Con Son and Kiep Bac

More than 700 years ago, at a meeting point of six rivers, a general stood looking out over the water and waited. For the third time, a Mongol army was coming. It was sent by the Yuan, the Mongol dynasty then ruling China. Their empire was the largest in the world at that time. That general was Trần Quốc Tuấn, and he was ready to crush them once again.

This land holds two great stories of the Vietnamese people. One is about a military hero, and the other is about a poet of genius. The two stories lie more than a hundred years apart, yet they belong to the same stretch of mountains and streams.

The Côn Sơn and Kiếp Bạc relic complex is a Special National Monument. It received that rank by a decision of the Prime Minister on May 10, 2012. The complex has two main clusters, about 5 kilometers apart. Côn Sơn lies to the northwest and is tied to Trúc Lâm Buddhism and to the great official Nguyễn Trãi. Kiếp Bạc lies to the southeast and belongs to the memory of the Great Prince Hưng Đạo, Trần Quốc Tuấn. On July 1, 2025, Hải Dương province merged into the city of Hải Phòng, and since then the whole complex has been part of the city. The new ward that holds Côn Sơn Pagoda and Kiếp Bạc Temple is named after the hero of this land: Trần Hưng Đạo ward.

The story begins at Côn Sơn.

Côn Sơn Pagoda is one of the great centers of the Trúc Lâm school of Buddhism. Its formal name is Tư Phúc Tự. The school was founded by the Buddha Emperor Trần Nhân Tông, after he gave up the throne to his son and went up Yên Tử mountain to live as a monk. Trúc Lâm has three patriarchs, known together as the Trúc Lâm Tam Tổ. The first patriarch was Trần Nhân Tông, and the second was Pháp Loa Đồng Kiên Cương. The third was Huyền Quang Lý Đạo Tái. Huyền Quang led the pagoda at Côn Sơn and passed away here in 1334. So the spring festival of Côn Sơn, held every year from the 16th to the 23rd day of the first lunar month, marks the anniversary of his passing.

But Côn Sơn is not only a Buddhist place. It was also the home of one of the greatest figures in the history of Vietnam: Nguyễn Trãi.

Nguyễn Trãi was born in 1380, the son of the high official Nguyễn Phi Khanh. His maternal grandfather, Trần Nguyên Đán, was a high-ranking official of the Trần dynasty, which ruled Vietnam from 1225 to 1400. The grandfather lived at Côn Sơn. A stone stele from his retreat there, inscribed Thanh Hư Động, still stands today. The boy grew up knowing this land from early childhood. As a man, he helped Lê Lợi drive out the army of the Ming, the dynasty then ruling China. He wrote the historic proclamation Bình Ngô Đại Cáo, and afterwards he chose to withdraw to Côn Sơn and live in seclusion. It was here, beside a stream murmuring among pines and rocks, that he wrote the poem Côn Sơn ca. A well-known Vietnamese verse translation begins: At Côn Sơn the stream murmurs on. I hear it like the sound of a zither playing beside my ear.

Yet fate did not leave Nguyễn Trãi in peace. In 1442 he was wrongly condemned in the Lệ Chi Viên case. Emperor Lê Thái Tông had died suddenly at the Lệ Chi garden, after a night attended by Nguyễn Thị Lộ, the poet's wife. Three branches of the family of Nguyễn Trãi were put to death. Only in 1464 did Emperor Lê Thánh Tông clear the poet's name and restore his honor. The stream at Côn Sơn still flows as it did. The pines still stand as they did. And the name of Nguyễn Trãi is still here, and it will never fade.

From Côn Sơn Pagoda, a path of hundreds of stone steps leads up to Bàn Cờ Tiên, the Fairies' Chessboard, at the top of the mountain. Legend says fairies came down here to play chess on a flat rock at the top. From up high, you can see the whole of Côn Sơn and the plain spreading wide into the distance.

Then the story moves on to Kiếp Bạc.

Just 5 kilometers to the southeast, Kiếp Bạc Temple rises, grand and solid, beside the Lục Đầu Giang. It is the temple of the Great Prince Hưng Đạo, Trần Quốc Tuấn, a national hero. He is worshipped as a saint.

Trần Quốc Tuấn lived in the 13th century and died in 1300. He fought in all three wars of resistance against the Mongol empire, the mightiest empire in the world at that time. The first came in 1258, the second in 1285 and the third in 1288. In the last two, he was the supreme commander. Each time, victory went to Đại Việt, an old name for Vietnam. The battle of Bạch Đằng in 1288 was the high point. The Đại Việt forces drove wooden stakes into the riverbed. They used the tide to lure the enemy boats onto the field of stakes. They destroyed most of the Yuan fleet and captured the general Ô Mã Nhi alive.

It was no accident that Kiếp Bạc became the general's headquarters. This was the most strategic position in the north: the river junction of Lục Đầu Giang, where six great rivers meet. Two of them are the Cầu and the Thương. Two more are the Lục Nam and the Đuống. The last two are the Kinh Thầy and the Thái Bình. Whoever held the Lục Đầu Giang held the gateway from the sea into the heart of Đại Việt. Trần Hưng Đạo understood that.

After he died at Vạn Kiếp in 1300, people built a temple to his memory right here. His main death anniversary falls on the 20th day of the eighth lunar month. That is the last day of the Kiếp Bạc festival, held every year from the 15th to the 20th of that month. Hundreds of thousands of people come from everywhere to join it, Buddhist faithful among them. It is one of the largest festivals in the north. The festival has palanquin processions and a seal-opening ceremony. Above all, there are boat races on the Lục Đầu Giang right in front of the temple, a sight both stirring and sacred.

Standing at Kiếp Bạc Temple and looking out at the river, you can see why the general chose this place. 700 years ago, from this very spot, the warships of Đại Việt set out to defend the land.

On July 12, 2025, Côn Sơn and Kiếp Bạc were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. They share the listing with Yên Tử Pagoda in Quảng Ninh and Vĩnh Nghiêm Pagoda in Bắc Ninh. Together they form Vietnam's ninth World Heritage Site.

One land holds the Buddhism of Trúc Lâm, the poetry of Nguyễn Trãi and the courage of the great general, all within a single day's visit. That land is Côn Sơn and Kiếp Bạc. The stream still flows, the pines still stand, and the Lục Đầu Giang still glitters as it did on the day the warships set out.