Thanh Nhan Pagoda

Thanh Nhan Pagoda (whose literary name is 'Linh Son Tu') is located at Lane 331 Tran Khat Chan Street, Bach Mai Ward, Hanoi. According to a stele at the pagoda dated to the Vinh Thinh era (1721), Thanh Nhan Pagoda was built during the Le dynasty on the land of Thanh Nhan village, Yen Xa ward (Ong Mac area), Hau Nghiem canton, Tho Xuong district. Through many renovations, Thanh Nhan Pagoda has still preserved most of its original architectural items, such as: the main pagoda, the Patriarch's house, the Mother Goddess house, the lotus pond, the pagoda courtyard, and the stupa garden; more recently, a guest house, a stele house, and a three-entrance gate have been restored and added. The main pagoda has a Dinh-shaped structure including: the ceremonial hall and the rear sanctuary, with the large inscription 'Linh Son Tu' in the center of the roof ridge. The decoration in the main pagoda's architecture is delicate, and its themes and motifs mainly reflect the artistic style of the Nguyen era. Besides its architectural value, Thanh Nhan Pagoda also preserves a rich collection of relics in both quantity and historical-artistic value. Typical are the ancient stone steles (9 steles); the earliest stele bears the Bao Dai reign title in the Tan Suu year (1721), and the latest dated stele was erected on the 20th day of the first lunar month in the 11th year of Bao Dai (1935). These ancient stele documents not only help determine the existence of the pagoda but also identify more clearly the terrain southeast of the ancient Thang Long capital. In addition, the pagoda has a system of Buddha statues, Mother Goddess statues, and Patriarch statues totaling 61 large and small statues (two of which are cast in bronze), 02 bronze bells cast in the first year of Tu Duc (1848), and other artifacts such as horizontal plaques, couplets, and ritual objects, all lacquered and gilded in the artistic style of the 19th century. Thanh Nhan is a pagoda founded to serve the Buddhist worship of local people in particular and Vietnamese people in general. Like many ancient village pagodas in Vietnam, besides worshipping Buddha, the pagoda also has a Mother Goddess hall worshipping Lady Lieu Hanh, who is also considered one of the Four Immortals of Vietnamese folk religion. In the early years of the resistance war against the French colonial invasion (1947-1949), Thanh Nhan Pagoda was also a base for sheltering secretly operating cadres and printing Party documents. All of this makes the pagoda quite unique in Vietnamese religious-artistic architecture and history. In 2003, Thanh Nhan Pagoda was ranked as a City-level Architectural-Artistic Relic, and in 2005 the city of Hanoi installed a revolutionary historical relic plaque.