Pho Minh Pagoda

About 300 meters west of the Trần Temple stands a pagoda that many visitors walk past after the temple. That is a pity.

Phổ Minh Pagoda, also known as the Tower Pagoda, belongs to a special national monument. The monument takes in the Trần Temple as well. Today the area lies in Nam Định ward, in Ninh Binh Province. In the middle of 2025, three provinces merged: Hà Nam, Nam Định and Ninh Binh. For people who know the old place names, this is still the land of Tức Mặc and Thiên Trường. It is where the Trần dynasty began. The Trần dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1225 to 1400.

According to historical records and local legend, retold from old books, the pagoda has roots in the Lý dynasty. The Lý dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1009 to 1225. Under the Trần, the pagoda was greatly expanded. In 1262, the Trần dynasty built two palaces in the Thiên Trường prefecture. They were called Trùng Quang and Trùng Hoa. Within that complex, the pagoda was also built and expanded. That is why it is more than a place to worship the Buddha. It is tied to the story of the Trần dynasty from the 13th century.

The first thing that draws the eye in the pagoda yard is the Phổ Minh tower. The national heritage record gives it 14 levels and a height of 19 and a half meters. Its square base is a little over 5 meters on each side. The top ends in a lotus bud made of stone. Look at the tower in three parts: base, body and top. This is the style of Buddhist towers in the Trần period, and the lotus on top is a familiar image in Vietnamese Buddhist art.

The yard also holds sutra pillars, a stone incense stand, a stele house, and stone column bases carved with lotus petals, scattered along the paths. The heritage department describes these bases as Trần art of the 13th and 14th centuries. They let a visitor read time right underfoot, with no sign needed to explain.

Inside the front hall, which has nine bays, notice the door of the middle bay. The heritage record says it is carved with a dragon facing the moon, set in a frame shaped like a bodhi leaf. The dragon at the pagoda is linked with Trần royal power. The bodhi leaf is a Buddhist symbol. Together on one door, they show how royal power and religion shaped each other in the Trần period.

The incense hall joins the front hall to the upper hall, forming the shape of the character Công. The upper hall holds the most important story of the pagoda.

Here stands a set of statues of the Three Patriarchs of the Trúc Lâm Zen school. Thiền is the Vietnamese name for Zen, a school of Buddhism that puts meditation at its heart. The first patriarch is the Buddha Emperor Trần Nhân Tông. The other two are the Zen masters Pháp Loa and Huyền Quang. The statues are made of wood, painted red and gilded, and are reported to date from the 17th century. On January 30, 2023, the Prime Minister signed a decision recognizing the set as a National Treasure.

Trần Nhân Tông was an emperor who, together with his court, twice drove back the Mongol armies of the Yuan, the dynasty then ruling China. Later he gave the throne to his son and became a monk. He founded the Trúc Lâm Zen school, a line of Zen that began in Vietnam, founded by a Vietnamese. According to the Ninh Binh tourism department, Phổ Minh is one of the ordination platforms that Trần Nhân Tông himself founded. So in front of the statues, visitors stand in a place tied to the man who founded that school.

At the start of each spring, the Khai ấn festival of the Trần Temple holds a ceremony at Phổ Minh Pagoda. The Ngọc Lộ palanquin is carried in procession from the pagoda to the temple. The pagoda is still a living space in the lives of the people here.

Early in the morning, the shadow of the 14-level tower lies across the brick yard. Its lotus-bud top points to the sky. Around the tower, the stone column bases with lotus petals, from the 13th century, are still whole underfoot.