Cau Dong Pagoda

The Cau Dong Pagoda relic is currently at 38B Hang Duong Street, Hoan Kiem Ward, Hanoi City.

In the past, Hang Duong Street belonged to the territory of two villages, Vinh Thai (the beginning of the street) and Dong Hoa Noi Tu (the end of the street), Hau Tuc Canton, Tho Xuong District. By the mid-19th century, Vinh Thai Village was renamed Vinh Hanh, while Dong Hoa Noi Tu Village merged with Dong Hoa Mon and Hau Dong Hoa villages to form Duc Mon Village, Dong Xuan Canton, Tho Xuong District, Hoai Duc Prefecture. Traces of these old villages are the communal houses and pagodas that remain today, such as Vinh Hanh Communal House, Cau Dong Pagoda, and Duc Mon Communal House.

According to ancient bibliographic sources, Hang Duong Street was formerly a place specializing in trading sugar, jam, and candy, which is why the street was named Hang Duong. This way of forming street names occurred not only on Hang Duong Street but also in most of Hanoi's old quarter wards.

In the subconscious of Hanoians, Hang Duong Street is also associated with Cau Dong Pagoda through the folk verse

“Cau Dong carries the sound of the pagoda bell

Moonlight shines on the candle rack, wind wafts the incense smoke

Outside lies Hang Duong Street... ”

Cau Dong Pagoda is also called Dong Mon Pagoda; this name seems to derive from two traces of ancient place names still recorded in historical books to this day: “Cau Dong” - the stone bridge spanning the To Lich River, and “Cua Dong” - the gate opening in the wall, the eastern side of the Thang Long royal citadel. Perhaps the ancients named the pagoda this way to make it easier to recognize and distinguish Cau Dong Pagoda from the ancient pagodas listed among the famous historical sites on this urban land of Thang Long.

Regarding this stone bridge, the book “Hanoi Streets” wrote: “...To cross the section of the To River, at this Hang Duong location there was a stone bridge called Cau Dong (the bridge of Dong Hoa Mon Village). Legend has it that at the head of the bridge there was a Buddha statue placed on an open-air pedestal. The statue was made of stone, sitting cross-legged in a circle, with a smiling mouth, so it was named Tieu Phat, meaning the Laughing Buddha. The poet Ngo Ngoc Du, who lived during the Tay Son period, wrote the poem Tieu Phat Hanh, which includes the lines:

Oh, in the long game of the world, a hundred forms arise

Even the compassionate Buddha also smiles.

Meaning:

The ways of the world display a hundred colors

The compassionate Buddha also bursts out laughing.

After the To River was filled in, the statue was also lost. Next to Cau Dong was the once-famous Cau Dong Market. This market was once mentioned in a folk verse: “An old woman goes to Cau Dong Market...”

The book “Rediscovering the Traces of Thang Long Citadel” adds: “. ... Dong Market dates from the Ly dynasty. The market gathered beside Cau Dong Bridge, so it was called Cau Dong Market. The bridge was beside the market, so it was also called Cho Dong Bridge... Cho Dong Bridge (Cau Dong) was located at the intersection of Hang Duong Street with Ngo Gach Street and Hang Ca Street, formerly spanning the To Lich River. The surviving physical evidence of this bridge today is Cau Dong Pagoda behind house number 38B Hang Duong”.

At the same time, the stone stele titled “Dong Mon Tu Ky” (Record of Dong Mon Pagoda), made in the 6th year of Vinh To (1624), also says: “Dong Mon Pagoda is a famous ancient site, with clearly beautiful scenery. With the Nhi River flowing in front, thousands of vast ancient branches, and the Thang Long Citadel lying behind... The stele also records clearly the location of the rice field that the abbot at that time, Dao An, used to expand the pagoda as follows: “The four sides of that rice field: above it borders the stone bridge, below it borders Dien Hung Ward, in front it borders the main road, and behind it borders Dong Nguc”.

On that basis, the book “Rediscovering the Traces of Thang Long” commented: “The stele passage above indicates that the Thang Long Citadel lay behind the pagoda, and the pagoda's current location is exactly the rice field recorded on the stele, with the “stone bridge”, i.e. Cau Dong, above it; in front is the main road, now Hang Duong Street; in front it borders Dien Hung Ward, i.e. Hang Ngang Street; behind is “Dong Nguc”, which today may be the residential area behind the pagoda facing Cha Ca Street. If this prison was close to the citadel wall (on the left side), then the eastern citadel wall would still be set back behind Cha Ca Street”

Along with the stele documentation above, the pagoda's bronze bell, cast in the 8th year of Canh Thinh (1800), also states clearly: “There is only the ancient pagoda, the stone bridge to the east, the To River flowing on the left, the Hoa Gate on the right...”. According to this source, the Hoa Gate (that is, the East Gate of the citadel) was located to the right of the pagoda. Thus, Cau Dong Pagoda has become an important historical trace and an extremely valuable historical source indicating the terrain where the pagoda stands, helping researchers of Thang Long determine in part the appearance of the eastern land of the capital.

It is not yet known when Cau Dong Pagoda was first built. However, the pagoda's restoration and repairs, from the Le dynasty to the Nguyen dynasty, are specifically and clearly recorded in the pagoda's documentation. Researching the ancient stone steles currently kept at the pagoda, we learn that Cau Dong Pagoda was repaired many times, but the largest repair and expansion took place in the 6th year of Vinh To (1624), the 5th year of Duong Hoa (1639), the 8th year of Vinh Thinh (1712), and the 16th year of Gia Long (1817). Since this repair, the main architectural scale of the pagoda has remained almost intact to this day.

Cau Dong Pagoda has a floor plan in the shape of the character “Cong”, consisting of a five-bay front hall and a three-bay tubular corridor connected to three inner rooms to form the Three Treasures Hall space. Around it are nearby architectural structures such as: in front of the main pagoda is the three-entrance gate close to the pavement of Hang Duong Street; behind is a small courtyard leading to the Mother Goddess Hall and Ancestor Hall. On the right is a side house, and on the left is Duc Mon Communal House.

The architectural decoration is concentrated mainly on the two beam ends and the two cốn mê panels of the truss adjacent to the central bay of the front hall and the tubular corridor, with familiar traditional themes: dragon heads, tiger-face motifs, and the four sacred creatures (dragon, unicorn, turtle, phoenix) interwoven with clouds, plants, and water waves. What is notable here is that the ancient artisans combined joined carving, relief carving, and openwork carving (carving through the wood) to create a dense mass of decorative motifs. Overall, these are beautiful, elaborate, and intricate carved panels, with harmonious and refined carving, faintly inheriting the carving art tradition of the 17th-18th centuries.

Cau Dong Pagoda worships Buddha according to the Tao Dong lineage, one of the five Zen sects of Vietnamese Buddhism. Compared with pagodas in Hanoi, Cau Dong Pagoda has a relatively large number of statues, nearly 60 freestanding statues. The most important antiquities of the pagoda are the three Tam The statues, representing the three times: past, present, and future. All three were made in the first half of the 18th century and are similar in form. These are three beautiful, rare statues of high artistic value, showing decorative details such as necklaces (anh lac) and female faces, fully meeting the standards of 17th-18th-century Buddha statues in our country.

In the Ten Courts Hall there is also a Tuyet Son statue, with beautiful and delicate carved details, close to the Tuyet Son statue of Tay Phuong Pagoda (Thach That - Ha Tay) and Ba Nanh Pagoda (Gia Lam - Hanoi). This is a rare type of statue in the sculptural art of the Vietnamese people.

Many other statues, such as the Maitreya statue, the Thousand-Hand Thousand-Eye Guanyin, and the Mother Goddess statues... also attract the attention of many visitors. Surprisingly, at the Buddha worship area of Cau Dong Pagoda, we also find an altar with statues of Grand Chancellor Tran Thu Do and his wife Tran Thi Dung - people who made great contributions at the beginning of the Tran dynasty.

With many historical and architectural-artistic values, Cau Dong Pagoda was ranked by the Ministry of Culture and Information in Decision No. 1570/QD-VH dated September 5, 1989. This will certainly be an attractive tourist destination that keeps many visitors when they come to Hanoi's Old Quarter.