Thay Pagoda

The elders around Sài Sơn mountain still tell of a monk who climbed the mountain every day. He lit a stick of incense, then sat down to meditate. The monk made medicines and healed the sick. In his spare time, he showed the villagers a strange game: puppets that danced right on the water. The people loved him dearly, so they called him by one simple word, Thầy, which means teacher.

In time, the mountain he climbed came to be called Thầy Mountain. The small pagoda on it is Chùa Cao. The large pagoda at its foot has the formal name Thiên Phúc tự, but everyone calls it Thầy Pagoda.

The monk in this tale was a real person. He was the Zen master Từ Đạo Hạnh, who lived from 1072 to 1116. That was under the Lý dynasty, which ruled Vietnam from 1009 to 1225. In the early 12th century, his place of practice was only a small hermitage, called Hương Hải am. Then Emperor Lý Nhân Tông had it enlarged into two pagodas. Chùa Cao stood on the mountain, and a lower pagoda stood at its foot.

Thầy Pagoda lies about 25 to 30 kilometers southwest of the center of Hanoi. Sài Sơn mountain is not tall, only about 100 meters. The great pagoda faces south, its back against the mountain. It looks out over a broad lake called Long Trì, which means dragon pond.

On either side of the courtyard, two stone bridges curve out over the lake, like the whiskers of a dragon. Each has three spans and a tiled roof. A house above and a bridge below: people of old called this style thượng gia hạ kiều. The bridge on the left, Nhật Tiên Kiều, leads to a small island with a temple of the Tam phủ. Tam phủ refers to the Mother Goddesses of three realms: heaven, water, and mountains and forests. The bridge on the right, Nguyệt Tiên Kiều, joins the courtyard to the path up the mountain. Nhật means sun and Nguyệt means moon, so the two bridges carry the names of the two lights in the sky.

The bridges were built in 1602, under the direction of Phùng Khắc Khoan. At 52, he passed the royal examinations as a Hoàng giáp, a doctoral laureate of the second rank. He never became Trạng nguyên, the title of the top graduate of the royal examinations. Yet the people admired his talent and virtue, and honored him as Trạng Bùng all the same. More than 400 years later, his bridges still lie there, reflected in the lake.

In the middle of the lake stands the Thủy đình, the water pavilion. It is small, with eight roof sections and upturned corners, dating from around the Hậu Lê period. It is considered the oldest and most beautiful water pavilion in the country. People of old likened the lake to the mouth of a dragon, and the pavilion to the pearl the dragon holds.

The Thủy đình is the stage for water puppetry, where puppets glide across the lake. Legend says the Master himself taught the people to make water puppets. So Từ Đạo Hạnh is honored as the founding father of the craft.

The people of nearby Ra village keep an old tale. The Master gave the village three mẫu of rice land, to support the puppet craft and the rites in his honor. That is why, at every festival, only the puppet troupe of Ra village may perform at the Thủy đình. On the water, lions and dragons dance, people pound rice, and buffaloes lock horns, all in time with music and song.

The great pagoda, also called chùa Cả, has three parallel buildings, set out like the written character for three. The outer one is chùa Hạ, where people worship. The middle one is chùa Trung, for the Buddha. Its two Dharma guardian statues each stand about 4 meters tall. The innermost is chùa Thượng, which honors the Saint Từ Đạo Hạnh. The Buddha in front, the Saint behind: this layout is called tiền Phật hậu Thánh.

Chùa Thượng also keeps a set of Di Đà Tam Tôn statues, recognized as a National Treasure in 2015. The Di Đà Tam Tôn is a triad of Amitabha Buddha with two bodhisattvas at his sides. But the most surprising sight is three statues that tell of three lives of the Master. The middle one shows him as a Buddha, in a lotus crown, hands joined before his chest. The one on the right shows him as an emperor, in an imperial crown, seated on a throne. The one on the left is a full-length wooden statue of the monk, with pegged joints in its arms and legs. It has always been able to stand up and sit down, just like a puppet.

There is a reason a monk has a statue on a royal throne. The book Thiền Uyển Tập Anh and folk legend tell a strange tale. That book is an old collection of the lives of Vietnamese Zen masters. According to both, the Master shed his body to be reborn as the son of a nobleman, Sùng Hiền Hầu. That child later took the throne as Emperor Lý Thần Tông. Behind Chùa Cao there is a cave called Thánh Hóa, and the villagers say the Master passed from this life in that very place.

So in the hearts of the people, the Master is four people at once. A learned monk. A Buddha who reached enlightenment. An emperor, as the legend tells it. And the founding father of water puppetry.

Every year, from the fifth to the seventh day of the third lunar month, the festival of Thầy Pagoda opens again. One of the first rites is the bathing of the statues. The monks dip red cloth in water and gently wipe the statues. Afterward, the cloth is cut into small pieces and made into charms for children. Out in the grounds there are chess games, wrestling, tug of war and, of course, water puppets at the Thủy đình. The festival has been recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

At the end of 2014, Thầy Pagoda was ranked a Special National Monument, together with the rocky hills of Sài Sơn. The ranking also takes in the hills of Hoàng Xá and Phượng Cách.

Whoever climbs to the top of the mountain finds a stretch of flat ground. Around it, outcrops of rock look like a table and chairs, a wine gourd and a bag of poems. People of old called the place chợ Trời, the market of heaven. Legend says that on clear, breezy moonlit nights, fairies come down here to hold their market and play chess.

Down at the foot of the mountain, the two stone whiskers of the dragon still reach out over the lake. In the mouth of the dragon, the little Thủy đình still rests on the water like a pearl. And up in Thánh Hóa cave behind Chùa Cao, a few hollows still mark the stone. The villagers say they are the prints of the feet and the brow of the Master.