Ninh Mon Pagoda

Ninh Mon Hamlet, Noi Bai Commune, Hanoi City

Ninh Mon Pagoda, whose literary name is “Thien Bao Tu”, is located on a high, spacious, and airy plot; the pagoda faces south within a large campus and stands next to the village communal house in a densely populated residential area. Like many other pagodas, Ninh Mon Pagoda was built to worship Buddhism and is a cultural product of Buddhism.

The current structures of the pagoda include: the Front Hall, the Upper Hall, and the Mother House. According to elderly villagers, Ninh Mon Pagoda was built quite early. Through historical ups and downs, by 2000 the local government and people had repaired and renovated the entire pagoda as it is today.

The Front Hall is a five-bay structure built in the style of a gable wall with closed ends, with kneeling-pillar supports and symbolic pillars, roofed with local tiles, and a ridge decorated with tilework. The pillar tops are decorated with lotus buds; below is a lantern frame without decorative patterns; the pillar shafts are outlined with moldings and paired Chinese-character couplets; the pillar bases are in a constricted-neck form. In the Front Hall, two altars are arranged: the Statue of Duc Ong and the Holy Sages, along with other ritual objects.

The Upper Hall is a structure connected from the central bay of the Front Hall, a two-bay longitudinal house, with a gable-wall-with-closed-ends structure. The wooden components in the Upper Hall are simple, without decorative motifs or patterns. In the Upper Hall, an altar is arranged in tiers from high to low with characteristic Buddhist statue layers.

The Mother House is a three-bay house built simply in the gable-end style, roofed with Western tiles, with trusses of the “qua giang” type. In the Mother House, the main altar is arranged with a set of statues of the Three Holy Mothers, along with an incense burner and other ritual objects.

Overall, Ninh Mon Pagoda is a communal village architecture with spiritual elements and a distinctive cultural address.

Ninh Mon Pagoda was ranked as a Historical-Artistic relic under Decision No. 7675-QD/UBND dated November 3, 2016, of the Hanoi City People's Committee.