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LAC LONG QUAN - AU CO

An old pagoda whose walls have tales to tell

Legend of Lac Long Quan
Legend has it that Lac Long Quan (King Dragon of the Land of Lac) was the son and sole successor of King Duong, the first king of the country then called Xich Quy (Red Devil). Lac Long Quan’s wife, Au Co, gave birth to a sac containing 100 eggs from which 100 babies, all male, were born.
One day Lac Long Quan told Au Co: “I am descended from dragons, you from fairies. We are as incompatible as water is with fire. So we cannot continue in harmony.” This said, the husband and wife parted. The man went seawards with 50 of their children, while his wife went to the mountains with the other half of the clan.
The eldest son, who followed his mother, later installed himself as Vietnam’s first monarch, Kinh Hung.

For more than 100 years, Giac Lam Pagoda in HCM City’s Tan Binh District has been a centre of Buddhist learning.
It is a tranquil place, where weary and harried soul can escape the bustling commerce of Lac Long Quan Street outside.
But it hasn’t always been so. Famous as a hiding place for persecuted revolutionaries during the American and French wars, the pagoda has suffered its fair share of trials and tribulations.
One senior monk got a 20-year prison sentence for his collaboration with the freedom fighters.
But at other times, scholars and aesthetes have had the time and space to decorate and beautify this remarkable temple, sharing its singular ambience.
Yet despite the pagoda’s participation in the ups and downs of Vietnamese history, its many statues of Buddha have a far-off look in their eyes.
It’s as though their gaze ranges beyond the horizon of the temporal and ethereal, fixed on the everlasting past and future.
What have those eyes witnessed? The kaleidoscope of history. The pagoda, the oldest in the city, it a melting pot of all the influences that have helped share Vietnamese culture: Chinese, Khmer and Indian.
Yet now, both its architecture and culture are quintessentially Vietnamese, representing the essence of the Buddhist tradition and the southern culture.
The history of the pagoda starts with the history of Buddhism in the south.
When the Vietnamese began migrating south in the 16^th century, with them came refugees from China’s Qing Dynasty, including two Buddhist monks, Thien Su and Nguyen Trieu.
They immediately realized that the bountiful lands could also prove fertile ground for Buddhism to flourish, and began building pagodas along the Dong Nai River.
But several hundred years were to pass until Giac Lam was built. It was erected in 1744, and its hilltop location led it to be christened “Son Can” or “Cam Dien”.
In 1772, the pagoda came under the auspices of Superior Monk Vien Quang. He renamed it Giac Lam and devoted his life to turning the pagoda into a centre for Buddhism studies in the south.
Nowadays, the pagoda has a solemn yet tranquil atmosphere, which strikes visitors the moment they step through the Nhi Quan Gate, built in 1938 and flanked by two lions.
The gate reflects the pagoda’s path work history. It mixes Indian influences, a Khmer, Nagar built snake head, and western-style square poles, and is quite different from the pagoda’s interior.
The high newly-painted obelisk at the left hand side doesn’t distract visitors from the old bo tree in the front yard, which stands in front of the modest temple.
The temple consists of a sanctum, auditorium and refectory. To one side is a small cemetery commemorating the patriotism of the monks who hid revolutionaries from the clutches of the enemy.
During the French and American wars, the monks here formed the Buddhist Association for national Salvation (BANS), recalls Superior Monk Thich Hue Xuong.
Many of the small statues in the pagoda were brought along by the Chinese monks when they migrated to the south almost 300 years ago.
Again, many cultural influences are apparent, particularly Chinese, reflecting their integral role in bringing Buddhism to the south.
After two renovations, the second from 1906-09, the pagoda became more and more popular for Buddhists in the country.
Superior Hong Hung, who was not only a Buddhist intellectual but also a design aesthete, bought china plates with designs in white and blue enamel from Lai Thieu and Binh Duong to cement into the pagoda’s wall in 1938. These plates are still there, well-preserved despite the heat and heavy rains of the south.
Giac Lam Pagoda is also known as an ancestral temple, where the patriarchs of the Lam Te branch of the southern Bon Nguon family are venerated. Five pictures of leading patriarchs and ancestral tablets sit on the altar near the Buddha statues.
Even though it is quite far away from the city centre, Buddhists monks, nuns and followers still gather every Sunday, as it has been for many years.

Lac Long Quan Street

Running by the pagoda is a busy commercial street, packed with retailers of wooden furniture and consumer goods.
The hustle and bustle betrays nothing of the street’s origins as a marshy scrubland.
In 1865, there was nothing but a village to mark the area. The French colonialists, however, named the village road Provincial Road No.16, and things began to happen, as a rustic hamlet became a stopping point on an increasingly busy road.
In 1955, the Saigon administration renamed the road Lac Long Quan Street. The long two-way street runs from Tan Hoa Street in District 11 to Cach Mang Thang Tam in Tan Binh District.
It is no longer a quiet or countryfied street, deluged from morning to night by the busy traffic of human life and commerce.
When it all becomes too much, at least the tranquil haven of Giac Lam is near at hand. – VNS