Van Linh Pagoda

The story of this pagoda does not begin with stone and mortar. It begins with leaves.

Vạn Linh Pagoda stands in the Núi Cấm Forest Park tourist area. The area lies in Núi Cấm Commune, An Giang province. It lies beside Thủy Liêm Lake, with its back toward the hill of vồ Bồ Hong. From the courtyard, the calm of a Buddhist place of practice and the mountains and lakes of the Thất Sơn region meet in one view.

The pagoda's old name is Chùa Lá, the Leaf Pagoda. In 1927, the Venerable Thích Thiện Quang climbed the mountain and built a small hermitage for focused practice. In 1941, he built the pagoda on a larger scale and opened a place of teaching and practice. Then war came. According to a Buddhist studies journal, after the war years the Venerable Thiện Thành rebuilt the pagoda in a makeshift way, out of leaves. That is how the name Chùa Lá was born. It is a historical name tied to how the pagoda was built, not a name that comes from a legend.

The large rebuilding began in 1994. The same journal records that the Venerable Thích Trí Tịnh took on the work of rebuilding the Leaf Pagoda that year, over an area of about 6 hectares. He placed the Venerable Thích Hoằng Tri in direct charge. The buildings went up one after another: the main hall, the hall of the patriarchs, the towers, the dining hall, the bell tower and the Patriarch's tower. The Buddha statue was installed on the 24th day of the eleventh lunar month in 2003.

Inside the main hall sits a statue of Shakyamuni in meditation. Shakyamuni is the founder of Buddhism. The statue is recorded as carved from a single block of stone, weighing 2 tons, by the sculptor Hoàng Hữu in 1997. That detail shows how much labor it took to carry the statue up this high mountain and set it in place.

The most striking sight in the grounds is the group of towers. The Quan Âm Tower stands 40 meters tall, with seven stories. Quan Âm is the bodhisattva of compassion. The tower was inspired by the model of Bodh Gaya in India. Beside it stands the three-story Tower of the Venerable Thích Thiện Quang, founder of the pagoda. There is also an octagonal bell tower of two stories.

Behind the pagoda rises vồ Bồ Hong, a natural path for those who like to explore. The road up to it is described as winding and steep. On foot from Vạn Linh Pagoda, the climb may take about an hour.

Vạn Linh Pagoda sits on the highest mountain of the Thất Sơn region, a quiet Buddhist place that looks out over the lake and the forest.