TAY PHUONG PAGODA ARCHITECTURAL AND ARTISTIC RELIC

Tay Phuong Pagoda, whose Chinese name is Sung Phuc Tu, is located on Cau Lau Mountain, in Yen village, Thach Xa commune, Thach That district. For a long time, this temple has been famous as a famous monument in the region, which was decided by the Prime Minister as a special national architectural and artistic monument in 2015.

Based on ancient bibliographies, Tay Phuong Mountain is also known as Cau Lau Mountain. Đại Nam nhất thống chí wrote: “Tay Phuong Mountain is located 3 miles from Thach That district to the south, named Cau Lau mountain, the district town is located at the foot of the mountain. Cau Mau mountain had a type of buffaloes diving in the water and often going onshore to fight each other, then going to water again”. The researchers said that in the minds of Vietnamese people, this is called Buffalo Mount - ancient pronunciation was Klau, then gradually transcribed into Cau Lau.

According to the conception of feng shui, from Cau Mau peak to the southeast of Ba Vi mountain range, there is a mountain range running along the direction of Quoc Oai district, which looks like a herd of buffaloes, turning to the east, looking to Dong Song mound and Kim Quy mound (Nu Rua mountain), the West has Tich Giang river, the South has Con Voi mountain (Can Kiem commune), the Southeast has Ly Ngu mountain, the Northwest has Ba Vi peak. Thus, it can be considered that Tay Phuong pagoda was located in the position of "ngưu tượng hợp quần, lý ngư vọng nguyệt" (elephants, buffaloes gather, carp looks the moon).

There is also a legend that, around 864-868, Tang's governor Cao Bien went to Tay Phuong mountain to discover the leylines in this area and said that if they kept their leylines, a king would be born. He immediately bewitched but still had to say: "The spirit of the South could not be measured, if we stay a long time here, we will receive disasters", so he built a temple to cut the leylines and restraint the talented people in the sacared land, spreading superstition for everyone. But with the spirit of independence and autonomy of the people, the resistance of the people, Cao Bien did not realize his intention.

According to some scholars' study, the year of Tiger (1554) of Mac Phuc Nguyen (1547-1561) Quang Bao's first year, Tay Phuong pagoda was made to the present scale. Year of the Rat, under the reign of Le Than Tong, Vinh Tho the third year (1660), Lord Tay Vuong Trinh Tac (1657-1682) came here and saw the solemn and beautiful pagoda so he had it repaired and made a three-door gate. During the reign of King Le Huy Tong, Vinh Huu, Uy Vuong Trinh Giang had it repaired and additionally sculpted at the same scale to the present day.

Tay Phuong Pagoda worships Buddha according to the branch Tinh - Thien. The doctrine of this branch takes Tin-Nguyen-Hanh as a method of practice and meditation to keep the mind at peace in order to rebirth to western ecstasy of Amitabha Buddha. The history of this pagoda is associated with the history of the spread of Buddhism into our country.

Experiencing many ups and downs of history, the current architectural appearance of the pagoda still retains its appearance and layout from Le Dynasty, and has been greatly renovated in the following periods with the following items: Outter (lower) three-door gate,  inner (upper) three-door gate, temple, Tien Duong, Trung Duong, Thuong Dien, Nha To - Nha Mau and guest house.

Outter three-door gate (also known as lower three-door gate)

The first item is the Outter three-door gate located close to the foot of the mountain, including 4 pillars in three-door gate style like that of Lang pagoda (Dong Da district). The two pillars has protruding center, the tops of the pillars are covered with four phoenixes, the bottoms are the lanterns; the bodies of the pillars have the threads, the stands are tied. The other two pillars are similar in structure, but the tops are covered with lotus buds. The whole 3 sides are left blank, the front has a Chinese couplet. Above the beams of the three doors are facing the roof radiating four sides with the soft blades, like a hammock swaying to welcome visitors to the western realms of ecstasy.

Inner three-door gate (also called upper three-door gate)

Through the Lower three-door gate, follow a long way to the upper three-door gate. Previously, the road to the pagoda was made of small and large natural stones, but each emotional step as if walking on the smooth flow of tradition, Buddhists gradually went away from the mundane world to integrate themselves into the sacred realm. Currently, this entrance has been rebuilt with beestone steps. The two sides of the walkway, bamboo - apricot - reed and some natural trees all green  year round. The mountain is low so the pagoda is on the top but not far from the people, making the pilgrims' souls on the land of Buddha feel the mundane world and still near their life. After 238 beestone steps, there were several floor landings, leading to the gate of the upper three-door gate, the middle door has a big board of Chinese characters: “西方古寺 – The Old Tay Phuong Pagoda”.

Temple of Mountain God (Duc Ong Temple)

The temple is on the left side of the pagoda, separate from the main pagoda area. The temple is a small, low house with 4 compartments, both playing the role of Mountain God temple and the place to worship Duc Ong. The temple was built in the style of tien dao hau doc, roofed with ri tile. The building has 12 ironwood columns with small size. Structure of roof trusses is simple style "keo ke". Due to the arrangement of the altar along the house, the main direction to the yard to has a small auxiliary roof with two curved heads, the plastered limestone bank running down and curved up at the top of the blade in the twisted pattern. Two outside compartments are connected, have incense table and some worshiping objects. Two compartments have statues and the altar of Mountain God, left and right sides are two assistants with horizontal lacquered boards, couplets and eight weapons.

Main pagoda

The main pagoda has three buildings running in parallel, the front building and 05 compartments in the back, 03 compartments in the middle, the layout of the shape of the word Tam (三) including Tien Duong, Trung Duong and Thuong Dien, also known as Thuong Pagoda, Trung Pagoda and Ha pagoda. This is a unique creation, an innovative direction in tradition. In terms of date, the pagoda was restored many times in 1632, 1690, 1735, 1740 ... the pagoda today is a product of the Tay Son period with a specific age of 1794, almost similar to Kim Lien pagoda next to West Lake built in 1792. The important Sino Nom texts in the pagoda are ancient stone steles, the earliest was recorded in the 4th year of Duc Long (1632), in addition, there is a bronze bell hanging near the roof of Ha Pagoda, written by Phan Huy Ich.

The three main items of Tay Phuong pagoda are composed of "chong diem" structure, with two floors with eighth roofs and the upper floor is smaller. The gap between the two floors is the neck of "diem", completely sealed with boards, giving the inside a clear space. In the three items, the middle court is a bit taller and wider, breaking the monotonous repetition but still closely unified, it looks soft, gentle and steady.

To ensure that the pagoda roof is flat, creating good conditions for the drainage, the system of rafters supporting the tiles is done very carefully, all the rafters are planed, fitted with joints forming regular squares. All three pagodas are covered with large shoe toe-shaped tiles, underneath has a layer of multicolored tiles. The ancients used here 5 alternating colors: red, green, blue, yellow and white. The use of five-color tiles here is both decorative for the inside of the temple roof, and has a Buddhist meaning, it symbolizes the robes, is 5 colors of the pure lotus. This is a unique feature of Tay Phuong pagoda roof structure that is not found in other pagodas.

The upper part of the two roof layers, the ridges, strips and guot embankments covered with mortar and moss have created the color of time to increase the ancient age of the pagoda. Looking diagonally on the side, the walls and the roof of the pagoda look crowded, the finity suggests infinity. With the blade flower system, the heads of dragons and unicorns on the banks of the strip seem to be in a race, the tips of the leaf-shaped tiles are undulating like the swirling water waves. The arrays, building blocks were the decorations, graved plates the outside of the roof and tips are embossed, cham long (carved in a perforated manner to leave the decorative shapes), bong kenh (is a type of chisel with a very deep chisel line) in consistent, soft, elegant and outstanding decorating themes. Especially in the air outlets in two buildings Tien Duong and Thuong Dien have emphasized multi-side leaf theme, and that of Trung Dien is tiger-faced design. These themes are repeated many times in the interior of the monument.

If the image in the roof is somewhat lively, the wall is still, standing upright, the walls of the monument are made of Bat Trang bricks that are dark red, not plastered, with thick mortar joints curved. A very creative feature is that between the square and rectangular wall panels, there is a circular door, in the center of the window, there are 04 circles creating equal rims, along the longitudinal section, every solid half is accompanied by a hollow half, that is the combination of yin and yang, between nothingness and reality, forming a perfect structure, attached to the Buddhist thought called Rupa and Sunyata. 

With an ancient “co diem” structure, the interior space is connected from the floor to the roof. All the main pillars and secondary pillars of Tay Phuong pagoda are listed on the big foot of Yin-Yang stone on the lotus-shaped carvings, confirming the development in the elegant Buddha land. The pillars mounted on the rafters are also placed on round lotus-shaped pedestal. The pillars supporting the beams are carved with lotus. The girders in the roof overlap and overlap on the tie-beam are also placed on lotus-shaped pedestal. The system of architectural components and lotus decoration themes in Tay Phuong pagoda is very rich, deeply affirming the nature of Buddha land. The carved part on the layout of the decorative art is the strips on the non-bearing boards: The edge of “soi”leaf transits the row of water-drop tiles into the blade, in each “soi”leaf in Tien Duong and Thuong Dien is multi-lobed leaves, and in Trung Dien, it is tiger-faced design; planks connecting the columns to the three-storey system, alternating with the shape of multi-lobed leaves with twisted patterns signifying the prosperity in Tien Duong and Thuong Dien, or the dragon and phoenix in Trung Dien. If the dragon and phoenix manifest the heaven, then the multi-lobed leaves like papaya leaves, castor leaves or wootung leaves suggest the full and prosperous community life.

From the layout of 03 buildings, each building has 02 roof layers, each layer has 04 roofs... some people have thought of a three-factor universe (Heaven - Earth - Human). Heaven - the dominant, in the center (middle) is made a little higher; Earth - in the background; Human - close to human life and placed ahead. At the same time, people also thought: each building seems to represent a movement of yin and yang to treat all beings, all things, that: the whole building represents the extremes, the two roof layers represent Heaven and earth (heavy yin - lower roof, light yang - upper roof). Four sides mean the Four Symbols (front - sun, back side - moon, right side - thieu am, left side - thieu duong). Eight is the roof symbolizing the Eight-sign figure (Kien, Kham, Con, Chan, Ton, Ly, Khon, Doai...) with the development of the Heaven and earth, the Four Symbols, the Eight-sign figure and the transformation.

Nha To - Nha Mau

Nha To - Nha Mau have three compartments two wings, constructed in the style of the word Nhi. The outside worships To, the inside worships Mau. The three middle compartments of Nha To have table doors, the two wings compartments have board doors. The roof beams and strings are replaced by “chong ruong” structure, the girders are decorated with flowers and stylized blades. At these four strings, people carved the plants with apricot, pine tree, daisy, bamboo, which are shown in the themes of apricot with bird, pine tree with peacock, daisy with butterfly, bamboo with crane...

Guest house

The guest house is an item on the right flank of the three buildings of Tien Duong, Trung Duong and Thuong Dien. This item has been recently rebuilt in recent years, with the function of serving visitors to rest when coming here. From the three main buildings, crossing the courtyard about 10 meters wide, visitors will see the guest house.