Tay An Pagoda

Three brightly colored domes stand up against the blue sky, and few people walk past them quickly. They look nothing like the Vietnamese pagodas that are familiar across the southern delta. Many visitors stop here for a long time before going on into the group of monuments at Núi Sam. This is Tây An Pagoda, Chùa Tây An.

The pagoda is also called Tây An tự or Tây An cổ tự, according to broadcast material from the management board of the Núi Sam National Tourist Area. It stands at a fork in the road at the foot of Núi Sam, in Châu Đốc, in An Giang. It was built in 1847 by Doãn Uẩn, the governor-general of An Hà. The board reads the name Tây An tự as a wish to keep the western frontier calm, and it says the name recalls a turbulent 19th-century southwest. That is the board's own reading, not an old record. In 1980 the pagoda was ranked a national monument of architecture and art, an honor that fits the character this place has built up over hundreds of years.

From far away, the first thing that catches the eye is the three towers with round roofs shaped like onions. They blend Indian artistic style with old traditional architecture, bright in color yet in harmony. Where a traditional pagoda would have curved roofs, these three tall towers rise under round roofs in the Ấn Hồi style, unusual and very beautiful. This layer is not the original one. In 1958, the Venerable Thích Bửu Thọ had the three towers, the front facade and the main hall rebuilt in the form seen today.

Inside the courtyard, two large cement elephants stand on either side of the entrance. One is white with six tusks and the other is black with two. Not every pagoda in the southern delta has such a detail. It is linked to the influence of Theravada Buddhist culture and of Hindu belief on the architecture of the pagoda. Theravada is believed to be the oldest form of Buddhism, and it is dominant today in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

Inside the main hall, a large statue of Shakyamuni sits at the center. Shakyamuni is the founder of Buddhism. Around him stand statues of Quan Âm, the Tam Thế Buddhas, Đại Thế Chí, the bodhisattvas, the arhats, the Bát bộ kim cang and the Tam hoàng ngũ đế. Quan Âm is the bodhisattva of compassion. Đại Thế Chí is a bodhisattva, often shown beside Amitabha Buddha. The Tam Thế Buddhas are the Buddhas of the past, the present and the future. Arhats are disciples of the Buddha who reached enlightenment. The Tam hoàng ngũ đế are the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors, legendary rulers of ancient China.

Most of the statues are described as made of prized wood, carefully carved, and typical of Vietnamese sculpture of the 19th century. Passing from one to the next, a visitor can see a mixture. There is the familiar set of statues from the Northern school of Buddhism. There are also decorative details that recall India and southern Vietnam at the same time.

Beyond its beauty as architecture and art, the pagoda is tied to a notable figure in religious history. The board says the Zen master Pháp Tạng was brought to the pagoda. He is also called Phật Thầy Tây An, and he founded the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương sect. This happened in the time of the first abbot, the Zen master Hải Tịnh Nguyễn Văn Giác, who took him in. The story makes the pagoda more than a place of worship. It is also a witness to some of the most distinctive religious currents of the southwest.

Behind the main hall there is an area where the abbots of Tây An Pagoda are honored. Along the side of the pagoda stands a row of stupas for the monks of every generation. Visitors seldom notice this part, yet it holds a history of its own. It tells of the people who quietly kept the pagoda through so many decades.

Tây An Pagoda sits in the same group of the Núi Sam tourist area as the shrine of Bà Chúa Xứ, the Tomb of Thoại Ngọc Hầu and Phước Điền Pagoda, also called Chùa Hang. These places are often joined into one route of visits and pilgrimage.

Whether people come as pilgrims or only out of curiosity about the three round roofs above Châu Đốc, they carry home an impression that is hard to forget. Its architecture is itself a story of cultures meeting, of the history of a frontier land, and of the people who worked hard to keep this place for nearly 200 years.