Hang Pagoda of Ly Son

On the northeastern side of Lý Sơn island, a slope of steep rock drops toward the sea. A stairway leads down it, and at the bottom a cave mouth opens right at the water's edge. This is Chùa Hang, the Cave Pagoda. It is one of the most distinctive sights on the island, and one of the most significant historically.

Its formal name is Thiên Khổng Thạch Tự. The characters are carved in relief on the rock wall in front of the entrance, and they mean the heaven-born stone pagoda. The name points to the heart of the place. No human hand made this space. Volcanic rock and the waves of the sea, over thousands of years, wore it into the foot of Mount Thới Lới. The Quảng Ngãi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism says it is the widest cave in the island's system of caves.

By the official figures, the cave is 24 meters deep and 20 meters wide. Its ceiling is 3.2 meters high, and its floor covers 480 square meters. That is enough room for many altars inside, with space left to move around.

Before going in, it helps to stop in the yard outside and face the sea. Here the character of the pagoda shows. It is a piece of volcanic geology, a place of worship, and a lookout over the sea from the level of the water, all at once. Very few pagodas in Vietnam stand in a spot like this.

According to the local guidebook, the front of the cave has a level yard and about ten steps down into the pagoda. The only path runs along the right side of the cave, deep inside. On the way down, the light and the sea wind fall behind. The air turns cool and soft, with the scent of incense and the glow of the altar lamps.

Inside are many altars to the Buddha, and altars to the founding forebears of An Hải village. Local records say this layer of worship belongs to the Vietnamese, from the 17th century. Before them, the same records say, the Cham people used the cave as a place to worship Brahmanic gods. One place, two layers of faith, and the stone cave still there, quietly holding both.

The guidebook also notes some old bàng vuông trees in the yard, more than a hundred years old. This tree usually grows along the island coasts. Its branches spread wide, its leaves are large and oval, and its flowers are distinctive. The trees give shade in front of the pagoda and add to its look of age.

A thin stream of water seeps down from the summit of the Thới Lới volcano, through cracks in the rock, to the front of the pagoda. It comes from the volcanic layers of the mountain, and it is not rainwater. Small as it is, it says something larger. For many generations, the people of this volcanic island in the middle of the sea have depended on natural streams of fresh water like this one, filtered out of the heart of the stone.

Chùa Hang was recognized as a national historic and cultural monument on July 20, 1994. Its popular name is Chùa Không Sư, which means the pagoda without a monk. The provincial department explains that no abbot has ever lived here permanently.

Coming back up out of the cave, a visitor can stand in the front yard for a while and look at the sea. The ocean lies ahead. The cool cave lies behind. Volcanic stone lies underfoot. And right beside you is a pagoda that has sheltered the Buddha through so many generations of islanders, from the day the first forebears placed an altar in the heart of this volcanic mountain until today.