Phuong Trung Pagoda

Chuong Pagoda has the Sino-Vietnamese name 'Thang Quang Tu', meaning 'Thang Quang Pagoda'. However, from ancient times to the present day, local people have commonly called it Chuong Pagoda. Thang Quang Pagoda was built in the center of Chuong Village, located in the northwest near the edge of the left bank of the Day River dike, adjacent behind Chuong Communal House, with a wharf above and boats below, making transportation and interaction very convenient.

The complex of Chuong Communal House, Chuong Pagoda, and Chuong Market is a continuous cluster of adjacent cultural relics that was ranked as a 'National Historical Relic' by the Ministry of Culture and Information on March 16, 1985. It can be said that Chuong Pagoda is a rather special pagoda in terms of both its architectural scale and its system of altars for worshipping Buddha, Saints, and Mother Goddesses.

This is a religious work of the village community, built long ago, with remaining architectural marks from the Le Trung Hung and Nguyen periods. It features ancient architecture in the shape of the character 'cong' with a system of more than 100 Buddha statues. Notably, Chuong Pagoda arranges its worship statues in the style of 'saints in front, Buddha behind'. In front of the Buddha altar, the pagoda places in a solemn position the altars to General Do Hue and Princess Phuong Dung. Legend has it that Do Hue, a man from Chuong Village, led 50 young men of the village, including his sons and relatives, to join Phung Hung's army and attack Tong Binh citadel; Phung Hung appointed Do Hue as commander. Princess Phuong Dung was Phung Hung's wife; she 'left home to follow the Buddhist path', chose the land of Phuong Trung to build pagodas, and expanded the Buddhist realm. After her death, the villagers called her Lady Saint and worshipped her at the pagoda.

The main architectural items of the pagoda today include: the three-entrance gate, the Three Jewels Hall, the Ancestor Hall, the Mother Goddess Hall, the guest house, and auxiliary works, courtyards, and gardens.

The pagoda's three-entrance gate is built of brick and has two tiers; the upper tier has four roofs with curved corners, and the lower tier has three arch-shaped passages. From here, crossing a wide brick-paved courtyard and five steps leads to the pagoda's Three Jewels Hall, including the Front Hall, Upper Hall, and Rear Hall.

The Front Hall is a seven-bay building with closed gable walls and two sloping roofs covered with traditional ri tiles. The roof-supporting trusses are uniformly made in the style of 'upper stacked beams with paired braces, lower passing braces'.

The Upper Hall is a three-bay longitudinal building connecting from the middle bay of the Front Hall to the Rear Hall; it is built in the stacked-eaves style, creating a gap between the two roof tiers that makes it noticeably taller than the other two sections. The overlapping tile roofs appear and disappear among the green canopy of ancient trees, creating a peaceful and relaxed space that helps Buddhists calm their minds and come closer to the Buddhist path.

The Rear Hall also consists of a three-bay transverse building with a roof-supporting truss structure similar to that of the Front Hall.

The pagoda also has two corridors running along both sides, connecting from the ends of the Front Hall to the Rear Hall; each corridor has five bays, with statues of Patriarchs placed below.

The decorative art of the pagoda's architecture is not extensive; it is concentrated mainly in the system of worship statues on the Buddha altar, with more than 100 statues made mainly of wood, lacquered and gilded, of quite high artistic value. These include the statues of Dharma Protectors, the Honorable Lord, the Holy Sages, and the Eight Diamond Deities (in the Front Hall); the Three Times Buddha, Amitabha and the Three Saints, Guanyin, Jade Emperor, and the Infant Shakyamuni (in the Upper Hall). In addition, Phuong Trung Pagoda has preserved many valuable relics, such as: a bronze khanh cast in the 17th year of Thanh Thai (1905); a pair of tall bronze cranes cast in 1921; a bronze bell dated to the 17th year of Thanh Thai (1905)...