor. 

I'm having an entry about this place next time 

Phủ Tây Hồ today was so crowded. That was the first impression we had. This is the most well-known temple in West Lake area and thousands of visitors has been coming since the first day of Lunar New Year until now. Being situated in small island connecting to east part of West Lake, this place was once an old village of  ancient Thang Long (so-called as old name of Hanoi capital during Ly Dynasty). The temple worship Princess Liễu Hạnh, the mother goddess admired greatly by her talents in literature, poetry and kind motherhood to local farmers & normal people during her time. It was no wonder so many people  not only from Hanoi, but also from other provinces, come to Phu Tay Ho during these beginning weeks of new year, firstly to visit an old famous temple built since 1598-1607, then worship to Lieu Hanh Princess for the good luck in new year. 

Green nutitious sticky rice or " X«i cèm" is a specialty in Phu Tay Ho

We asked for an old man in traditional costume of Ông Đồ - who writes old Nôm words of your wishes into the offering letters to Buddhists - to help us in these. Quickly, other people came waiting for their turn to do the same like us ;-) Then we bought some offerings on the way enter in the pagoda.

  

 

This is the best time of year for selling offering things to visitors. We got offering trees & moneys on the walk into Phu

The shopping place of offerings things were even right in pavement to Phu & parking lot

Since it was hard for me to take picture, here are some from internet, showing exactly the crowded atmosphere in Phu Tay Ho when we came.

 The main shrine of Cong Dong inside Phu Tay Ho

 People with lucky offering golden tree branches in hand to visit Phu Tay Ho

 Offering moneys were even given in trees in the yard

 It was difficult to reach to main alters inside the shrines, so I even had to pray from far in the crowd. I even couldn't find my offerings of praying laid inside, because layers of layers offering things were loaded.

Here's the parking lot next to Phu Tay Ho, with 5000 VND/ motorbike, which was still much better than ticket fee in Den Quan Thang with 10000 VND this morning, while it is supposed only 2000-3000 VND in normal days.

When we came out of the temple, it was almost 11am. So we decided to have lunch here,. It was great opportunity to enjoy the specialty food of West Lake (fried shrimp pancake called "Bánh tôm Hồ Tây" and rice noodle with Ho Tay snail called "bún ốc Hồ Tây"). Recently some days before Tet and the 4th day after Tet, we had Banh Tom already, but every time we try Banh Tom Ho Tay, the taste is fresh& attractive so much.

 Banh Tom were soft fried at first, with powder & shrimp & bột nghệ. Then they were deep fried when we order in sets.The huge load of banh tom attracted us that we couldn't help stopping by the most nearby restaurant

It was yummy to eat shrimp pancake with lettuce & sauce nước chấm with sliced sour papaya & chily

I wish to have time tell more about the specialty food around West Lake. But it was time for us to keep going to other expected temples. Goodbye Phu Tay Ho & see again in another day