Fansipan Spiritual Complex

The air near the summit of Fansipan is cold and thin. Clouds drift past at eye level, and a steady wind comes off the slopes of the Hoàng Liên Sơn range. Out of this, the sweeping curved roofs of pagodas appear. This is the Fansipan spiritual complex.

According to the Buddhist website Phatgiao, the complex opened on January 30, 2018. It is a new Buddhist work, built in the style of the Vietnamese wooden pagodas of the 15th and 16th centuries. It is not an old historic site, but it speaks in the language of traditional architecture. The complex stretches from an altitude of more than 1,600 meters up to the very top of Fansipan, which stands at 3,143 meters.

The pagodas come in three groups, arranged by height. Bảo An Thiền Tự is the lowest, quiet and secluded. Bích Vân Thiền Tự lies in the middle, and its Vọng Lĩnh Cao Đài looks out over the mountain range. The highest is Kim Sơn Bảo Thắng Tự, on the summit at more than 3,000 meters.

Phatgiao describes the main pagoda. It has a main hall called Đại Hùng Bảo Điện, with corridors, a three-entrance gate and mũi hài roof tiles. It is built mainly of Ninh Binh stone and tứ thiết wood.

Beside the pagoda stands an 11-story stupa faced with sandstone. The Arhat Road runs for 800 meters and passes 18 gilded bronze statues of arhats. Arhats are disciples of the Buddha who reached enlightenment.

The work that draws the most attention is the great bronze statue of Amitabha Buddha. It stands 21.5 meters tall, was cast from more than 50 tons of bronze, and sits at an altitude of 3,100 meters. In April 2021, it was recorded as an Asian record: the bronze Amitabha statue at the highest altitude in Asia.

The Nhân Dân newspaper reported that in 2023 the complex was honored as a leading spiritual and cultural complex of Asia and the Pacific. It was the only one from Vietnam on a list of 80 works, at a forum on culture and economy between Vietnam and India.

This complex is a living place of worship. Many people come up here not only as visitors, but to pay their respects to the Buddha and to pray according to their own beliefs. From the inner hall, the sound of the wooden block and the bell carries out and blends with the cold wind of the Hoàng Liên Sơn summit. It is a sound that is hard to forget.

Stillness on the highest peak in Vietnam. Clouds pass over the pagoda roofs, and cold wind runs through the stone corridors. There the statue of Amitabha Buddha, 21.5 meters tall, looks down on the white clouds below. It is the highest of its kind in Asia, between sky and earth, between silence and wind.