Thánh Chúa Pagoda

Thánh Chúa Pagoda is the formal name of the relic and was also the common name of the pagoda in the past. The pagoda is located on the land of Quan Hoa ward, under the management of Dịch Vọng and Mai Dịch wards. Currently, due to administrative boundary adjustments, the pagoda belongs to Cầu Giấy ward.

Based on written sources still kept at the pagoda such as steles, bells, couplets, horizontal panels, and historical records, it is known that the pagoda originated in the Lý dynasty and became a famous scenic site in the west of Thăng Long capital. The book Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư records: “In the year Quý Mão (1063), King Lý Thánh Tông, already 40 years old and without a son, then sent the inner attendant Nguyễn Bông to perform a prayer for offspring at Thánh Chúa Pagoda. After that, Lady Ỷ Lan became pregnant and gave birth to Crown Prince Càn Đức, who was Lý Nhân Tông…”

During the period of praying for offspring, Nguyên Phi Ỷ Lan stayed at Thánh Chúa Pagoda for many days to eat vegetarian food, chant the Buddha's name, and live in the quiet, secluded natural setting of the pagoda. One day, while she was behind a curtain bathing beside the Linh Quang well at the pagoda gate, the inner attendant Nguyễn Bông lifted the curtain and entered intending to use a reincarnation trick on the Nguyên Phi; she immediately screamed and ordered the palace maids and court guards to seize him and take him to the royal court for trial. The king ordered Nguyễn Bông beheaded in the field in front of the pagoda, so afterward that field was named Bông field. After giving birth to Crown Prince Càn Đức, Nguyên Phi Ỷ Lan donated money for a major restoration of Thánh Chúa Pagoda. The Thánh Chúa Pagoda festival is held on the 25th day of the first lunar month. The ritual part includes an incense-offering ceremony in memory of Lady Nguyên Phi Ỷ Lan; the festival part includes betel-offering singing performed by people of the two villages, composed and performed by themselves; this is a custom particular to the people of the Mai Dịch countryside, along with quan họ folk singing.

Thánh Chúa Pagoda is grand in scale with many categories of structures such as: a three-entrance gate with a bell tower, the Tam Bảo hall, left and right vu houses, the shrine to Lady Nguyên Phi Ỷ Lan, two patriarch halls worshipping the pagoda's patriarchs, one patriarch hall of the people of Dịch Vọng Hậu village, and the patriarch tomb of the people of Mai Dịch village. This is also a unique feature: one pagoda shared by two communes. Since ancient times local people have preserved the verse:

“Mai and Hậu share one pagoda
Through many centuries, still as before,
The main pagoda has seven bays, the two patriarch houses,
Seventy statues, painted several times.”

The three-entrance gate with bell tower is built in a two-story house style, with two side gates on the left and right forming five entrances; the upper story has a stacked-eave roof and hangs a bell and a bronze khánh. The roof is covered with imitation tubular tiles; in the center of the upper roof ridge is a dragon facing the moon; on the two roof slopes are dragons with mouths holding the ridge; the corner ridges curve upward. The lower story has three arched doorways serving as the entrance to the relic.

The Tam Bảo hall has a Đinh-shaped layout: the front hall has seven bays and is built on a foundation 60 cm above the courtyard, with gable walls closed at the ends, covered with Vietnamese tiles, the ridge built in the đinh style, and the roof-supporting trusses made in the “giá chiêng, chồng rường” style. The upper hall is 70 cm higher than the front hall, four bays built running lengthwise toward the rear, one end mortised into the central bay of the front hall, with gable walls closed at the ends, covered with Vietnamese tiles, and the roof-supporting frames made in the “giá chiêng chồng rường con nhị” style. The phenomenon of an upper shrine built almost square, creating a high foundation, is a trace of a rather ancient pagoda, which we think is a product of a village pagoda from the Lý dynasty to the 16th–17th centuries. Although the pagoda's current architecture is a product of the 19th–20th centuries, and despite its closed gable structure being recent architecture, the roof still decorates both ends with Makara water monsters transformed into dragons, which are elements of a very ancient mindset. Makara is the master of water sources, originally from Indian religious art and became widespread in Southeast Asia.

The pagoda faces southwest, a common orientation in ancient Vietnamese pagoda architecture. In front of the pagoda is a wide brick-paved courtyard; before the courtyard stands an ancient mango tree nearly one meter in diameter, surrounded by orchards that stay green in all four seasons, adding to the pagoda's deep, tranquil atmosphere. The two patriarch halls have a Đinh-shaped layout, built with closed gable walls and armrests on both sides, attached adjacent to the rear of the upper hall. The shrine to Lady Nguyên Phi Ỷ Lan consists of three bays with closed gable walls, armrests, and a roof covered with Vietnamese tiles, located to the left in front of the front hall.

Currently the relic still preserves many artifacts of historical and artistic value from the 18th–19th centuries, such as: a set of 77 round statues splendidly lacquered and gilded in the artistic style of the 18th–19th centuries; two bronze bells cast during the Nguyễn dynasty, whose bodies are engraved with inscriptions recording the names of local people and pilgrims who contributed money and effort to cast bells and repair the pagoda. The large bell cast in the 9th year of Minh Mệnh (1828), with the bell inscription composed by Nguyễn Huy Trạc, states: “… The old pagoda had a bell, but an unexpected war disaster caused it to be lost, so the pagoda encouraged contributions of labor and property from the people and pilgrims; in only two months of effort it was completed… the mold of merit, so the fruit of merit was made complete.” The bronze khánh cast in the 5th year of Thiệu Trị (1845) bears an inscription with the content: the bell was given by the people of Dịch Vọng Hậu village, while the khánh was donated by the people of Mai Dịch; it was cast twice before succeeding. Five stone steles were erected during the Nguyễn dynasty, one of which has a text praising the pagoda scene: “Thánh Chúa Pagoda, our homeland, is a famous ancient site… incense and flowers morning and evening, hundreds of thousands of people all take refuge…” In addition, the relic also has many other worship objects such as horizontal panels and couplets with content praising the beauty of the pagoda such as:

The Lý dynasty's royal carriage graciously visited, recorded in the annals of former years,
The Northern kingdom's skilled craftsmen built it; today it has been restored.

It is precisely because of this characteristic that a foreign scholar, when visiting the pagoda, said: “This is a jewel in the center of culture.” With rich source materials and a collection of artifacts large in quantity and diverse in type, the relic is a precious ancient treasure and a source of historical data contributing to research and study of the history of Vietnamese Buddhism during the Lý–Trần dynasties, as well as other aspects of the thousand-year civilization of Thăng Long–Hà Nội.