Nghệ Sĩ Pagoda

Chùa Nghệ Sĩ (also known as Nhựt Quang Tự, Phật Quang Tự) is a pagoda located at 116/6 Thống Nhất Street, Thông Tây Hội Ward, Ho Chi Minh City.

This pagoda has a cemetery specifically reserved for the burial of Vietnamese cải lương artists. As of the end of 2008, the pagoda had 546 graves and over 500 urns of ashes. Graves that have been there for many years are cremated and the ashes placed in two stupas in the pagoda's courtyard.

Chùa Nghệ Sĩ receives more Buddhist devotees and visitors from various places for worship than any other pagoda currently in the Hạnh Thông Tây area on special days, such as the Buddha's days and full moon days. In particular, the full moon days of the first, seventh, and tenth lunar months are especially well attended.

Visitors to the pagoda also include artists from many places, who, when coming to worship, may perform cải lương singing (excerpts from plays) or solo songs voluntarily and without payment to help the pagoda serve other guests. Chùa Nghệ Sĩ is perhaps the only pagoda in Vietnam to organise such cải lương performances among all other pagodas.

The history of the pagoda can be traced back to 1958, when People's Artist Phùng Há raised funds for the Artists' Mutual Aid Association to buy land as a resting place for cải lương artists. However, after purchasing a 6,080 m² plot of land, it was left unused for nearly 10 years due to lack of funds to build the pagoda.

In 1969, bầu Năm Công (Lê Minh Công) saw the land lying idle and decided to ask Phùng Há for permission to build a hermitage for religious practice. In 1970, the hermitage was completed, but at that time bầu Năm Công decided to sell it because he could no longer afford to pay his debts. Bầu Xuân agreed to buy back the hermitage for a price equivalent to nearly 100 taels of gold. From then on, the hermitage was built into a pagoda and became the burial place of many artists.

The first person to be buried at the pagoda was the artist Tư Út in 1970. He died in Phnom Penh in 1946 at the age of just 36, while performing with the Phụng Hảo troupe, and according to his family's wishes, he was to be worshipped in his homeland. At that time, Chùa Nghệ Sĩ still followed the criterion of "Tứ thân phụ mẫu" (the four parents) of the artist, so when an artist passed away, their relatives could also be buried here. By 1994, when the hermitage had become a fully established pagoda, this criterion was abolished, and since then only artists have been buried here.

Within the grounds of the pagoda is a cemetery for artists. Many artists, both famous and lesser-known, have been buried at the pagoda after their passing. These include artists such as: People's Artist Năm Châu, People's Artist Phùng Há, People's Artist Ba Vân, People's Artist Út Trà Ôn, Meritorious Artist Thanh Nga, Meritorious Artist Hoàng Giang, Meritorious Artist Trường Xuân, Bảy Cao, Đức Lợi, Khánh Linh, Quốc Hòa, Tô Kiều Lan, Thanh Thanh Hoa, Tấn Tài, Meritorious Artist Minh Phụng, Lương Tuấn, Lê Vũ Cầu... and playwrights such as: Điêu Huyền, Hoa Phượng, Hà Triều, Thu An...

This is also the resting place of film actor Lê Công Tuấn Anh, who also spent time working on the stage.

Not only are cải lương artists who passed away in Vietnam buried here, but Vietnamese artists who died abroad have also requested to have their remains and portraits brought to Chùa Nghệ Sĩ for worship, such as: Tư Út, Hữu Phước, and Hùng Cường...

This is not only the resting place of artists but also of their relatives: such as the mother of Meritorious Artist Kim Tử Long, the daughter of People's Artist Ngọc Giàu...