Thai Lac Pagoda

In a small hall at the back of one pagoda on the Red River Delta, there is wood that is very old, very fine and very rare. From outside, the pagoda looks no different from many others. The difference waits inside.

This is Thái Lạc Pagoda, in Lạc Hồng commune. The commune lies in Hưng Yên province. On December 24, 2018, the Prime Minister signed Decision 1820, ranking the pagoda a Special National Monument. That is a step above an ordinary national monument.

The main reason lies in the Thượng điện, the rear hall. Vietnam's Department of Cultural Heritage has studied the style of the carvings, the form of the roof frame and the plan of the hall. It has concluded that Thái Lạc Pagoda is one of the three oldest timber buildings in Vietnam, first raised under the Trần dynasty. The Trần dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1225 to 1400. The other two are Dâu Pagoda in Bắc Ninh and Bối Khê Pagoda in Hanoi.

The Trần era was the 13th and 14th centuries. It was the age of three wars of resistance against the Mongols, when the culture of Đại Việt, an old name for Vietnam, began to claim its own character. And Thái Lạc Pagoda has kept one piece of building from that time.

The pagoda honors the Buddha and the deity Pháp Vân. Pháp Vân is one of four deities of the Tứ Pháp. This belief began in the Dâu area of Bắc Ninh. The four are the deities of Cloud, Rain, Thunder and Lightning: Pháp Vân, Pháp Vũ, Pháp Lôi and Pháp Điện. It is a belief very typical of the wet-rice farmers of the plains, tied to the hope for rain and wind in their proper seasons.

The pagoda is laid out in the style called nội công ngoại quốc, along an axis running from northwest to southeast. From the Tam Quan gate, the path leads into the courtyard and then into the Tam Bảo hall, which has three parts joined one after another. They are the Tiền đường, the Thiêu hương and the Thượng điện. The Tiền đường has nine bays, and its carvings are in the style of the Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnam's last royal dynasty. The Thiêu hương, also called the ống muống, is a passage between the other two parts. It is 2.6 meters long and 4.2 meters wide.

And then comes the Thượng điện. This is where the pagoda's value lies.

The Thượng điện is small, with one central bay and two side bays. It is 10 meters long and 8.5 meters wide. Yet the heritage board of Hưng Yên province records that it still holds 20 old wooden carvings in the style of the Trần dynasty. They show subjects that are not found in many other places.

One subject is a band of three musicians. A man plays the đàn tranh, and two women carry the đàn tỳ bà and the đàn tam. The đàn tranh is a plucked zither. It is a picture of court music, or of Buddhist ritual music, from the Trần era, carved into wood and kept to this day.

Another subject is a celestial maiden with a human head and a bird's body, called a Kinnara in Buddhist art. Her upper half is a woman and her lower half is a bird. In her hands she offers a vase of flowers. This figure comes from the Buddhist art of South and Southeast Asia, and it shows how cultures met in that age.

The most unusual of all is a musician seated on the back of a phượng bird, playing. The heritage board affirms that in all of Vietnam, this subject has been found only at Thái Lạc Pagoda. Nowhere else. That is not advertising. It is the result of comparing works of art.

These carvings are not simple decoration. They are the visual language of Buddhism in the Trần era. Through skilled work in wood, people of that time spoke of the world of the heavenly beings, of music and offerings, and of the Buddhist view of the universe.

Behind the Tam Bảo hall are also the nhà Tổ, the nhà Mẫu and a garden of old towers. Together they make a complete complex.

Each year the pagoda's traditional festival runs from the sixth to the eighth day of the third month of the lunar calendar. Tourism records say it is tied to the beliefs of the people of the old Thái Lạc canton, who prayed for rain.

In the Thượng điện, these panels of wood have stood since the Trần era, through many seasons of rain and sun. People made them to say something about the universe, about music, about the beauty of the sacred world. They used only wood and a blade to do it. 700 years later, the carvings can still be read.