Phúc Hương Pagoda

Phúc Hương Pagoda today belongs to Dục Nội Hamlet, Việt Hùng Commune. At the beginning of the 19th century, Dục Nội was called a commune, belonging to Cổ Loa Canton, Đông Ngàn District, Từ Sơn Prefecture, Bắc Ninh Trấn (later changed to Bắc Ninh Province). In the 20th century, Dục Nội Commune belonged to Đông Khê District, Phù Lỗ Province, later changed to Đông Anh District, Phúc Yên Province. After 1945, the commune was named Âu Lạc, then renamed Việt Hùng under Phúc Yên Province (later called Vĩnh Phúc in 1950). In 1961, Dục Nội had the place name as today. Việt Hùng has 4 hamlets: Dục Nội, Gia Lộc, Lỗ Giao and Lương Quán, bordering the communes: Dục Tú (east), Liên Hà and Thụy Lâm (north), Cổ Loa (south) and Uy Nỗ, Đông Anh Town (west).

Dục Nội has long had names such as Dộc Nội, Cổ Vân Trang. In the village there still exist place names such as Đình Bạc, Núi Làng, Bãi Thó... adjacent to the foot of the Cổ Loa earthen citadel in the north. These place names may have appeared due to the relocation of a settlement away from the foot of the Citadel to take soil to build the citadel. Lying adjacent to the earthen citadel, Dục Nội in the past also bore the impacts and changes of politics and war from the Cổ Loa center. In the An Dương Vương period, the land of Dục Nội and Gia Lộc was a 'forward defense' in the resistance against Triệu Đà's invasion. Considering the terrain and geographical elevation forming the land strip of Dục Nội Hamlet, there is a long strip of land surrounding a section of the north of the citadel gate, with a low area called Bãi Thó symmetrical to the Dục Nội hill range, and a strip of land defining the village, all forming a strip of “citadel” forward defense outside the present three rings of Cổ Loa citadel. Dục Nội has 2 communal houses: Trung communal house and Đoài communal house worshiping 3 tutelary gods, including Thiên Cương Đại Vương - a celestial god who appeared from the time of Hùng Vương founding the country, helping the people and the country drive out the A Lỗ Châu and Ân invaders. Dục Nội has 2 pagodas: Dộc Đông Pagoda and Dộc Trung Pagoda. Phúc Hương Pagoda was built early. The pagoda was built on a separate high plot of land. In front of the pagoda is the village road; the other 3 sides border the residential area. The pagoda faces east; around the architecture there are a yard and fruit garden. The site plan includes: gate, yard and garden, main pagoda, ancestor and Mother worship house, guest house. The small gate follows folk architecture with a tiled roof. The small brick-paved entrance path has an orchard on the right and the pagoda's monks' stupa garden on the left. In front of the main pagoda, through a wide cement-paved yard, is the stupa garden. The stupa garden is wide and contains 4 stupas of deceased abbots. A flower wall separates the pagoda yard from the garden on 2 sides. The main pagoda has a front layout in the character “one”, and the rear in the shape of the character “đinh” including the fore-shrine, front hall and upper sanctuary. The fore-shrine consists of a five-bay transverse building, built of brick in the style of a gable wall with blocked ends and ngai-handled ends, roofed with local tiles, thick tiles with slightly upturned tips. The two gable walls extend out 70 cm and end in 2 ornamental pillars. The pillars have square cross-sections, the upper part is decorated in lantern style, and the pillar bodies bear 2 pairs of Chinese-character couplets. In the middle of the ridge is a large inscription with 4 Chinese characters in relief.

The front of the fore-shrine has, in the 3 central bays, an open folding-door system; the 2 side bays have solid walls with 2 windows fitted with flower tiles. The rear has 3 open bays connecting to a narrow yard and the front hall; the 2 side bays have solid enclosing walls. The roof-supporting frame consists of 6 wooden trusses made in the giá chiêng and kẻ chuyền style. The two middle trusses have 4 rows of feet; the other two trusses have 2 rows of feet; the gable trusses have columns placed on pillars. At the top of the truss is a ridge beam - the upper beam. This beam is supported by 2 beams (crossing diagonally along the roof slope, mortised through the main columns down to the soldier columns) and 2 rường bars, the two ends of the rường resting on two square ends tapered at the bottom. The whole system above is supported by 1 large, strong câu đầu beam. The câu đầu beam bears force and is mortised through the two ends of the main columns. From the main columns, 2 lower kẻ brackets are mortised through the tops of the main columns and soldier columns to support the lower roof. In front, past the soldier columns, is the kẻ system; behind is the eave bẩy system. The floor is raised 30 cm above the yard and paved with floral ceramic tiles. Front hall: Located behind the fore-shrine, separated by a narrow yard. The front hall is where Buddhist men and women gather. The front hall is a 3-bay building, built of brick in the style of a gable wall with blocked ends and ngai-handled ends, roofed with local thin tiles. The two gable walls extend out 50 cm and are topped with ornamental pillars. The pillars have square cross-sections, the pillar bodies bear Chinese-character couplets, and the top is a trái giành shape formed by 4 phoenix birds paired into two. On the ridge is a large inscription with pierced characters giving the pagoda's name. The front of the pagoda is a wooden door system; the rear, in the central bay, connects with the upper sanctuary, giving these two buildings (front hall and upper sanctuary) a chuôi vồ layout.  The roof-supporting frame has 4 trusses; the 2 middle trusses rest on a structure of 4 rows of wooden columns. The two side trusses rest on 2 brick pillars. The trusses are made in the “giá chiêng”, with a structure like that in the two fore-shrine buildings, but here the spaces between the rường bars and bearing blocks are closed with thick wooden boards. At the 2 gable-bay trusses, the front roof has 2 side trusses in the cốn mê style (photos 4, 5, 6). The building has a wide veranda with a system of 4 veranda columns. Upper sanctuary: It has a construction structure like the front hall, consisting of 2 bays and 1 dĩ along with 2 trusses of kèo and kẻ suốt resting on 2 wooden columns. Each truss has 2 long kẻ crossing diagonally along the roof slope, mortised together at the truss top, supporting the upper ridge beam and running down to the main columns. Inside, the wide space between the two column rows has a brick platform rising gradually from the outside inward for the Tam Bảo, and the two sides close to the enclosing wall are left empty as a passage for the đàn ceremony - a ritual characteristic of Buddhism.

The guest house is on the left of the front hall. The building consists of 5 bays, built of brick in the style of a gable wall with blocked ends, roofed with tiles. The roof-supporting frame consists of 6 trusses resting directly on the enclosing wall. The trusses are made as kèo and kẻ suốt with a structure like that in the upper sanctuary. The 3 central bays are used as a reception area; the 2 gable bays are partitioned as living quarters for the abbot. The decoration on Phúc Hương Pagoda architecture is not special. On the 2 cốn panels of the gable-bay trusses of the front hall, there are relief carvings of plant motifs and stylized dragons. On the trusses of the front hall, the rường bars and cover boards are carved with cloud and water-wave motifs. The pagoda still preserves many valuable artifacts such as: 02 bronze bells. The large bell “Phúc Hương tự chung” has the Minh Mệnh 11 reign year, Canh Dần (1830), with dimensions including handle 97 cm high, mouth diameter 54 cm. The bell is hung in the gable bay of the front hall. One bell has no characters. 4 stone steles from the Nguyễn era with dates: Gia Long 11 (1812); Tự Đức 30 (1877); Bảo Đại Canh Thìn (1940) and 1 stele with no clear date but whose border and head decorations belong to the Nguyễn style; these 4 steles are erected against the left gable of the fore-shrine, 10 white-glazed blue-flower porcelain incense bowls, 2 rear statues with 19th-century sculptural art. In addition, there are some utensils used in daily worship such as: lamps, flower vases, small offering trays. The inscription on the bell “Phúc Hương tự chung” hung in the left gable bay of the front hall, cast in the 11th Minh Mệnh year (1830), says: “At that time, Phúc Hương Pagoda in Dục Nội Commune had a beautiful bell; when the pagoda doors opened, its harmonious sound was closely related to the Zen atmosphere. In the following year, an unfavorable situation suddenly arose, and so the bell's sound had long ceased”. Thus, before that time (1830), Phúc Hương Tự had been “a very great Zen landscape” in the region. Today, in the pagoda there is a rear statue of a eunuch surnamed Ngô Thế. According to the family genealogy, he served as an official under the Lê Cảnh Hưng dynasty; because of his merits and contributions of money to help the people repair the pagoda, the villagers had a statue carved and worshiped him as a rear Buddha at the pagoda after his death. Based on the above sources, we can determine the founding date of the pagoda as before Lê Cảnh Hưng (17th - 18th centuries) and that its scale at that time was large and massive.

Repairs: Counting from the founding date, the pagoda was repaired in the Lê Trung Hưng period. In the 18th century and early 19th century (around 1812), the pagoda was damaged and repaired under Minh Mệnh – the Tự Đức 30 reign year (1877), Bảo Đại Canh Thìn (1940) are the repair years recorded through the donations of people from all directions carved on stone steles now placed at the pagoda. However, those repairs did not specify the scale, form, or items repaired or newly built. During the resistance war against the French, in 1946 - 1947, in the general scorched-earth movement throughout the district, most of the pagoda's architecture was dismantled. In 1979, the pagoda was restored on the old pagoda garden land (the old pagoda site had been made into the cooperative's warehouse yard) on a small scale, with simple materials and poorer artifacts. Recently, with the attention of the authorities and the contributions of the people, the pagoda has been increasingly renovated and more spacious. Every year, the pagoda organizes Buddhist festivals according to traditional rituals on the occasions: Buddha's Birthday (15/4), Buddha's Enlightenment (15/12), and Vu Lan (15/7) lunar calendar - a festival for the souls of the dead and the salvation of all beings. In addition, the pagoda holds an annual ancestor anniversary on 26/3 lunar calendar and organizes ceremonies according to seasonal periods, spring and autumn.