YÊN TU PAGODES

In a mountainous region, at more than 1,000 m above sea level (1,068 m above sea level for the Phu Vân peak which culminates in the north-east of Vietnam and which bears the Dông pagoda), the site of Yên Tu is a large Buddhist sanctuary which includes about ten pagodas that are spread out on the slopes of the massif.

In 1299, King Trân Nhân Tông (1258-1308) renounced the throne in favour of his son and retired to the slopes of Mount Yên Tu, in the Phu Vân pagoda, to live there as a hermit. He founded the sect Truc Lâm (Bamboo Forest). The site then became a major pilgrimage centre. The king rests today at the place where the ancestral Tower (Thap Tô) stands.

At the foot of the mountain, the bronze pagoda of Yên Tu (Thiên Truc Tu). This is a foundry. Pilgrims go there to transform gold and silver into Buddha statues to attract his favours.

The setting is magnificent and forested, crisscrossed by streams and waterfalls. The difficulties of the ascent were once part of the pilgrimage. Today, the site has been upgraded with the installation of a gondola lift and lighting systems. It is possible to travel only part of the way by gondola lift. Look out! The slopes are particularly slippery in rainy weather.

The site of Yên Tu reveals its beauty in a certain solitude or when it becomes the rallying point of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims - and tourists - coming from all over the country on the occasion of the festivals that open at the time of Têt, that is to say the 10th day of the first lunar month.