Giac Lam is one of the oldest Buddhist pagodas in Ho Chi Minh City, which is located on Lac Long Quan road, Tan Binh district...
Giac Lam is one of the oldest Buddhist pagodas in Ho Chi Minh City, which is located on Lac Long Quan road, Tan Binh district.
In 1744, Ly Thuy Long initiated a campaign to donate to the construction of the pagoda. Later, the pagoda underwent repair several times. In particular, the repairs in 1804 and 1909 were carried out under the super- vision of senior monks (the most venerable).
The pagoda has a rectangular shape, a length of 65 metres and a width of 22 metres. It has three constructions: the Ceremonial Hall, the Lecture Hall, and the Service Hall. It has 98 columns and contains 113 old statues, among which five are bronze; a Maitreya statue, Arhat statues, and many parallel sentences directly inscribed on the columns.
There is in the pagoda a site of stupas dedicated to the deceased monks. A big bodhi tree grows in the court-yard, which is a present from the Senior monk Narada in Sri Lanka (1953).
The Ngu gia tong phai stupa (5 sub-sects of the Dzen Sect), which was built in 1970, has a hexagonal base, seven storeys, each storey having a tiled roof and an entrance.
