Long Son Pagoda

Outside the gate, the road is crowded with the traffic of a seaside city. Inside, it is another world. There are trees, birdsong, and a stillness that is not the ordinary kind. A pagoda in the middle of a city can do this: it opens a pause inside a life that never stops. This is Long Sơn Pagoda, one of the best known in Nha Trang.

The pagoda stands at the foot of Trại Thủy Hill, in the heart of the city, on 23 Tháng Mười Street. Vietnam's national tourism authority presents it as a famous pagoda site of Khánh Hòa.

Tourism and Buddhist sources trace its history to the late 19th century. Its older name is usually given as Đăng Long Tự. The Venerable Thích Ngộ Chí founded it around 1886, on Trại Thủy Hill itself, higher up behind where it stands today. After a great storm in 1900, the pagoda was moved down to the foot of the hill and took the new name Long Sơn. The tourism authority records that it was rebuilt in 1940, with architecture and carving that carry the mark of modern times. So the pagoda standing here is not entirely old. It is the result of many rounds of building and repair, over more than a century in Nha Trang.

Long Sơn is still a working Buddhist pagoda, not only a place to visit. The chanting of sutras, the faint drift of incense, a brown robe passing through the main hall: all of this is the living part of the place.

From the main hall, the visitor begins to climb. Tourism sources and the Buddhist press give about 193 steps up to the white Buddha. That is a lot of steps. The climb can be taken slowly, with pauses along the way.

About halfway up is the statue of the Buddha entering nirvana. He lies in a posture of complete calm. Behind the statue, according to descriptions, a relief shows 49 disciples and monks. It is a good place to rest and look around.

A little higher hangs the great bell, Đại Hồng Chung. Tourism sources give it as about 2.2 meters tall and about 1,500 kilograms. Some say it was a gift from Buddhists of Hue in 2002. It is a bell taller than a grown person and as heavy as a car, and it rings with a clear, pure sound.

Then comes the highest point, the Kim Thân Phật Tổ statue. This is the white Buddha, which stands out against the green hill from many corners of Nha Trang. Its height is given as about 24 meters, and it is set on a lotus pedestal.

The pedestal is more than a base. According to a Vietnamese Buddhist news site, it carries carved portraits of the Venerable Thích Quảng Đức and six other venerables who set themselves on fire during the Buddhist crisis of 1963. Few people expect this detail when they first stand before the huge white statue.

From the statue, the city spreads down to the edge of the sea. There are red tiles and rooftops, and traffic as small as ants, and farther off the deep blue-green band of the bay. The pagoda sits quietly in the middle of it all. It does not compete with the city or with the sea. It keeps a patch of sky for anyone who needs to stop for a while.