Quan Su Pagoda

The scent of incense drifts out of the main hall and onto the pavement. Soft chanting carries past the sound of car horns into the street. Above the three-tiered gate of Quán Sứ Pagoda stands a bell tower, its roof covered in red fish-scale tiles. The pagoda sits on Quán Sứ Street in Hanoi's Hoàn Kiếm area.

The story of the name begins long before the street existed. According to the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, the pagoda was founded around the 15th century, in the reign of Emperor Lê Thế Tông. In those days, envoys from the countries to the south, such as Champa and Laos, often came to pay tribute at Thăng Long. Champa, known in Vietnamese as Chiêm Thành, was an ancient kingdom on the central and southern coast of what is now Vietnam. Thăng Long is the city now called Hanoi.

The court built a guesthouse to receive the envoys, and it was called Quán Sứ. The envoys were all Buddhists, so a pagoda was added inside the compound. It gave them a place to pay homage to the Buddha while far from home.

Years passed, and the guesthouse was gone. The pagoda stayed. The name Quán Sứ, which once belonged to the place that received envoys, became the name of the pagoda.

The Sangha records that from November 4 to November 7, 1981, the congress that united Buddhists across the country was held right here. It marked the founding of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha as it is known today. Since then, Quán Sứ Pagoda has been the central headquarters of the Sangha.

The grounds also house the Hanoi branch of the Vietnam Buddhist Research Institute. The Nhân Dân newspaper reports that the Hanoi People's Committee approved the branch under Decision 4204, signed on September 17, 1990. The branch also keeps a library of Buddhist books and the Great Canon of Buddhist scriptures.

Inside, there is one feature that few pagodas in the north share. The Buddhism newspaper reports that the main signboard, and many of the parallel couplets and horizontal boards, are written in Quốc ngữ instead of the old Chinese characters. Quốc ngữ is the Vietnamese script written in Latin letters. Worshipers can read the couplets directly. The main hall is painted gold, with wooden door frames, and the Buddha statues are venerated in the rites of the Bắc tông, the Northern school.

On the first day and the full-moon day of the lunar month, the courtyard is often crowded. People of Hanoi come to burn incense and pray for peace. Chanted verses, bells and incense blend together in the middle of the street. The Sangha also holds large ceremonies here, on the Buddha's birthday and at Vu Lan, and at the start and end of the year. Vu Lan is a Buddhist festival when people show gratitude to their parents.

Quán Sứ Pagoda is unlike the Buddhist sites that stand in the midst of nature. It stands in the middle of the city, among the flow of traffic, in the everyday life of Hanoi. However loud the streets become, the pace changes beyond the gate. Inside are incense, bells and the gold glow of the hall. Outside, the traffic still runs. Two worlds lie a single step apart.