Admire the ancient pagoda in Kinh Bac region with the largest tower garden in Vietnam

Bo Da Pagoda is located on the sacred land of Bo Da mountain range (Tien Son commune, Viet Yen town, Bac Giang province), a famous ancient temple of the ancient Kinh Bac region. According to legend, Bo Da Pagoda dates back to the Ly dynasty, was restored, embellished and expanded during the reign of King Le Du Tong (1720-1729), including main architectural units such as Tu An pagoda, Tam Duc hermitage, Cao pagoda, Thap garden, and Mieu pond.

Bo Da Pagoda is one of the major Buddhist centers of the Truc Lam Zen sect, one of the places that still preserves the original traditional Vietnamese architecture. The pagoda still has many valuable documents, artifacts, and antiques with great value in terms of culture, history, architecture, and fine arts.

The entrance to the temple is paved with salt stones of various sizes, built in the Nguyen Dynasty architecture.

The walls are made of earth, creating a quiet, intimate look of the Northern Delta countryside.

Bo Da Pagoda Tower Garden is one of the most beautiful and largest tower gardens in the country, consisting of 110 towers and tombs of various sizes. Among them, there are 97 ancient towers with a history of hundreds of years, which are the place to store the ashes and relics of 1,214 Buddhist monks and nuns of the Lam Te Zen sect in the whole country.

The towers are all built of bricks and stones, using traditional techniques of lime and molasses.

Venerable Thich Tuc Vinh, abbot of Bo Da pagoda, said that Bo Da pagoda's tower garden was built about 300 years after the founder, whose secular name was Pham Kim Hung, passed away. Bo Da pagoda's tower garden is not only a burial place for monks and nuns of the pagoda or of the Lam Te sect, but also for those who studied here and then became abbots elsewhere, or were descendants of the Lam Te sect. When they are old and have no successors, they can return to the founder's place, ask the monks for permission to be buried in the tower garden, and all are accepted.

"The towers often contain the relics and ashes of monks and nuns. In particular, in the garden there is a tower that buries 26 monks. All of them are brothers from the same sect, and they studied under the same teacher. When they lived together, they were so close that when they passed away, they still wanted to be buried next to each other," Venerable Thich Tuc Vinh added.

The stupa of the monks is often recognized by the symbol of a vase of nectar on top. Behind is the stupa of the nuns, characterized by a lotus-shaped top.

The tomb towers are arranged in rows and layers according to very strict regulations of Zen.

The one-story towers are interspersed with two- and three-story towers in the garden.

With more than 100 towers, on May 7, 2016, the Vietnam Record Organization confirmed Bo Da Pagoda as the pagoda with the largest tower area in Vietnam.

With many special values such as architecture, history..., Bo Da Pagoda was ranked as a special national monument by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 2499 dated December 22, 2016.

The ancient space here not only has great architectural value, but also preserves the historical mark of a major sect of Vietnamese Buddhism, contributing to beautifying the land of Bac Giang with a well-deserved scenic spot.

Source: https://baobacninhtv.vn/bg2/dulichbn/chiem-nguong-ngoi-chua-co-vung-kinh-bac-co-vuon-thap-lon-nhat-viet-nam-postid418563.bbg