Dau Pagoda
Location: Located at the
end of Gia Phuc Village, Nguyen Trai Commune, Thuong Tin District, Hatay
Province, about 24km far from Hanoi to the south.
Characteristics: Dau Pagoda is famous for the two mummified statues: Vu Khac Minh and
Vu Khac Truong.
The pagoda's gate
faces west; the walls are not too high, mossy green and decorated in Buddhist
designs and patterns. High on the centre is a big panel with characters “Thanh
Dao Tu”. Beyond the gate, visitors seem to be in a care-free world and live in
an atmosphere of meditation. Three - door gate is an ancient architectural
project overlooking Long Tri Lake. The gate was built in a lotus design with two
roofs. The upper roof is symbol of positive world; the lower roof is
square-shaped as a foundation. The pillar base-stones to support the whole roof
and the lowest roof is seen as negative world. Between the positive and the
negative is a bronze-bell, a symbol of centre part of the lotus flowers.
A visit to Dau Pagoda helps visitors to see rare and precious exhibits: bases
and stone-bases from Ly Dynasty decorated with lotus flowers. On staircases of
the main hall, there are two stone dragons, a masterpiece of Tran Dynasty. The
dragons were built in round bodies, winding as waves on blocks of stone; it's
really an artistic masterpiece. Visitors will be deeply interested in the
ancient traditional architectures, the sculpture pictures on beams, columns or
panels... all depict legendary traditions: fairies on dragons, boys fighting
tigers, or four sacred animals: dragon, lion, turtle and phoenix (long, ly, quy,
phuong) or 4 seasons: pine-tree, buttercup, ivory-bamboo and apricot (tung, cuc,
truc, mai). The sculpture designs look very beautiful, realistic.
All architectural works and projects: the main hall, the worship house, the
temple, the male and female monks' houses... were built of rectangular - shaped
bricks (Mac Dynasty). The typical identities on the bricks lie in patterns of
sacred animals: houses, dragons, carps to turn into dragons or vegetation and
flower world.
But most
interesting is the story of the monks: Vu Khac Minh and Vu Khac Truong. The
story has it that: after reciting prayers, the monks burnt themselves by the
innermost lire of meditation, they died under the altars of statues and their
followers protected their bodies in meditativeness and coated with special
paint, then put on closedin temples. Present world science has self-affirmed
that embalmment shall satisfy 3 conditions as follows:
+ There should be chemical
+ Intestine and brain shall be moved away.
+ The dead body should be kept in closed box
In 1983, science has proved by radiograph (monk Vu Khac Minh) and concluded
that:
+ There is no mark of chisel.
+ No phenomenon of intestine, brain moved away and joints adhere closely as
shown.
+ Weight: 7kg
This is the most special culture heritage in Dau Pagoda. It's also a product of
spiritism culture, the most sacred and interesting. The pagoda is admitted by
Ministry of Culture and Information as "culture historical" monument.
|
Source: Vietnam Administration of Tourism |