Thac Bac Falls at Tay Thien

Many people say that what surprises them most on the walk into Tây Thiên is not a temple or a monastery. It is the sound of water. The sound of the stream grows clearer and the air cooler along the stone path, and then the waterfall called Thác Bạc is close at hand.

In the Department of Cultural Heritage's file, Thác Bạc stands near Cô Temple by the Giải Oan stream. All of it belongs to the Tây Thiên group of monuments and scenic sites. The waterfall is not a sight set apart. It is one link in a long chain of landscape and monuments that runs through the whole area.

The walk usually starts from Thõng Temple, down where the mountain begins. From Thõng Temple up to Cậu Temple, the department describes a rough path of laid stone beside the stream, more than 1 kilometer long. This is real mountain walking, not a flat road. From Cậu Temple it is about 2 kilometers more to Cô Temple, and the waterfall is near it.

The land around is thick with the forest of the Tam Đảo mountains. The air is cool, and the stream runs across slabs of rock. This is a typical landscape of the Tam Đảo range: second-growth forest, granite and other rock lying side by side, and cold water coming down from the high mountain over many natural steps. Each step of rock is a note, and the whole waterfall is a piece of music that never ends.

Thác Bạc joins two strands of the Tây Thiên walk. One is the story of belief and meditation in its temples and pagodas. The other is the story of the living forest of Tam Đảo. Tây Thiên has been a Special National Monument since 2015, and the Giải Oan stream still runs through it.

Standing here, looking up into the canopy and listening to the water in the cool mountain air, people often call this the quietest moment of the whole trip to Tây Thiên. Nothing more needs to be said. The mountain has already told its own story.