Đại Phu Pagoda

The Đại Phu Pagoda relic was ranked at the City level under Decision No. 771/QĐ-UBND dated January 27, 2014, of the Hanoi City People's Committee

Regarding the construction date:
Currently, Đại Phu Pagoda no longer keeps written materials about the year of construction. According to local residents, the pagoda was built long ago, but no one remembers the exact time.
Based on some relics still remaining at the site, ancient statues, ritual objects, etc., it can be inferred that Đại Phu Pagoda was built around the 20th century or earlier.
Restoration and repair times:
No documents record the past restorations of the relic, but since its founding to the present, the pagoda has existed for a long time and has been affected by war, fire, and natural disasters, so damage and deterioration have been unavoidable.
In 1947, due to the scorched-earth resistance policy, the relic was completely destroyed.
In 1993, the people of Đại Phu Village mobilized human strength and
resources to restore the pagoda as spacious as it is today.
Đại Phu Pagoda today is the product of the major restoration in 1993.
Đại Phu Pagoda is located right near the communal house, facing west; to the left is the village pond together with the village temple, to the right is the yard, in front is a three-way junction of the village road, and behind is the headquarters of the Liệp Tuyết Commune Agricultural Cooperative. Looking forward, the pagoda's space is very spacious and bright, adorned with ancient trees and perennial trees that create a peaceful feeling for pilgrims. Đại Phu Pagoda includes the following items: Gate, front hall, upper sanctuary, and Mother Goddess House - Ancestor House.
* Gate: The gate is an item located next to the inter-village road, consisting of 01 main passage leading inside. This item has 2 tiers and 8 curved roof corners, with an imitation tubular-tile roof.
At the top of the ridge of the upper roof is the image of the ambrosia vase - one of Buddhism's Eight Auspicious Symbols. Separating the upper and lower tiers is the decorative neck section, decorated with a phoenix holding a book within a rectangular section bordered in the style of a horizontal plaque; at the very bottom of the gate is an oval-shaped door, together with two roof-supporting pillars bearing a pair of Chinese-character couplets.

Front hall: This is a five-bay horizontal building built in the closed-gable wall style, roofed with ri tiles. The ridge of this item is covered with bò tiles, and the hand-rails slope gradually downward: at the outermost part are 2 decorative pillars located close to the porch and the edge of the yard. The decorative pillars are quite simply made. On top of the pillars are a pair of kneeling nghê facing forward, the lantern panel is left empty, the pillar bodies are outlined with moldings and lines, and the pillars have a waisted gourd-shaped neck.
Stepping about 1.5 m in from the porch reaches the inner sanctuary. Here, the frame base is created by 6 roof truss sets, made uniformly in the "kèo kế" style resting on the two ends of the walls. From the two ends of the walls is a crossbeam running horizontally. On the crossbeam are two hidden posts standing on square base blocks tapered at the bottom, supporting the tie beams. There are no decorative motifs; the plain carvings are tightly joined and tend toward durability.
* Upper sanctuary:
Connecting from the middle bay of the front hall to the rear is the upper sanctuary, forming a T-shape. The upper sanctuary is a three-bay longitudinal building, built in the "upper stacked rường, lower kẻ" style on 4 rows of feet with 2 hidden columns.
From the tops of the 2 main columns is a pig-belly tie beam running horizontally. On the tie beam are rường bars stacked in gradually higher layers, evenly interwoven to receive boat-shaped base blocks and the upper ridge beam. Here, the system of statues is arranged (described in the following section).
* Mother Goddess House - Ancestor House:
The Mother Goddess House - Ancestor House is a longitudinal building located on the right side of the pagoda. This item
consists of 4 bays built in the "closed-gable wall" style, roofed with ri tiles.
From the yard, step up the three-step stoop to reach the porch. From the porch, through 3 panel doors, one enters inside. The roof truss sets inside are made in the "kèo kế" style resting on the two ends of the walls.
From the two ends of the walls is a crossbeam running horizontally. On the crossbeam are 2 hidden posts standing on square base blocks tapered at the bottom, supporting the tie beams and the system of purlins, beams, upper ridge beam, and roof. This item has no floral patterns or decorative motifs. The entire load of the roof rests on the two ends of the walls. The Mother Goddess House - Ancestor House arranges 3 altars. The central altar worships the Mother Goddess, the left altar worships Saint Trần, and the right altar worships the Ancestors.

Value of the Đại Phu Pagoda relic:
Đại Phu Pagoda is a relic site closely associated with the land of Liệp Tuyết from ancient times to the present. Built and existing on land with a long history of development, Đại Phu Pagoda is one of the historical and cultural relics of value that should be respected and preserved.
+ Historical value: Đại Phu Pagoda is a pagoda of the residents of Đại Phu Village, Liệp Tuyết Commune (now Liệp Tuyết Hamlet, Kiều Phú Commune). Stone steles, bronze bells, and Buddha statues are valuable historical materials that help in understanding the history of the ancient pagoda. Studying the date when the pagoda was founded shows the relic's long-standing historical value on an ancient land.
Đại Phu Pagoda is a place where Buddha is worshipped according to Buddhism, and the Mother Goddess and Ancestors are worshipped according to folk beliefs. Those forms of worship all stem from people's aspirations and wishes for the best things. Among all the values existing in this life, the value of human happiness is the highest. The practical nature of Buddhism aims to lead people to liberation from suffering and to build a truly happy way of life. The Buddha himself once declared that his greatest aspiration was to build a happy and peaceful way of life for everyone as soon as he appeared: "I was born for the happiness and peace of gods and humans." Here, the Buddha identified the value of "Happiness" through his own life of practice, his own realization, and his own preaching to save sentient beings.
Mother Goddess worship is a purely Vietnamese folk belief with a long history, changing and adapting to social change. Mother Goddess worship is directed toward people's real lives with the desire for health, wealth, and luck; it is a need in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people, giving them strength and faith and attracting all classes in society. The heart is the core value of
1 Mother Goddess worship. The Mother teaches people to live toward goodness, to have a good heart, to know how to treat others, to worship grandparents and ancestors, and to be grateful to those who have contributed to the people and the country.

+ Architectural and artistic value: Through many ups and downs of history and nature, Đại Phu Pagoda no longer retains its original appearance; the pagoda's current architecture is the material product of the major restoration in 1993. However, it is old and has multifaceted value. The remaining value of the relic is still an overall architectural complex on a terrain.
Đại Phu Pagoda currently preserves valuable artistic works such as the statues arranged in the Tam Bảo and the Mother Goddess House; notable among them are the Three Ages statue, the Cundi Avalokitesvara statue, and the Nine Dragons throne in the Buddha hall, which are relics bearing the artistic style of the 20th century. These are not only sacred relics, embodiments of supreme beings, but also demonstrate the skill of the statue carvers and at the same time prove the long existence of the relic.
Located on a spacious grounds, with a cool green pond in front, Đại Phu Pagoda is like a tranquil garden amid the noisy flow of a countryside that is increasingly urbanized. This is a place where people come to be spiritual and holy, praying to eliminate evil and do many good deeds in order to live more peacefully and well. The architecture of Đại Phu Pagoda, like many other pagodas, is a cultural beauty of national character; it is also an ancient and solemn artistic work of people integrating with the surrounding landscape, adding to the overall picture of the land of Liệp Tuyết and making it ever more perfect.
+ Cultural and scientific value: The people of Liệp Tuyết all look toward the spiritual world. In addition to worshipping ancestors and grandparents and making offerings to the Buddha, they also worship Saints and Deities who contributed to the village and the country. This can be easily seen through the worship at Đại Phu Communal House right next to Đại Phu Pagoda and other
relics in the commune. Each communal house in each hamlet is both a place to worship the village tutelary deities and an architectural complex of high cultural character. The communal houses today have all been restored; although their area and scale may be smaller and narrower, they still retain their original style and landscape. Each relic on the land of Liệp Tuyết is truly a symbol of pride within the overall national and local cultural heritage.