Ha Tien Ten Sceneries: Thach Dong Village Scenic Area

Hypothesis about the temple

"The devil manifests his spirit and creates a building/ Clusters of trees and rocks hide the immortals/ The cave is deep and dark, clouds gather/ The wide door quietly lets the wind blow through" . Those are 4 lines in the poem Thach Dong village cloud by General Mac Thien Tich, describing the scene of Thach Dong, one of the 10 scenic spots of Ha Tien.

More than 65 years ago, in the book Ha Tien Thap Canh , poet Dong Ho praised Thach Dong for being strange in that there was only one independent green stone mountain "competing" in the middle of a land area "while the inside of the mountain was vast and spacious, with two doors, enough for the sky to shine, just like a palace scene". However, he also criticized the artificial part for ruining the natural part: "The wooden temple, roofed with tiles right in the middle of the cave, has made the Thach Dong scene much less beautiful. If there were no temple, we would see the vast stone cave, surrounded by curved cliffs, in the middle there was a space open to the sky, the sunlight shining on the stalactites, worthy of being a cluster of trees and rocks marking the ancestors".

The pagoda mentioned by poet Dong Ho is Tien Son Pagoda. An article in Pho Thong magazine (March 31, 1959) said that the road to Thach Dong was the work of Venerable Trinh Kim Hue, abbot of Tien Son Pagoda, built in the 1950s. Right at the beginning of the road is a temple to worship the Well God, called "Tinh Than Mieu", with moss-covered tiled roofs and cracked walls. The temple is dilapidated and looks desolate. The upper part of Thach Dong mountain is made of rocks that fit together tightly, while the lower part is split into two, forming a triangle, similar to a giant rock mouth. This rock mouth is also the temple gate, with a signboard that reads "Tien Son Dong".

Hà Tiên thập cảnh: Thắng cảnh Thạch Động thôn vân- Ảnh 1. — Thach Dong is a green stone mountain, surrounded by rice fields.

Hà Tiên thập cảnh: Thắng cảnh Thạch Động thôn vân- Ảnh 2. — Thach Dong has many very narrow open caves.

Hà Tiên thập cảnh: Thắng cảnh Thạch Động thôn vân- Ảnh 3. — The way to Tien Son Pagoda

Hà Tiên thập cảnh: Thắng cảnh Thạch Động thôn vân- Ảnh 4. — Tien Son Pagoda

Tien Son Pagoda has a long history. The Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi book records that Bach Van Pagoda on Thach Dong Mountain was originally founded by the wealthy Minh Huong man named Doan Tan. In the 7th year of Thieu Tri (1847), Governor Phan Tong restored it... Another document states that in 1790, a Chinese monk named Minh Duong came to Thach Dong Cave and established a hermitage called Bach Van Am to practice. It is not clear which year he handed the hermitage over to his disciples and went to establish another temple on Dia Tang Mountain.

According to an article in Pho Thong magazine, in 1959, there was an old tower at the foot of the mountain, the remaining relic of Dia Tang pagoda which was burned down in 1945. The author recorded according to the story of monk Trinh Kim Hue that the first abbot of Tien Son pagoda was Venerable Chanh Qua. When he passed away, Venerable Thien Sy succeeded him. The monk was the one who renovated and expanded the pagoda and renamed Bach Van hermitage Tien Son Tu. Venerable Thien Sy was the abbot here for 28 years; after his death, his remains were buried at the foot of the mountain.

Yin and Yang Pits and Fairy Tales

Thach Dong Mountain has two levels connected by caves, following the caves there is a path leading up to the top. Standing there, you can see the clouds drifting across the mountain and admire the surrounding scenery at the foot of the mountain. Thach Dong used to have two caves called "the way to heaven" and "the way down to the water palace", which is said to come from two lines of poetry: "Suddenly starting from the flat land/ The void connects to the far sky" . These caves are also called the yin hole and the yang hole, located in the main hall area of Tien Son Pagoda today.

Legend has it that in ancient times there was a cave with a very deep mouth, called "Fairy Well" or "The Way Down to the Water Palace". Many people who explored the cave went down there but never returned. People took a dry coconut, carved words as a mark, and threw it down the cave. Not long after, someone found that coconut floating at sea.

Hà Tiên thập cảnh: Thắng cảnh Thạch Động thôn vân- Ảnh 5. — Eagle under the old tree

Hà Tiên thập cảnh: Thắng cảnh Thạch Động thôn vân- Ảnh 6. — The road to heaven

Hà Tiên thập cảnh: Thắng cảnh Thạch Động thôn vân- Ảnh 7. — Fairy Well, the way down to the aquarium

There was another thrilling story published in Tan Van newspaper (November 3, 1934) that, in the early 20th century, French soldiers tied 4 prisoners sentenced to death to a long rope and slowly lowered them into the cave, but all of them disappeared. Then, people dropped 3 more coconuts. The first one was tied to a 40-meter-long rope, the second 80 meters, and the third 160 meters, but they still did not reach the bottom. Finally, people dropped 50 coconuts with the words "Tien Son Dong" engraved on them, but they also disappeared. The article also speculated that the hole could have been filled in before 1934.

At the current location of the "road to heaven", there is an explanatory board designed like a book mounted on the cliff, summarizing the story of the eagle carrying Princess Quynh Nga into the cave in the fairy tale Thach Sanh - Ly Thong. The "road to heaven" is more than 1 meter wide, a rock crevice opening to the top of the mountain. The higher it goes, the narrower it gets and there are many bats, which can still be seen flying back and forth during the day. In addition, in the cave there is also a "Fairy well" or "road to the underwater palace". The Fairy well is explained as the entrance to a very deep and narrow cave system, extending all the way to the Gulf of Thailand. This is where Thach Sanh went down to the underwater palace to save Princess Quynh Nga and met the Water King.

On the second floor there is a stalactite shaped like an open-mouthed eagle's head. To the west of Thach Dong there are 5 large and 5 small stones lying close together, below there is a naturally created courtyard, legend says this is where Thach Sanh killed the eagle spirit.

Nowadays, on one side of the cave, people have built a cement eagle standing under an ancient banyan tree clinging to the cliff, its roots hanging down. The eagle has a wingspan of about 4 meters, its claws raised, painted and decorated for tourists to take pictures. From this angle, you can look out at the streets and roads of Ha Tien town and see the sea in the distance. (to be continued)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ha-tien-thap-canh-thang-canh-thach-dong-thon-van-185250922220435534.htm