Thien Lam Pagoda of Tay Ninh

In Tây Ninh, a pagoda first stood on a high mound where kén vines grew thickly. The kén is a creeper whose fruit turns red when ripe. In everyday speech, a mound with kén vines was shortened to Gò Kén. That is why people in Tây Ninh call this place Gò Kén Pagoda. The name sounds homely and local, yet it comes from a very concrete reason.

Thiền Lâm is the name in Chinese characters. Gò Kén is the name people remember and use every day. The pagoda once searched for kén vines to replant, so that the trace behind its name could be restored.

The Tây Ninh tourism portal describes it as a pagoda more than a hundred years old, one of the earliest built in the area. In 1925, the Venerable Thích Từ Phong and Buddhist followers rebuilt it more solidly. Some accounts say the first pagoda went up around 1904, made of bamboo and thatch. That date has not been confirmed from an official source.

The most remarkable moment in the history of Gò Kén came on November 18, 1926. That day, the pagoda let the founders of the Cao Đài religion borrow its grounds as the place to open their faith. Accounts of the event name two people who took part, Cao Quỳnh Cư and Phạm Công Tắc. So a Buddhist pagoda once became the birthplace of another religion. It is a rare meeting point of cultures and faiths in the history of Tây Ninh.

The pagoda later declined and was restored in 1970. In 2007, the monk Thích Thiện Nghĩa came to serve as abbot. From 2012 to 2024, the pagoda built 15 new Buddhist structures in its grounds.

The triple gate was the first of those 15. From there the grounds open into a large complex with many stops along the way.

Inside the courtyard, the first stop is a statue of the Buddha Thích Ca Mâu Ni meditating in the shade of a bodhi tree. It was built in 2009.

The main hall keeps an East Asian style of architecture, with a red tile roof, curved corner eaves, and dragon-head patterns on the ridge. Inside are 14 altars made of trắc wood and cẩm lai wood. The main altar, about 3 meters high, honors the Buddha A Di Đà and Quan Âm, the bodhisattva of compassion. It also honors Thế Chí and Thích Ca. Two more figures, A Nan and Ca Diếp, are honored there as well. The tourism portal calls the pagoda's special character a blend of Eastern and Western culture, both classical and modern.

Out in the courtyard, the landmark that identifies the pagoda from afar is a statue of the bodhisattva Quán Thế Âm. It stands 25 meters tall on the head of a dragon 7 meters high. Many people recognize it from the approach road.

Close by is a statue of the Buddha entering nirvana, 25 meters long. There is also a relic tower nine stories tall. A 2012 news report on the start of the improvements mentions both.

The grounds also hold the Lâm Tỳ Ni garden, a hall dedicated to Maitreya, the Buddha of the future, and Ngũ Hành Sơn. Newly built is an area of prayer wheels. Many visitors and Buddhists come to this area to practice calm and ease.

The largest festival at the pagoda is the Great Ceremony for the birthday of Quán Thế Âm, held on the 18th and 19th days of the second lunar month. The festival includes a ceremony praying for peace in the country and for its people, a parade of floats, the release of floating flower lanterns, and a vegetarian buffet. Worshippers come in large numbers from many places.

Each early morning at Gò Kén, light filters through the bodhi tree onto the quiet grounds. The statue of Quán Thế Âm, 25 meters tall, stands on the dragon and looks down on them. More than a hundred years have passed. The old kén vines are gone, but the name Gò Kén still travels with the people of Tây Ninh, from one generation to the next.