Bai Dinh Pagoda – the largest Pagoda in Vietnam

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Bai Dinh Pagoda – the largest Pagoda in Vietnam

Highlights about Bai Dinh Pagoda

Bai Dinh Pagoda is a Buddhist complex located on Bai Dinh mountain in Gia Sinh commune, Gia Vien district. Bai Dinh Pagoda is 5 kilometers to the Northwest from Hoa Lu Ancient Capital and 12 kilometers from Ninh Binh city. Bai Dinh Pagoda has an area of 539 hectares, including 27 hectares of the old Bai Dinh pagoda area, 80 hectares of the new Bai Dinh pagoda area. Bai Dinh Pagoda is a spiritual landscape located in the complex of Bai Dinh – Trang An eco-tourism area with a history of more than 1000 years associated with the land of many feudal dynasties from Dinh, Tien Le dynasties. The Ly Dynasty. As the largest Buddhist complex in Vietnam, Bai Dinh Pagoda attracts a massive number of Buddhist pilgrimages and tourists every year.

Bai Dinh Pagoda – peaceful gathering place

Bai Dinh Pagoda architecture

Bai Dinh Pagoda with classical architecture and massive works, this is a standard feature for ancient temple architecture in Vietnam. The roof of the main temple is extremely beautiful, including 3 poles and 12 curved roofs in the shape of a knife head, roofed with tiles in the shape of a traditional comedic nose. The steps are decorated in the style of the weather, the large stone yard looks directly down to the jade well.

The unique architecture of Bai Dinh pagoda

The new pagoda’s architecture highlights with large cubes marked architectural Vietnamese. The most difference in Bai Dinh Pagoda architectural is in dark roof of phoenix shape, it is not the same the pagoda in China. Especially, the detail also carries the famous traditional handicraft villages of Vietnam.

Bai Dinh Pagoda is a famous temple for its Asian and the region record.

Places to visit around Bai Dinh pagoda

Coming to Bai Dinh pagoda, visitors can prioritize to see the outstanding places around the temple along with mysterious legends.

The first is “The light cave, The dark cave’. Passing 300 stone steps up to the three-way gate, before turning into the gate, look to the side of the slope, there is a fork leading to the light and dark caves. Bright cave is a place to worship God and Buddha, as the name suggests, there is enough natural light, right outside the door there are statues of two majestic gods with fierce faces, deep inside is a place to worship Buddha. The cave is about 25m deep, 15m wide, about 2m high, going all the way to the end of the cave you will go to the sacred Cao Son temple.

The sacred beauty of light and dark cave

The dark side of the cave is arranged with a lighting system to create a quite fanciful scene, above the stalactites formed by underground water. The steps of the path are vividly decorated with winding dragons. In the middle, there is a natural water well that regulates the air, making visitors feel cool when entering the cave. Here, there are statues of mothers and fairies, many worshiping statues are placed deep in the rock nooks and have their own worshiping objects

The second attraction is “Temple of Thanh Nguyen”. Ly Quoc Su Nguyen Minh Khong is the founder of Bai Dinh Pagoda. He was a famous Zen master and shaman who was ordained as a National Master by the king and worshiped by the people as Saint Nguyen. The temple of Saint Nguyen is located right at the fork of the slope, built in the style of leaning against the mountain, in the temple there is a statue of him cast in bronze. The temple of Saint Nguyen is located right at the fork of the slope, built in the style of leaning against the mountain, in the temple there is a statue of him cast in bronze.

Temple of Thanh Nguyen in Ninh Binh Viet Nam

National Master Nguyen Minh Khong is a man with a map of the Ly Dynasty. He studied and collected folk medicine knowledge, daily found medicine in Sinh Duoc garden that became a famous physician, treated strange diseases for the King, collected and revived bronze casting – the quintessence of Eastern civilization. Son – ancient Vietnamese civilization that became the master of bronze casting. It was difficult for him to find a monk to learn the Way, to go from a monk from Trang An to the capital to become the National Master, to lead the ranks of monks and nuns in the country, and his fame and dharma reached its peak.

His behavior shows the atmosphere of Buddhism in the Ly period, which is mysterious, strange, full of myths, but has made a very positive contribution to the revival and development of Vietnamese national culture in many aspects: philosophy, literature, architecture, fine arts, industry … as the foundation for the development of Vietnamese culture later.

Next destination is “Ngoc Well”, The jade well of the ancient Bai Dinh pagoda is located near the foot of Bai Dinh mountain. Legend has it that this is the place where Zen master Ly Quoc Su and Nguyen Minh Khong took water to decoct medicine to cure diseases for people and cure diseases for King Ly Than Tong. The well was rebuilt in the shape of a moon, very wide, with a diameter of 30 m, a water depth of 6 m, never running out of water. Wellhead building stone railing. The land around the well is square, with an area of 6,000 m², the 4 corners are 4 octagonal floors. The Vietnam Book of Records Center granted the certificate “Confirming the record”: “Bai Dinh Pagoda is the temple with the largest well in Vietnam” on December 12, 2007.

The largest Ngoc well in Ninh Binh in Vietnam

The biggest Ngoc well in Ninh Binh in Vietnam

Last destination is “The Biggest bronze bell in Vietnam”, the general rose of Bai Dinh pagoda. According to the design, this bell weighs 36 tons, is 5.5m high, 3.7m in diameter, with a total cost of 4 billion VND.

Prominent in the bell tower is the largest Dai Hong Chung in Vietnam, weighing 36 tons of bronze, 5.5m high, made by a Hue artisan. The bell was cast in Hue, then took many days to be transported to Bai Dinh pagoda and placed in the bell tower.

The Biggest bronze bell in Vietnam

On the body of this largest bronze bell in Vietnam, there are many patterns and motifs simulated from ancient bells. Bai Dinh pagoda bell is used in chanting and worshiping. Around the bell body, there are many motifs and patterns, prominently the Chinese characters engraved with Buddhist themes. In which, the most special is the Great Compassion and Prajna Sutra in the Buddhist scriptures.

Some ancient dragons are also engraved on the bell body. This is an ancient dragon pattern in Vietnam.

When is the best time to travel to Bai Dinh Pagoda?

The most suitable time for Bai Dinh Pagoda trips is in spring (from January to March of the Lunar Year) when the weather is warm. Visitors can combine spring traveling, sightseeing, praying for luck in the temple and participating in big festivals in both Trang An and Bai Dinh.

The-largest-pagoda-in-Viet-Nam

However, this time is the peak of festival tourist season, so there are a huge number of visitors, which leads to overload and overcrowding. Therefore, if any visitors do not like the situations, they can travel to Bai Dinh at another time in the year.

Basic information about Bai Dinh Pagoda

About entrance fee: Tourists are no need to pay the entrance fee but as the Bai Dinh Pagoda’s campus is so large, visitors can use electric cars to up to the pagoda if they do not have much time.

The fee for one turn of using electric cars is 30,000 VND per capita (about 1.3 USD for each person) in the area of Bai Dinh Pagoda.

Bai Dinh Pagoda opening hours: from 7 a.m to 6 p.m everyday. Visitors can come anytime during these hours.

How to get to Bai Dinh Pagoda?

Depending on your personal preferences, you can start the Bai Dinh Pagoda tour on your own or go on a tour with Smile Travel, or you can also travel by bus or limousine.

Let’s come with Smile Travel to experience these beautiful places!

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Tour 2D/1N Hanoi- Trang An – Bai Dinh Pagoda-Tam Coc With Smile Travel

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