Dam Pagoda of Bac Ninh

On a mountain slope in the Kinh Bắc region, Emperor Lý Nhân Tông ordered a great pagoda built in 1086. It took eight years to finish. The pagoda was so large that the emperors of the Lý dynasty often came here to rest and to enjoy the view. The Lý dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1009 to 1225. People called it a famous landmark of the whole region.

That pagoda is Dạm Pagoda.

Today it is no longer whole. According to an introduction to the site by the Bắc Ninh city party committee, the pagoda was burned during the scorched-earth period of the war of resistance. Only two old statues were saved, one of Consort Ỷ Lan and one of Emperor Lý Nhân Tông. The rest is rubble, stone foundations and memory.

Still, the remains show how enormous the building once was. The national heritage department records that four terraces climb the slope from the foot of Lãm Sơn Mountain. They match four layers of architecture, each higher than the last. Every terrace is firmly faced with stone. The whole site covers about 7,300 to 8,000 square meters, depending on how each source measures it. That is the scale of a very large pagoda complex, not a small pagoda.

Each terrace shows something different.

The first terrace is at the bottom. Local people call it the Bãi hội, or the fairy chessboard. This is a folk name, and it suggests that the space was once a gathering place for many people.

The second terrace still holds a stone pillar and the foundation of a stone tower from the Lý era.

On the third terrace stands a small pagoda, rebuilt in 1986. What you see there is not from the Lý era. It is a new layer, built after many centuries.

The fourth terrace is the highest. Here stands a temple of three bays dedicated to Consort Ỷ Lan. In 2012, archaeologists dug on this terrace. The dig was carried out by the Bắc Ninh Department of Culture together with the Institute of Archaeology. It found traces of Lý-era architecture. The Trần dynasty repaired them. Later, the Lê and the Nguyễn repaired them too.

And in the middle of all those layers of history, one thing has stood for nearly a thousand years. It is the carved dragon pillar.

The stone pillar is 425 centimeters tall. It rests on a two-step stone base that is 80 centimeters high. On the round shaft, a pair of dragons is carved in relief, coiled around the column. Their tails hook together, and their front legs lift a jewel together. This is stone carving from the 11th century.

In 2017, the Prime Minister signed a decision recognizing the dragon pillar of Dạm Pagoda as a National Treasure. That means it is more than a pillar. The state counts it among the most precious heritage of the whole country.

The pagoda has many names. Its formal names, in Chinese characters, are Đại Lãm tự and Lãm Sơn tự. Among the people it is also called chùa Cao or chùa Bà Tấm. Another name is chùa Trăm gian.

Four terraces, one stone pillar, and a question remain. The question of what the pagoda of the Lý era truly looked like lives on in every swing of the archaeologist's pick, and in every new page of records. And the pair of stone dragons still stand there, coiled together, lifting the jewel toward the sky, waiting quietly for the answer, as they have for nearly a thousand years.