Chen Kieu Pagoda

In 1969, in a small commune in the Mỹ Xuyên area of Sóc Trăng, a community of monks faced a problem with no simple answer.

Their pagoda had been wrecked by bombs in the war. It had to be rebuilt. But there was not enough money. Bricks, tiles and cement were expensive, and materials were scarce. Yet a plain wall seemed far too dull for a Khmer pagoda, whose beauty lives in its ornament. The Venerable Tăng Đuch, the ninth abbot of the pagoda, came up with a remarkable idea.

He asked the faithful to give the pagoda their broken porcelain bowls and plates.

They were not to be thrown away. They were to be set into the walls. Into the columns. Into the door frames.

Tens of thousands of broken pieces came from Khmer families, and slowly the pagoda put on a garment found in very few other places. Its walls shimmer in the sun and flash back countless colors. People began to call it Chùa Chén Kiểu, the pagoda of porcelain bowls.

Its official Khmer name is Wat Sro Loun. In Vietnamese, that became Sà Lôn. The name comes from Chro Luong, a small canal that once ran near the pagoda. But the name Chùa Chén Kiểu is tied to a story of creativity born from hardship, and it has won people's hearts more than any other name.

Tradition holds that the pagoda was founded in 1815, more than 200 years ago. At first it was built of leaves, bamboo and wood, like many Khmer pagodas. Then the war destroyed it. In 1969 the rebuilding began in brick and cement, and that rebirth brought the porcelain idea that visitors from everywhere now come to admire. In 2012, the provincial government of Sóc Trăng recognized it as a provincial site of history and culture.

Beyond its porcelain walls, though, the pagoda keeps a very different story, from a very different world.

Inside the grounds, in a room of its own, stand two beds. People say each one is worth billions of dong at today's prices. They are no ordinary beds. They are a pair of seasonal beds that belonged to one of the richest men in the Mekong Delta in the early 20th century.

His name was Trần Trinh Huy, and he was nicknamed Hắc công tử. He was born in 1900 and died in 1973. He came from the most famous landowning family of Bạc Liêu under French rule. People tell how he burned banknotes to cook eggs, just to show off his wealth. They tell of the private airplane he owned. They tell of a money-burning contest in Saigon. His rival was Lê Công Phước, known as Bạch công tử. No one has forgotten these tales.

But wealth tends to slip through people's hands. Then came years of upheaval, and the treasures of his house were scattered. Later, the Sà Lôn pagoda bought back some of that wooden furniture. People at the pagoda say that one bed alone cost the price of more than 2,000 giạ of rice at the time. A giạ was the old basket measure for grain.

Two pieces from that purchase are where visitors linger longest.

The summer bed has a sleeping surface of marble, naturally cool, suited to the hot and humid climate of the south. The other bed has a surface of three joined boards of giáng hương. That is a kind of rosewood, and it feels warm to lie on. Both beds are made of precious wood, finely inlaid with mother-of-pearl and carved with many detailed patterns.

A man who was once among the richest in the Mekong Delta slept on these beds. Now they rest in a Khmer pagoda in the middle of the delta, kept by monks and the faithful with more care than any museum could give.

Besides the two beds, the room of relics from the young master of Bạc Liêu holds a cabinet inlaid with mother-of-pearl and a set of long benches in precious wood. All of them bear witness to an age of wealth in the Mekong Delta that is hard to imagine coming again.

The Khmer pagodas of Sóc Trăng are special for a reason. Many Khmer people of southern Vietnam live here. They are one of the largest ethnic minority communities in Vietnam. Theravada Buddhism, known in Vietnam as the Southern school, is the backbone of their spiritual life. Theravada is believed to be the oldest form of Buddhism, and it is dominant today in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Its followers here venerate only Shakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism. The monks wear saffron robes and study ancient scriptures in Pali. Pali is the language in which the oldest surviving recorded sayings of the Buddha were set down.

Chùa Chén Kiểu has every feature of Khmer architecture. The roof of its main hall rises in many tiers, with sharply curving ends. Three towers stand on the gate. Naga statues rise at the corners of the roof. In Khmer art, the naga is a serpent with many heads, sometimes shown spreading them as a protective hood over the Buddha. Inside, sixteen rows of columns hold up the great structure. At the center sits a statue of Shakyamuni in the Theravada tradition.

In the Sóc Trăng sun, the broken bowls set into the walls, the columns and the door frames still glitter in every color. Each piece was once a bowl or a plate at some family's table. They are more than decoration. They were the people's answer when they had no money, no precious stones and no fine materials, yet still wanted their pagoda to be as beautiful as it could be, in its own way.