Sen Hồ Pagoda

Sen Hồ Pagoda (Vạn Xuân) is part of a relic complex with the communal house and Nghè Sen Hồ in Kim Sen village, Thuận An commune, Hanoi city, creating a harmonious cultural and religious space between deity worship and Buddha worship. Vạn Xuân Pagoda, together with the communal house and Nghè Sen Hồ, was classified as an architectural and artistic relic by the Ministry of Culture, Information and Sports, now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, under Decision No. 490/QĐ dated April 22, 1992.

According to the deity genealogy “Đại vương ngọc phả”, compiled by Hàn lâm Đông các Đại học sĩ Nguyễn Bính on the 10th day of the 9th month of the first year of Hồng Phúc, i.e., 1572, and still kept at the communal house, Vạn Xuân Pagoda has existed since very early times and is associated with legends about the deities worshipped locally.

According to legend, a dragon deity worshipped at the pagoda appeared in a dream to the parents of the village tutelary deity, saying that he would reincarnate to be born as Hùng Hiển. Later, Hùng Hiển Công returned to this area to station troops and built a fort next to the pagoda.

The stories handed down show that Vạn Xuân Pagoda has a long history and also reflect the interweaving of folk beliefs, legends about deities, and Buddhism in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people.

One of the most outstanding values of Vạn Xuân Pagoda today is its system of round statues with 39 statues.

Among them, 12 date from the Lê Trung Hưng period and 27 from the Nguyễn period. Each statue is a complete sculpture, with its own characteristics in shape, posture, lines, and expression.

The statue system not only serves worship needs but also constitutes valuable artworks, helping us better imagine the development of Buddhist sculpture through historical periods.

Together with the special feature of Đình – Nghè Sen Hồ, Vạn Xuân Pagoda is the adjacent presence of two belief spaces: on one side, worship of the village tutelary deity; on the other, Buddhism. This is a very familiar combination in traditional Vietnamese village culture. The communal house – Nghè is where the community remembers and honors the deity who rendered services to the people and the country; the pagoda is a place to worship Buddha, guiding people toward compassion, goodness, and peace. The two structures coexist and complement each other, forming a center of cultural, religious, and spiritual activity for the traditional rural community. Over many centuries, the historical, architectural, artistic, and religious values of the relic complex have still been preserved and passed down by the people from generation to generation.

Today, together with Đình – Nghè Sen Hồ, Vạn Xuân Pagoda is not only a place of religious activity for local people but also an address for learning about the history, culture, and traditional art of the land of Thuận An. Đình – Nghè Sen Hồ and Vạn Xuân Pagoda – where worship of the tutelary deity and Buddhism converge, where legends about Hùng Hiển Công are preserved, along with the artistic imprints of our ancestors and the cultural memory of a Vietnamese village over many centuries.