Bà Ngô Pagoda

Bà Ngô Pagoda is an ancient pagoda in Hà Nội, dating from the reign of King Lý Nhân Tông, with the formal name Ngọc Hồ tự, that is, Ngọc Hồ Pagoda. It is currently located at 128 Nguyễn Khuyến Street, Văn Miếu Ward, Hà Nội. The French used to call it Sinh Từ Pagoda, as it was situated on Sinh Từ Street.

Over nearly 900 years of existence, Bà Ngô Pagoda has preserved many stone steles, parallel sentences, and a large quantity of relics in various forms such as imperial thrones, ancestral tablets, ritual objects, etc. The pagoda is a beautiful and unique religious architecture associated with many legends and figures throughout the development of Thăng Long - Hà Nội's history.

According to the book Thăng Long cổ tích khảo, the pagoda was built during the reign of King Lý Nhân Tông (around 1127–1128). Another book, "La thành cổ tích vịnh", states that there was originally a mound here shaped like a wine gourd (tửu hồ), and in the 8th year of Kiến Gia (1281), Lý Huệ Tông had Ngọc Hồ Pagoda (meaning 'jade gourd', beautiful and precious as jade) erected on the mound. Local people have another explanation: the pagoda originally had a very clear well that never dried up, considered the purest of offerings to the Three Jewels (Tam Bảo). The well was protected as a treasure, built and covered, and is now located below the pagoda's tam quan (three-entrance gate), regarded as a vessel of pure water, as precious as jade, hence the pagoda's name.

According to the same book, during the Lê dynasty, a beautiful woman married a wealthy Chinese merchant and spent her own money to rebuild the pagoda, making it larger and more beautiful than before. Thus, it became known as Bà Ngô (Ngô Khách) Pagoda. The pagoda has been repaired and renovated many times over the years. According to the Ngọc Hồ tự stele inscription erected in the 17th year of Tự Đức, it records: In the year Tân Dậu (1861), the five-bay ancestral house was rebuilt; in the years Nhâm Tuất (1862), Quý Hợi (1863), Giáp Tý (1864), Ất Sửu (1865), statues were modelled, bells cast, and minor repairs made.

In the year Ất Hợi (under Emperor Bảo Đại, i.e. 1935), the pagoda underwent major repairs, commemorated in a parallel sentence (rough translation): "The month when Bà Ngô repaired it is forgotten, only the year of Bảo Đại's completion is remembered." After this renovation, the pagoda took on its present appearance, with all the architectural features of a Buddhist temple: tam quan, front hall, rear hall, ancestral house, Mother Goddess hall, and many precious relics and ritual objects.

Legend has it that: once, Lê Thánh Tông visited the pagoda and saw the shadow of a beautiful woman on the bell tower reciting two verses:

Here, I cherish the scenery and the master,

Though I delight in the Buddhist path, my heart is not yet at peace.

Another version says the king saw a beautiful young woman holding a peony branch, reciting the following lines:

Bà Ngô's scenery is so lovely,

Who can sever this sorrow completely?

When I return to the imperial palace,

I shall reveal my heart's feelings.

The king approached her for conversation and wished to compose poetry together. She let the king begin, using her two lines as the theme. The king composed a regulated verse as follows:

"Reflecting on worldly fate, how laughable it is,

Form and emptiness, though Buddha, are but human hearts,

A single strike of the bell disperses mundane thoughts,

The butterfly soul drifts through five watches, lost in the world,

The sea of love, a thousand layers, cannot be drained,

The source of grace, ten thousand fathoms, has not yet run dry.

Where, where is the Pure Land to be found?

The Pure Land is right here, plain to see."

She immediately replied: "The two middle lines and the argument lack meaning and are not yet elegant, so they should be changed to:

Pine winds carry the sutra, dispersing mundane thoughts,

The butterfly soul dreams of immortals, lost in the world."

The king was greatly impressed and invited her to ride in his palanquin to the palace, but at the Đại Hưng gate she vanished. The king believed she was an immortal descended to earth and built the Vọng Tiên Pavilion there in her memory.

One night, the king dreamed that the Immortal appeared to confide in him, saying that the recent epidemics in the capital were caused by a Stone Spirit (Thạch tinh) beneath the pond in front of the shrine, which had transformed into a chicken and was causing mischief throughout the capital. It must be destroyed immediately to prevent future disaster. Upon waking, the king ordered the centre of the pond in front of the shrine to be dug three thước deep; the earth was red as blood, and a stone was found. It was smashed and thrown into the river, and the pond was filled in. From then on, the capital was peaceful.

Bà Ngô Pagoda is also the setting for the story of Tú-Uyên meeting Giáng-Kiều in the narrative poem Bích Câu kỳ ngộ. The poor scholar Trần Tú Uyên once attended a Buddhist festival at Ngọc Hồ Pagoda:

At Ngọc Hồ, a chay tăng festival,

The Buddhist scene resounds, the spring festival is lively.

Talented men and beautiful women throng,

Horses and carriages crowd, few are absent.

At dusk, as he was about to leave, Tú Uyên picked up a 'pink leaf' inscribed with a verse. As he was about to compose a reply, he saw a stunning young woman at the tam quan gate, followed her, but at Quảng Văn Communal House she suddenly vanished, leaving him lovesick and sorrowful.

The above legends were versified by Trần Bá Lãm (1757–1815), Doctor of the Đinh Mùi examination (1787), as follows:

Ode to Ngọc Hồ Pagoda

The land is not Penglai, yet immortals hide,

By the flowers, the sound of bracelets echoes.

Outside Đại Hưng gate, the immortal's trace is faint,

Hard to find the Peach Blossom Spring, to meet old fate.

Translation:

The land is not Penglai, yet immortals dwell,

By the flowers, the sound of bracelets rings.

Outside Đại Hưng gate, the immortal's trace is faint,

Hard to find the Peach Blossom Spring, to meet old fate.

The tam quan (three-entrance gate) of the pagoda is a two-storey bell tower with eight roofs and eight curved corners. A bronze bell cast in the year Canh Dần, the 2nd year of Thành Thái (1887), hangs in the centre of the tam quan, inscribed with "Ngọc Hồ tự chung" (Ngọc Hồ Pagoda bell). The Buddha hall consists of a front hall and a rear sanctuary built in the shape of the Chinese character "đinh 丁". The inner porch of the front hall is vaulted, expanded by a crab-shell truss, a rare architectural style in the North, only seen in Hội An and Huế, with both ends built in the style of a music pavilion. The four-bay rear sanctuary has many carved archways. The ancestral house, besides two altars to the patriarch Bodhidharma and the pagoda's deceased patriarchs, also has an altar to Văn Xương.

The Mother Goddess hall (Điện Mẫu) worships the Mother Goddesses, the Jade Emperor, and King Lê Thánh Tông seated on a dragon throne. On either side are altars to Saint Trần Hưng Đạo and his two generals, Yết Kiêu and Dã Tượng. The pagoda currently has 35 statues arranged along the Buddha hall. Besides statues such as the Three Worlds, Amitābha Trinity, Thousand-Armed Thousand-Eyed Avalokiteśvara, Jade Emperor, Nam Tào, Bắc Đẩu, there are also the Ten Kings of Hell and a statue of Bà Ngô dressed similarly to a Mother Goddess statue. The patriarch statues bear many portrait features of female monks...

Notably, on either side of the main gate are parallel sentences in chữ Nôm, a very rare feature among pagodas in Hà Nội. The couplet reads:

"The business of life is like firewood and rice, quickly given as offerings, hoping for a full measure of blessings;

In the city, this is also a fairyland, come to the pagoda to worship Buddha, see who cherishes the ancient temple."

Bà Ngô Pagoda was recognised as a "classified historic site" on 7 August 1951 by decision of the Director of the National Department for the Preservation of Historic Sites. The pagoda was recognised by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as a historical and cultural monument in 1993.