Hoi Phu Pagoda (A Phai Tu)

Hoi Phu Pagoda has the literary name “A Phai Tu”.. According to village oral tradition, the pagoda has existed for a very long time and has undergone many restorations and repairs. Through research of documents, artifacts, and ritual objects at the pagoda, there are many ancient statues from the 18th–19th centuries, a bell from the Gia Long era, etc. The pagoda is believed to have been founded during the Le Trung Hung period. The pagoda has a very large bell cast in the 11th year of Gia Long (1812) and a system of beautiful, large Buddhist statues, from which it can be imagined that the pagoda once had a very spacious compound. The main pagoda was formerly located right behind the communal house, next to the temple, forming an architectural complex of “worship of the Deity in front and Buddha behind,” but due to war the pagoda was damaged, so after peace it was restored elsewhere: the old land of the pagoda was used to build a school. With the attention of the Party and the State, in 2021–2022, the pagoda was restored on the foundation of the old pagoda with full items such as the triple gate, main pagoda, Mother Goddess house, Patriarch house, guest house, etc., and the statues were moved here for worship.

The pagoda has a structure in the form of the character “ding” including the front hall and the rear sanctuary. In addition, within the pagoda grounds there is also a Mother Goddess hall.

The pagoda’s triple gate is large and massive, built of brick in the style of a house above and a bridge below (similar to the outer ceremonial gate of Co Loa Temple), with an appearance like a citadel gate; the lower level has three arched doorways fitted with sturdy wooden doors, and the upper level is compacted into a two-story, eight-roof watchtower. The balustrade of the second floor and the eaves of the watchtower are decorated with bars; the front wall has a round window, and the top floor has a square window. The uppermost curved roofs are graceful, decorated with finials, dragons, unicorns, cloud patterns, etc. Connecting to the two small pillars are stepped walls in the style of armchairs, decorated with scroll patterns; the tops of the small pillars are decorated with kneeling unicorns, and the gate lintel and pillar bodies bear parallel sentences.

The front hall has five bays and two wide side bays; in the center on the ridge is a lotus pedestal, above which is a wheel of reincarnation; the two gable ends are decorated with finials shaped like water monsters and running unicorns along the edge; the roofs curve softly with clusters of clouds, dragons, etc. The middle five bays have folding doors, and the two end bays have solid walls with windows. The upper sanctuary is connected to the front hall; in the middle there are three bays running lengthwise connected to the five-bay building at the rear, creating a ground plan in the form of the character “cong”, with a stepped platform for arranging Buddha statues. The five-bay building connected to the upper sanctuary has four curved roofs like the front hall, creating the perfect beauty of the pagoda. The structure has four rows of columns; the roof frames are made in the style of upper trusses, stacked beams, front braces, and rear cantilevers. Decoration on the architecture mainly features the four sacred creatures, four precious plants, cloud patterns, leaves, edge moldings, etc. The pagoda still preserves artifacts from the 18th century, such as several Amitabha and Guanyin statues from the old pagoda moved here.

The Mother Goddess house has five bays, built in the style of closed gables, with armchair-style walls and ornamental pillars, stone columns along the veranda, folding doors, and two finials on the roof. Inside are arrangements for Mother Goddess worship. The Mother Goddess hall has an altar for the Holy Mother and the Four Palaces Council, three Mother Goddess statues, and three Patriarch statues made of wood lacquered and gilded in 19th-century art. On the left is the altar to the Hau benefactor, with a wooden Hau statue according to tradition; inscriptions reflect that this Hau benefactor donated a large amount of money to restore the pagoda. The Hau statue has 18th-century artistic style, is lacquered and gilded, and is described in detail with robes, hairpins, and hats with beautiful, elegant patterns.

In addition, the pagoda has newly built a five-bay Patriarch house to worship the pagoda’s Patriarchs and a five-bay guest house to serve the spiritual needs of local people. Behind the Three Jewels are four ancient three-story brick stupas without plaster from the Le–Nguyen period.

The pagoda still preserves valuable antiquities: three blue-stone Hau steles from the Nguyen era recording donations for repairing the pagoda and the village’s selection of Hau Buddha benefactors. There are two bronze bells; the large bell is inscribed “A Phai Tu bell” - the bell of A Phai Pagoda, cast in the 11th year of Gia Long (1812), with an inscription engraved in 1813. The inscription was composed by Thanh Ta Khe lay Buddhist Nguyen Quy Nha. Another smaller bell was cast in the 8th year of Khai Dinh (1923); on its lower surface are raised four sacred creatures, and the bell has few brief characters.

In the years before the uprising, many leading comrades of the Party operated locally during the construction and consolidation of the safe zone of the Party Central Committee in Dong Anh. At that time, the pagoda, communal house, and temple of Hoi Phu Village became activity locations, hiding places for documents, and contact points for the revolution. Under the altar of Duc Ong, the abbot of the pagoda created a secret bunker to hide documents of the Party and the Viet Minh.

The communal house, temple, and pagoda of Hoi Phu are traditional religious and belief architectures of the locality, with typical value in history, culture, and architectural art. The relic complex is located in an area associated with historical and cultural traces from the time of An Duong Vuong building Co Loa Citadel in the 3rd century, to the time of the Hai Ba Trung and the most prosperous years of the Ly dynasty (12th–13th centuries). The relic complex was ranked as a National Historical and Architectural Art Relic by Decision No. 310/QD/BT/1996 dated February 13, 1996.