The great bell at the Định Hoá ATK (Safe Zone) three hours drive (130 klms) north off Hà Nội
This page leaves Hà Nội to go on three favourite day trips out of the city. Rather as castles dominate the mind of tourists in Scotland, so temples and pagodas ride high in Vietnam. Temples are secular and dedicated to famous persons, pagodas are Buddhist centres, a distinction drawn on a
previous page.
Sites such as these are often complicated affairs involving many buildings spread out over considerable areas. Below, the photographs are from two temples both dedicated to
Hồ Chí Minh,
one to the north, the Định Hoá ATK, and one in the Ba Vì National Park to the west of Hà Nội. As is common in Vietnam both these sites make use of somewhat literary introductions, quotations or proverbs. After those the photographs are from what is probably Vietnam's most famous pagoda. At the time of the early spring festival it is inundated with around 40,000 visitors a day - over a million a year have been recorded. All have to arrive by boats, usually rowed by local women.
First Site
The Định Hoá Security Zone (ATK).
The Định Hoá Security Zone is to the north of Ha Noi, and is where the Communist Party of Vietnam held a meeting in August 1945. Above, even today arriving at the meeting house is a low key affair
This is the (restored) pavilion where the original meetings to launch the campaign, to free Vietnam from French occupation, took place. The black stone says...
Presumably because it was their land the Plaque is headed Tân Trào Family
..."Here, on August 16 and 17, 1945, the National Congress met to pass an order for a general uprising to win major policies of the Việt Minh, forming the National Committee for the Liberation of Vietnam, a provisional government led by comrades. Hồ Chí Minh as president."
(Tourist Board Translation)
Now the pavilion is a temple and so an altar with a raised platform has been placed in it
ATK administrative building
Village by site
That proverb is emblazoned on the hillside below the main modern temple shown in the photographs below. These stairs lead up to that level
On the hillside of the main ATK site is this proverb: "Drinking water - remember [its] source" The benefits we enjoy are due to the work of others
And here is that temple. The whole site, which extends to many square kilometres, is generally known as the Định Hoá Safety Zone
The bell, seen at the top of the page, stands beside the
main temple building
The ATK bell, and its external wooden clapper
which is swung against it
The temple complex with the bell left of centre
Second Site
The Hồ Chí Minh Temple in
Ba Vì National Park.
On the end wall of the temple, a 'bronze drum' has this inscription in gold letters: "Vietnam is one, the Vietnamese people are one. Rivers may dry up, mountains may erode, but that truth never changes - President Hồ Chí Minh"
The second of the two temples shown on this page is in Ba Vì National Park about 40 kilometres to the west of Hà Nội. The temple is situated high up the 1,200 metre (4,000 foot) hills that compose the park, and accordingly, is often shrouded in cloud, as it is in these photographs. Above, the courtyard with its muted trees
From inside the main room looking out on the courtyard...
...and the temple's altar. Clouded by being in a cloud!
Third Site
The Chùa Hương - Perfume Pagoda, to the south-west of Hà Nội.
This short artificial river - the Suối Yến (Yen Stream) - is more like a rather grand canal. It takes visitors, through a karst landscape, the three kilometres from embarkation at Yến village, to the site of the Chùa Hương (Perfume Pagoda) and its many associated buildings
Transport along the lotus lined river is by metal rowing boats. Several can be seen in the distance...
...These are rowed by woman, who are happy, as in this case, to rest and let customers have a shot
"Tourist Diagram - Perfume Pagoda". A complex site of many buildings
some only accessible by boat
A second layer of roofing sits on top of the junction of other roofs giving this heaped up appearance
Being a pagoda, a Buddhist Centre, it has the relevant trappings - such as prayer flags hung from eves
Ever upwards, two roofs now have another on top of them.
Three roofs,
on this building just in from the main entrance - seen beyond. Right, another view showing its postion on the steps with guardian lamps
And familiar decorations on the roof corners, but here the
dragons
are stylised out of recognition
A small house in the grounds with potted trees and a meal mat -
go to a page
on mat meals
Four-part folding doors with carved lower,
and vented upper, panels
Vietnamese architecture in flamboyant mood
Trailers...
Leaving behind intricate Vietnamese architecture, the
next Picture Posting page
takes a leap around the world and back to southern Scotland and the Craik area.
The next page
of the Mosaic Section is headed 'Surplus-labour'.
Or go to the contents Go to the contents of the Mosaic Section. of the Mosaic Section.
The previous page went out to suburbs of Hà Nội
...guide to this site