At present, Thap Pagoda still preserves a system of ancient statues such as the Tam The set, the Amitabha statue, and three lotus stone pedestals that can be dated to the Le dynasty or even earlier. According to Professor Tran Lam Bien, the lotus base of the Tam The statue set may date from the Ly-Tran period, while the lotus stone pedestals may date from the Mac period.
Overall layout of the relic:
Thap Pagoda faces northeast, at the end of Dong Cau village. The relic is located in a residential area; to the north it borders Ha Bang semi-public kindergarten, to the south a concrete road, and to the east a pond and garden. At present, the architectural structure of Thap Pagoda is quite solid, but the system of earth worship statues with high artistic value is deteriorating.
Gate:
The gate of Thap Pagoda was built in 2003, consisting of two ornamental pillars connected by a gate roof forming an arch at the end. Each pillar has a lotus top and an empty lantern box; the shaft bears Chinese characters; the base is in a tied-neck form. The gate roof bears the Chinese characters Thien Truc Mon, below which is an iron gate.
Courtyard:
From the gate, a brick-paved path leads into the pagoda courtyard. The courtyard surface is mostly bat bricks, with the rest cement; there are many shade trees, especially a duoi tree hundreds of years old.
Front hall:
It is a three-bay, two-wing house with gable walls closed at the top, roofed with ri tiles, the ridge covered with bo tiles, the two ends of the ridge decorated with two dau dinh, and the end of the ridge wall built in two steps. From the end of the ridge wall connecting to the low wall are two simply structured columns, without Chinese characters or decorative patterns. The front hall door system is wooden in traditional panel style and upper-lattice lower-panel style.
From the courtyard, step up to the pagoda porch, through the panel door threshold into the interior space. The front hall floor is paved with 30cm x 30cm bat bricks. The back of the front hall is left open without a wall; the partition admits sunlight into the worship house, a canopy courtyard connecting the front hall and upper hall. The central bay is 3.15m, the side bays 2.8m, and the left bay 2.8m. Roof purlins have square cross-sections; purlin spacing follows the traditional upper-three lower-four ratio. Corresponding to 3 bays and 2 wings are 4 wooden trusses on 4 rows of column feet, omitting 1 row of main columns.
The trusses supporting the roof are wooden and uniformly made in the following style: upper tie-beam and stacked beams; lower half tie-beam and stacked beams; the porch truss stacks beams on four rows of main columns, with a short main column resting on the crossbeam. The trusses are connected as follows: a crossbeam mortised through a row of main columns and a row of short main columns. The ridge truss consists of a large first beam with a flat back mortised through the tops of two main columns; above the first beam are short posts linked with short stacked beams; the two middle short posts support a pig-belly beam that supports the upper ridge via boat-shaped blocks. At the joints between the first beam and main columns are dau du beam ends carved as dragon heads. The side truss: stacked beams mortised into the military columns and porch columns; on the beam are two stacked beams; the porch bracket is mortised through the porch column, its tail is a nghe positioned inside the top of the military column, its head is mortised into the roof edge, and above the bracket head is a dong board. The wooden components of the front hall trusses are smoothly planed and fitted, oriented toward sturdiness; decorative patterns are mainly relief-carved flipped leaves in the artistic style of the 20th century.
Upper hall:
The upper hall is parallel to the front hall; its structure and roof decoration are similar to the front hall. The upper hall has walls enclosing three sides made of laterite, a special traditional material of the Doai region; the front is left open without doors, and the floor is paved with bat bricks. The bay spacing of the upper hall is equivalent to that of the front hall. Roof purlins have square cross-sections; purlin spacing follows the traditional upper-three lower-four ratio. Corresponding to 3 bays and 2 wings are 4 wooden trusses made similarly in the style of upper tie-beam and stacked beams; lower seated brackets; front porch brackets and rear brackets on 5 rows of column feet. The total number of columns in the upper hall is about 20 jackfruit wood columns.
The structure of the upper hall's ridge truss is similar to the front hall. The structure of the upper hall's side truss includes a side beam mortised into the body of the main column, the other end mortised into the side beam; the body of the bracket supports the purlins through the dong board.
The final connection of the truss is the continuous bracket. Here, the bracket is mortised from the military column through the porch column; the head of the bracket extends out to form a bracket supporting the roof edge; above the bracket head is a dong board. The structure and decoration on the upper hall trusses still preserve a number of components and carved panels of early date and artistic value, such as: the first beam, seated bracket, nghe, and continuous bracket of the truss in the middle bay on the left; the seated bracket, dau du, and continuous bracket of the middle truss on the right; the stacked beam and first beam of the ridge truss in the right bay. The carving art on the trusses bears characteristics of 19th-century style. Here, the skilled hands of artisans demonstrated deft chiseling and carving: on the brackets are relief-carved panels of flipped leaves and cloud patterns; on the dau du are shaped forms and dragon-head patterns with openwork and relief carving.
