The temple owns the oldest, largest and most unique heritages in Vietnam and the world.

Bo Da Pagoda (Viet Yen, Bac Giang) not only has a unique and distinctive architecture, but also has the largest tower garden in Vietnam. The most prominent feature is that this ancient temple, which has been recognized as a special National Monument, also preserves the world's oldest Buddhist wooden blocks.

Located majestically on Bo Da mountain range in Tien Son commune, Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province, Bo Da Pagoda is not only one of the major Buddhist centers of Vietnam but also a complex of relics with extremely valuable historical, architectural and artistic values, honored as a special national relic since 2016.

In particular, this ancient temple also contains unparalleled treasures, the most prominent of which are the world's oldest Buddhist woodblocks and the most unique giant tower garden in Vietnam.

With its special typical value, the historical and architectural relic of Bo Da Pagoda (Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province) was ranked as a special national relic by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 2499 dated December 22, 2016. Currently, Bo Da Pagoda still has many valuable documents, artifacts, and antiques of great value in terms of culture, history, architecture, and fine arts.

Built during the reign of King Le Hien Tong, Canh Hung era (1740-1786) by the founder of the Ngo family, whose given name is Tinh Anh, and the local people, the difference between Bo Da Pagoda and many other traditional pagodas in the North is the "inner open, outer closed" architecture that not only creates a quiet, deserted and sacred look but also demonstrates the intelligence in the spatial layout, helping people to move between buildings without being affected by the weather.

The harmonious architectural layout system is built with unique materials: baked bricks, tiles, and ceramic urns.

The walls, gates and some other structures were built entirely of rammed earth in the rammed earth style.

One of the most impressive highlights at Bo Da Pagoda is the Tower Garden, considered the oldest, moss-covered and largest tower garden in Vietnam. With an area of ​​nearly 8,000 square meters, the garden includes 110 large and small towers and tombs, including 97 ancient towers hundreds of years old, which are where the ashes of more than 1,200 Buddhist monks and nuns of the Lam Te Zen sect are kept throughout history.

Each tower is built according to strict Zen regulations, with the monk tower shaped like a vase of nectar and the nun tower with a lotus bud on top, creating a quiet, peaceful and sacred space.

Each tower holds 4-26 bodies; most of the towers in the garden are 3-4 stories high, 3-5 m high, the ancestral towers are taller and wider.

The most prominent among the treasure trove of artifacts at Bo Da Pagoda is the oldest Buddhist woodblock in Vietnam, carved on rosewood around 1741. This is an extremely valuable Buddhist document, carrying the thoughts of two major Buddhist sects, India and China, with more than 2,000 woodblocks of sutras such as the main Shurangama Sutra, the Yết ma hội bản, the Nam hai ky quy...

The sutras are arranged on 8 shelves, each shelf has 4 volumes of sutras consisting of 240 wooden planks, a total of about 2,000 planks. Each wooden plank used to carve the sutras is on average 50 cm long, 25 cm wide and about 2.5 cm thick. If you want to see the entire collection of ancient sutras here, you need a land area of ​​250-300 m² to spread out the planks. On December 25, 2017, the Bo Pagoda Woodblocks were recognized as a national treasure.

After nearly 300 years, the sutras are still quite intact. In particular, the wood blocks used to engrave the sutras are very durable, beautiful, and termite-free, even without using any preservatives. On May 7, 2016, the Vietnam Records Organization confirmed the record of the Buddhist sutra woodblocks at Bo Da Pagoda of the Lam Te Zen sect carved on the oldest wood block in Vietnam. On April 30, 2017, in San Diego, USA; World Records Union (Worldkings) confirmed the record of the Buddhist sutra woodblocks at Bo Da Pagoda as the oldest woodblocks of the Lam Te Zen sect carved on the oldest wood block of the Buddhist sutras in the world.

Besides the tower garden and Buddhist scripture woodblocks, Bo Da Pagoda also preserves many other valuable artifacts such as 39 wooden statues from the Le Trung Hung period with high historical and artistic value, a fairly complete system of wooden Buddha statues from the Le dynasty, stone steles, bronze bells, horizontal lacquered boards, and parallel sentences gilded with splendid gold.

The Buddha statues of Bo Da Pagoda not only have historical value in the development of Buddhism and the Truc Lam Zen sect, but are also rich works of sculptural art.

Precious Buddha statues in Bo Da Pagoda.

The temple garden is planted with traditional fruit trees and seasonal crops. A moat (2 m wide x 1.5 m deep) is dug around it to both drain water and protect it. In addition to the material value of the relic, the Bo Da temple garden has long been a center of religious activities for the people. In the garden, there is also an ancient myrtle tree that has been recognized as a Vietnamese Heritage Tree.

With all its special values ​​in history, architecture, art and culture, Bo Da Pagoda is not only an important spiritual destination but also a treasure of national and world heritage, contributing to the glory of Vietnamese Buddhist culture.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/ngoi-chua-so-huu-nhung-di-san-co-nhat-lon-nhat-doc-dao-nhat-viet-nam-2411938.html