Quảng Nghiêm Pagoda

Quảng Nghiêm Pagoda (Chữ Hán: 廣嚴寺), also known as Tiên Lữ Pagoda or the Hundred-Bay Pagoda (Chùa Trăm Gian), is a pagoda situated on a hill about 50 metres high, in Tiên Lữ hamlet, Chương Mỹ ward, Hà Nội. The pagoda was established during the reign of Lý Cao Tông of the Lý dynasty, in the 10th year of the Trinh Phù era, 1185. In the Trần dynasty, there was a monk named Bình An, from Bối Khê, who practised here and was said to possess many miraculous powers. After his death, the villagers built a stupa to preserve his remains and respectfully called him Đức Thánh Bối. The large pagoda as it stands today has been restored and expanded over many eras.

In the pagoda courtyard stands a two-storey, eight-roofed bell tower, erected in the year Quý Dậu 1693, during the Chính Hòa era, under Lê Hy Tông, which is an architectural work of high artistic value. The pagoda still preserves many precious artefacts and statues. The name 'Hundred-Bay', very colloquial, seems to express the imposing scale of the pagoda.

Legend has it that during the Trần dynasty, in Bối Khê village, there was a woman who dreamt of the Buddha descending to be born, and then became pregnant, giving birth to a son. At the age of nine, after his parents passed away, the boy left home to become a monk at Đại Bi Pagoda in the village. At fifteen, he came to Tiên Lữ hamlet, Tiên Phương commune (now Chương Mỹ district, Hà Nội), was captivated by the scenery, and requested to meet and study sutras with the elder monk practising at the mountain pagoda. After ten years of religious study, the young man mastered all miraculous powers. The Trần king heard of him, conferred upon him the title of Hòa thượng (Venerable Monk), gave him the title Đức Minh, and invited him to practise at a pagoda in the capital.

After the elder monk at Tiên Lữ Pagoda passed away, Hòa thượng Đức Minh requested to return to his village to build a new pagoda. At the age of 95, the Master sat in a wooden shrine, bade farewell to his disciples, and passed away. One hundred days later, when the disciples opened the shrine, the Master's golden body emitted a fragrant scent that spread far and wide. The villagers and disciples built a stupa to preserve his body and venerated him as Đức Thánh Bối.

The Hundred-Bay Pagoda attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from near and far each year and is currently being restored, with the lotus pond, bell tower, and 100 bays of the pagoda being rebuilt to welcome visitors. The Hundred-Bay Pagoda has been recognised as a national historical monument by the Ministry of Culture and Information of Vietnam.

The Hundred-Bay Pagoda is a unique architectural complex. According to the method of counting four pillar corners as one 'bay', the pagoda has a total of 104 bays, divided into three main architectural clusters:

The first cluster consists of four pillar columns and two pavilions, formerly the site for human chess games during festivals, followed by the Giá Ngự Hall facing the lotus pond, where the saint's palanquin was placed to watch water puppet shows.

Climbing several hundred brick steps leads to the second cluster, which includes a two-storey bell tower with railings on all four sides. The wooden panels are all carved with cloud and flower motifs. Here hangs a bell 1.10 m high, 0.6 m in diameter, cast in the second year of Cảnh Thịnh, 1794. On the bell is inscribed a poem by Phạm Huy Ích. Beyond the bell tower, ascending 25 green stone steps carved with dragon and cloud motifs, one reaches the upper courtyard, where there is a rectangular stone platform.

Climbing another nine stone steps, with balustrades on both sides carved with coiled dragons, leads to the third cluster, the main pagoda, consisting of the ceremonial hall, incense burning hall, and upper sanctuary. On both sides are two rows of corridors. At the innermost part is the ancestral hall, which retains a drum tower inside, where a large drum with a diameter of 1 m and a bronze gong 1.20 m long and 0.60 m high, cast in 1749, the 10th year of Cảnh Hưng, are kept. Here there are 153 statues, mostly wooden, a few made of terracotta, especially precious are the statues of Tuyết Sơn and Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva (Quan Thế Âm Bồ Tát). In the centre of the upper sanctuary is a red terracotta pedestal in rectangular block form, similar to stone pedestals from the Trần dynasty. On the pedestal is a lotus dais, decorated with many animal and floral motifs, with divine birds at the corners. On the pedestal are placed the statues of the Three Buddhas. The pagoda also contains many steles, horizontal lacquered boards, and parallel sentences... Notably, there are two mother-of-pearl inlaid parallel sentences, said to date from the Hồ dynasty (1400-1406).

Within the pagoda is a statue of Admiral Đặng Tiến Đông, a general of the Tây Sơn dynasty, who commanded the army attacking the southern part of Thăng Long. This statue was discovered in 1972. There is also a statue of Đức Thánh Bối placed in a wooden shrine in the right bay. This is a core statue made of woven rattan, covered with lacquered cloth, said to be the statue containing his remains.

Saint Patriarch Đức Minh Chân Nhân, Thánh Bối.

Từ Huệ Stupa, Bhikkhuni Như Bích, from Từ Liêm district. Stupa erected in the 16th year of Cảnh Hưng.

Bhikkhuni Diệu Sử, dharma name Giới Sử, from Bối Khê village.

Viên Dung Stupa, Sāmaṇerī Tánh Côn, stupa erected in the 33rd year of Cảnh Hưng (1772).

Elder Nun Thích Đàm Hiền

Nun Thích Đàm Khoa

The Hundred-Bay Pagoda has undergone many restorations and embellishments, some of which have damaged the monument, such as repainting precious paintings and statues with industrial paint; making new statue pedestals and altars from cement and industrially coloured tiles; and constructing new corridors with columns and beams polished with varnish. Particularly serious was the restoration lasting over 100 days in mid-2012, when the ancestral hall and gong tower, both centuries old, were demolished without mercy to be rebuilt as a one-day-old monument. The event lasted many days, and even information about fundraising for the reconstruction was broadcast over the commune's loudspeaker system, yet authorities at the hamlet, commune, district, city, and central levels were all unaware.