The pagoda is located in Nghi Tam (south-east of West Lake), Tay Ho district, Hanoi. According to historical records, it was part of the former Tu Hoa Palace where the daughter of King Ly Than Tong...
The pagoda is located in Nghi Tam (south-east of West Lake), Tay Ho district, Hanoi. According to historical records, it was part of the former Tu Hoa Palace where the daughter of King Ly Than Tong (12th century) and her royal maids grew mulberry for silk-production.
The pagoda was built in 1631 by Nguyen The Huu, a local inhabitant. In 1771 Lord Trinh Sam had the pagoda rebuilt and renamed it Kim Lien (Golden Lotus). It also underwent major repairs under the reign of Emperor Quang Trung.
The pagoda is a combination of Buddhist and Taoist arts, as evidence by three parallel buildings symbolizing the Sky, Earth, Humans, as well as windows representing the Buddhist concept of "existence and non-existence", which are surrounded by the Eight Trigrams of Taoism. This is the first Vietnamese pagoda the lay-out of which followers the Chinese character "Tam" . At the front is the Lower Pagoda followed by the Middle Pagoda, and at the back is the Upper Pagoda. Between the pagodas are spaces which are just large enough to provide light. The buildings have two-layer tiled roofs with an empty space between them, and curved roof comers.
Artifacts found at the pagoda include stone steles dating back to the reign of Thai Hoa, the U dynasty (1443-1445), big bricks and tiles of the 15th and 16th centuries, stone steles of the early 17th century, many Buddhist statues made over 200 years ago. Particularly, there is a statue which is bigger than
human size and dates over 200 years ago. Some people presume that this is the statue of Lord Trinh Sam.
