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!

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....

Thuong Luong

Thuong Luong was common name of creatures which are in people’s imagines. They are distant relatives of dragons. While dragons are worshiped as gods, the gods ruled rivers and sea and the gods can make rains, Thuong Luong is not respected as dragons that the creatures are too amorous, combative, wild, and have bad behaviors. All most of them like to harm people.

The Tale of Geckos

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Thanh Giong

Once upon a time, a woman was old but she had not given birth a child. One day, when she went to her field, she saw a stranger footsore on the ground. The big footsore made her surprise and said: “omg, this footsore is so big” the she put her foot into the footsore. More 9 months later, she gave birth to a little boy named Giong. The boy was extraordinary that he was over three years old but had not spoken. He only knew lying and smiling. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com That year, the enemies they were known An planed to attack the country of the boy. They were merciless. Wherever they had gone, houses were ruined, fields were fired, people were killed. The sight behind them is mess of corpse and blood and ashes.The King was worry he forced his servants to look for person who could fight against the enemies. One day, a servent went to Giong’s village while the woman was holding the boy in her arms, she said sadly that: “Giong, I wonder that when you hav...

The tale of "Nhất Dạ" swamp and "Tự Nhiên" dump

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Luu and Death god

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Bay Giao, Chin Quy

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Như chúng ta đã biết danh từ thường phân thành nhiều loại nhưng về mặt ngữ pháp bạn chỉ cần biết danh từ gồm hai loại: danh từ đếm được và danh từ không đếm được. Về cơ bản mình sẽ nói qua một chút về danh từ đếm được và danh từ không đếm được vì bài này chủ yếu xoay quanh danh từ đếm được. Về bản chất danh từ đếm được là những từ bạn có thể kiểm soát nó bằng mặt số lượng tức là bạn có thể đếm 1, 2, 3 cái gì đó và nó có sự phân biệt giữa số ít (một) và số nhiều (hơn một) của loại từ này trong ngữ pháp của câu. Ví dụ: I have bananas và I have a banana có sự khác biệt rõ ràng, bạn có nhận thất mạo từ “a” ở trước banana không? Thêm nữa Bananas are yellow và a banana is yellow bạn có nhận thấy động từ đi kèm có sự khác biệt không; danh từ số nhiều sẽ tương đương vói ư chỉ ngữ they và danh từ số ít sẽ tương đương vói it. Cơ bản là thế. Còn về danh không đếm được thì bạn phải cân, đo, đong như những...

Vietnamese fairy tales

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