Story 7: One Pillar Pagoda (Chua Mot Cot)

Vietnamese history was written meagerly and only wrote about merits of kings, mandarins or generals. But history had written about one story which related to King Thai Tong Ly. It is his dream. The dream didn’t relate to war, soldiers but building. And that also was not building castle or citadel but a temple. Exactly, that is a part of temple. Vietnamese history had written:

“At winter, 1049, King Thai Tong Ly ordered people to build Dien Huu temple. Before that, King Thai Tong Ly had had a dream that the Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva who sat on lotus flower appeared front his face. Then the Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva left the lotus flower and went to him and led him to lotus flower and let him sat on with her. When he woke up he said his courtiers about his dream and people said that was an ominous signal. Monk Thien Tue advised him to build pagoda, built a rock pillar at middle of pond and build a lotus flower on the pillar as he saw in his dream. After the pagoda was built, monks would wander around the pond and mutter Buddhist scriptures to pray that king would have long life. Because of that the pagoda was called Dien Huu (it meant prolonging life).

King Thai Tong Ly was a person who respected Buddhism so he followed Monk Thien Tue’s word. He asked mandarins to design some pagoda patterns then he chose a pattern which looked like as the lotus flower he had seen in dream. Then, King Thai Tong Ly asked carpenters and builders to do.

By talent, carpenters and builders had built square tower which was covered by red color and set on a rock pillar standing at middle of a square pond (Linh Chieu pond). All looked like as a lotus flower grew up from water. The altar of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva was set in the tower. Lotus flowers were grown in the pond and as summer came, scent radiated from flowers made the place became more solemnly.

Because people were accustomed to calling it One Pillar Pagoda so they also thought that was complete pagoda. But, some historical researchers said that was only a part of larger temple, Dien Huu. But, because of its architecture which was very special and represented for the lotus flower which Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva sat on, One Pillar Pagoda could exist independently and it was proved by one-thousand-year-history.

King Thai Tong Ly was satisfied with the temple, especially, lotus-flower-tower. Dien Huu temple that time was considered the country temple. Each month, on 1st and 15th followed lunar calendar, the king went to the temple to hold ceremonies and happily observed monks wandered around lotus-flower-tower to pray for his life. After that, he sat with monks and talked. On April 8th each year, the king used to go to the temple to hold bathing-Buddha-ceremony and released animals. The king stood on a tower which was built front of temple gate and released a bird. The bird flew up the sky in people's cheers.

Over fifty years later, King Nhan Tong Ly ordered people to repair and redecorated the lotus-flower-tower. He asked people to cleaned Linh Chieu pond, built paths and fences around the pond. He built a tower and a roof which was used to hang a big bell in the temple, Dien Huu. The bell was molded but it emitted bad sounds and was too heavy. Therefore, it was laid on field in the temple. The field had many turtles and the bell became their house so the bell was called Quy Dien bell (…). The bell because of that was considered as one of four most precious things that moment. Later, the bell was broken by Thong Vuong, a general of Minh contry, to have copper to make weapons (in 15th century) to fight against Binh Dinh Vuong.

The lotus-flower-tower, One Pillar Pagoda still existed till now though it has passed many historical events. It has been repaired many times and course it couldn t keep its initial architecture. In 20th century, One Pillar Pagoda nearly was rebuilt. In 1923, One Pillar Pagoda was in serious degradation and nearly fell down. People rebuilt it following picture of it. Now, we can see unique architecture of One Pillar Pagoda from mass media.

In the time King Thai Tong Ly was alive, he had built many temples, about 950 temples. Dien Huu temple was the temple he liked most. The temple had lotus-flower-tower which was built following his dream. One Pillar Pagoda and Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy (Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam) have become emblems of Hanoi for long time. Recently, November 12th, 2012 One Pillar Pagoda was recognized in the Asian record books that it was the pagoda which had the most unique architecture in Asia. And the king had dreamt about that or had not…

THE END

"Translated by Hung Nguyen"

Read more:

Historical stories

Story 5: Ceremony Dong Co

Story 6: Tri Cao Nung

Story 8: King Thanh Tong Ly

Story 9: Royal Concubine Y Lan

Story 10: Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy

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Truyện cổ tích Việt Nam

Vietnamese fairy tales

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List of Vietnamese fairy tales

Vietnamese fairy tales includes many stories as Tam and Cam; So Dua; Hundred – knot- bamboo tree... which were spread in folk. Each stories has its own meaning. I think I can not translate exactly each word into english but I will try my best to convey its meaning to you. Hope you like them!

Thanh Giong

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So dua - Coconut boy

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Cruel-second mother

A man had two wives and each wife gave birth to a son, Linh and Lang. Linh was child of the first wife and Lang was child of the other. Linh’s mother died early left him staying with father, the second mother and Lang. Lang was older than Ling five years old and treated Linh as his same mother brother but his mother didn’t thought that she hated Linh. When Linh grew up, his father let him to study in school because he was son of the first wife while Lang followed his father, worked on their field. Unfortunately, his father died, left assets which were accumulated in three generations, vast field, red roof house with large gardens around, ponds will full of fish. Although the second wife still treated Linh normal as if he was her son but in fact she implicitly planned to harm him to usurp asset because the fate of women, not first wife, and their children just inherited very little. One day, the second wife requested Lang and Linh to go to market to buy fire-wood. Before th...

Thach Sanh and Ly Thong Chapter 1

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Tam and Cam

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The Tale of the Hundred - knot Bamboo tree

Once upon a time, there had a boy who was poor, had no field. Therefore, he found the way to work for a landlord. He was healthy, worked hard and great in working so the landlord wanted him to work for him long time without any pay. One day, he called the boy to come. "You are honest and healthy. If you agree to work for me in three years without pay, I will let you marry with my only daughter after that." The boy agreed. He believed completely. He worked very hard, help the landlord turn richer that he could build more houses, buy more fields and cattles. Then, time passed. Three years nearly crossed, the boy always remembered his master's promise while his master, the landlord didn't want to do his promise. He in secret had found another boy for his daughter, a son of another landlord in that area. Therefore, what he need was a reason to refuse the boy. One day, he called the boy to come. "You have worked very hard for three years, waken early, slept late....

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Vietnamese fairy tales

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