Am Tien Cave

Right beside the old capital of Hoa Lư, only about 400 meters from the east gate of the temple of Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng, a tunnel runs through the heart of a mountain. At its far end lies a valley that is entirely unlike the land outside.

The official name of the place is the Am Tiên Pagoda and Cave. But people often call it by another name, one whose feeling anyone understands at once: Tuyệt Tịnh Cốc. Tuyệt tịnh means completely still, and cốc means valley.

The Ninh Binh Department of Culture and Sports says the site opened two tunnels to reach the valley, one on each side of the mountain range, each about 200 meters long. The way through the rock ends in a bowl-shaped valley. It holds a lake with a small concrete path around it, and the pagoda and cave sit halfway up the cliffs that ring the whole scene.

That feeling of walking through a tunnel into a closed valley is why the place is called Tuyệt Tịnh Cốc. The noise from outside seems to be stopped by the mountain. The air is cooler. The surface of the lake reflects the sky and the mountains. And the pagoda on the cliff looks down over it all.

Historically, this spot is closely tied to the old capital. The pagoda and cave lie right next to the Eastern Citadel of ancient Hoa Lư. So the scene is beautiful, and it also belongs to the ground of a capital of the 10th century.

The pagoda and cave honor the Buddha, and also the Zen master Nguyễn Minh Không, who is credited with restoring the cave and building the pagoda. A stele dated 1166 gives the cave an older name, Đại Quang Thánh, and places it on a mountain called Chu Ma Sơn Áng. That detail has a firm date, and it comes from a stone inscription at the site.

There is another side to the story of this place. The department records that, by local legend and by records kept at the site, this area was once spoken of as a stone prison in the 10th century. There Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng was said to keep tigers and leopards to punish people guilty of serious crimes. It is only a legend. Still, it reminds people that this ground once lay inside a powerful capital.

The way up to the pagoda and cave is a climb of stone steps. Sources give different counts. Some say more than 200 steps, others say 174. Whatever the number, each step brings the mouth of the cave a little closer, and from that mouth the whole valley can be seen below.

Inside are the cave mouth and the main cave, whose wide chamber is shaped like an upturned bowl. Stalactites hang down in strange forms. One looks like a tree of rice grain, one like a money tree, one like a Buddha's hand fruit, one like a lotus bud. Standing in the middle of the cave and looking up, you see shapes that nature has made, shaped by no human hand.

From the pagoda and cave, the whole valley of Tuyệt Tịnh Cốc lies spread out below: the lake, the rock mountains, the path around the water and the enclosed space. This is the moment when many people pause longest, look down in silence, and do not want to leave.

Tuyệt Tịnh Cốc lies within the Hoa Lư Ancient Capital complex. Around it stand the temple of Emperor Đinh, the temple of the Lê emperor and a full millennium of history. Yet it is the quietest place in a land that was once the center of power of the whole country.