Bo De Pagoda

Moc Cu Chinh Pagoda, whose literary name is Bo De Tu, is said to date from the Tran dynasty. Ranking: National Relic (1990). Address: No. 190 Quan Nhan Street, Thanh Xuan Ward, Hanoi City. Brief history: According to the Quoc su tap luc, when Ly Thai To moved the capital to Thang Long, the land south of the To Lich River was still heavily forested, so it was called Ke Moc, with the literary name Moc Cu, later changed to Nhan Muc. As the population grew dense, it had to be divided into Nhan Muc Cuu commune (including 2 villages, Thuong Dinh and Ha Dinh) and Nhan Muc commune (including 4 villages, Quan Nhan, Cu Loc, Chinh Kinh, and Giap Nhat). To this day, although urbanized, these villages are still commonly called by the folk name Moc prefixed to their names. Cu Chinh Pagoda, whose literary name is Bo De Tu, was the pagoda of the former Moc Cu Chinh village and is said to date from before the 15th century. When advancing to besiege Dong Quan citadel in 1426, a wing of the Lam Son insurgent army set up its headquarters at Bo De Pagoda and the neighboring Cu Chinh communal house. On September 28, 1990, Bo De Pagoda, together with Cu Chinh communal house and Dong Thay mound, was ranked by the Ministry of Culture and Information as a national historical-cultural relic national.Kiarchitecture. Bo De Pagoda has undergone repairs many times over the centuries. In 1998 and again in 2009-2012, the pagoda continued to be restored and renovated on its old foundations. Its present appearance still partly carries Nguyen-era architectural style, but not much of the old relic remains. The pond beside the pagoda has an iron fence and a wall separating it from Quan Nhan Street on the east; the outer three-entrance gate, painted brown, also opens onto this street. The pagoda faces south, and the inner three-entrance gate has a tall bell tower. In the front yard, visitors step up a dragon terrace leading into a five-bay, two-wing front hall, parallel to the upper sanctuary built in a two-story, eight-roof style and connected to the rear sanctuary in a pestle-handle shape. The upper sanctuary has a side veranda with stone columns leading to the inner pagoda door. The side yard has a garden, miniature landscape, and a bridge leading to a small water pavilion; farther on are the stupa garden and several new buildings. Behind the main pagoda is a stele house built in a two-story, eight-roof style, with a large bronze bell cast in 1822 hung in the upper story; below stands a large stele inscribed with the Bo De Tu thuat bi ky text, dated the 5th day of the 12th lunar month of the Binh Ty year, Bao Dai 11 (1936); behind the stele hangs a stone gong. The inner pagoda consists of two facing corridors and two parallel rear halls, built as the Patriarch House, Mother House, Nuns' House, and Guest House, all looking onto a small courtyard with a passage to the rear gate.