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Monday, September 17, 2018

Sites - Vinh Trang Pagoda (Chùa Vĩnh Tràng) & Vinh Trang Park @ My Tho, Vietnam

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Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels

Vinh Trang Pagoda (Chùa Vĩnh Tràng) & Vinh Trang Park @ My Tho

My Tho, Vietnam - July 2018

Just on the outskirts of My Tho is a beautiful temple called the Vinh Trang Pagoda. But don't go looking for a tall pagoda, their is one here but it's not that tall to be conspicuous from a distance. What first attract visitors are the three entrance gates at the front perimeter wall of the temple.
Chùa Vĩnh Tràng is a Buddhist temple near Mỹ Tho in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam. It is one of the best-known temples in the region. The temple stands on a 2 hectares (5 acres) block filled with fruit trees in the village of Mỹ Hóa in the town of Mỹ Phong, on the banks of the Bảo Định Canal.

The main entrance arch (the right side arch has a statue of Buddha at the centre. At the two sides are statues of local deities.
The main triple gate was built in 1933 through the labour of craftsmen recruited from the imperial capital in Huế, central Vietnam.

A close up look at the main entrance arch, showing the ornate style of the panel carvings and the multi-tiered roof.

The centre archway entrance.

Close up of the centre archway.

The temple stands on grounds with an area of 2,000 metres square, planted with many beautiful trees. It was built in 1849 in the shape of the Chinese characters denoting “Nation”.

The beautiful structure features a mixture of Chinese, Vietnamese and Khmer-Angkor Period architectural styles. Vinh Trang Pagoda has a number of impressive features like the ornate gate, built by craftsmen from Huế, and detailed woodwork within.

A view of the central structure above the main prayer hall. Formerly, it was a small hermitage set up in the early 19th century by District Chief Bui Cong Dat. In 1849, the Most Venerable Abbot Thich Hue Dang put up a bigger temple and named it Vinh Trang Pagoda.

From afar, the pagoda resembles the five-tower Angkor Wat Temple. According to locals, a monk named Minh Dan and an architect named Huynh Tri Phu traveled to Khmer Empire prior to building the pagoda for inspiration and eventually combined Khmer architecture with European styles for the pagoda.

Within the compound are several shrines, this one with a golden statue is dedicated to the Dhyana Mudra Buddha.

And this one is dedicated to Guan Yin, with her standing on a lotus bloom.

Unfortunately, we were early and could only admire the temple from outside. This photo shows the intricate craftsmanship that has been put into the central stairway and the columns and arches behind.

The temple also includes elements from the Renaissance period, Romanesque style, French decorative flowers and Japanese enameled tiles.

A close up look at an arch window with elaborately carved columns and window grilles.

A close up look at a corner of the building showing the multiple layers of artwork, each of a different style and all beautifully combined together.

At the wall panels of the archway gates are panel artwork done in very Vietnamese styles with broken shards of colourful pottery.

This one is of a dragon rising into the sky.

One of a peacock in the garden.

And this one is of the peacock with its colourful tail beautifully opened .

A peacock roosting on a tree.

A wall panel of a tortoise - tortoises represents longevity.

Okay, let's rewind a bit to when we were just riding into the road leading to the Vinh Trang Pagoda. As we entered we noticed a giant standing statue of Buddha (Abhaya Mudra Buddha) on our left. The pagoda is straight ahead and the statue is actually located on a small park called Vinh Trang Park.

It's a nice little park planted with tropical palms, trees and flowery bushes.

A close look of the standing Abhaya Mudra Buddha on a blue-petaled lotus bloom.

Front side view of the Standing Buddha statue in a Abhayamudra posture. This gesture was shown by Buddha immediately after attaining enlightenment. It symbolizes strength and inner security. It is a gesture which instills a sense of fearlessness to others as well.

One long corridor leads to a Laughing Buddha (Budai, Vietnamese: Bố Đại). Behind this statue, on the right, is a large statue of a Sleeping Buddha (Reclining Buddha).

Budai, Hotei or Pu-Tai (Chinese: 布袋; pinyin: Bùdài; Japanese: 布袋, Hotei; Vietnamese: Bố Đại) is a semi-historical monk as well as deity who was introduced into the Zen Buddhist Pantheon. He purportedly lived around the 10th century in the Wuyue kingdom. His name literally means "Cloth Sack", and refers to the bag that he is conventionally depicted as carrying as he wanders around. His jolly nature, humorous personality, and eccentric lifestyle distinguishes him from most Buddhist masters or figures. He is almost always shown smiling or laughing, hence his nickname in Chinese, the "Laughing Buddha" (Chinese: 笑佛; pinyin: Xiào Fó).

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Friday, August 31, 2018

Sites - Hokkien-Teochew Clan Temple (Phước kien-Thiếu cháu hội quán) @ My Tho, Vietnam

You are at - Jotaro's Blog / Footsteps-Cycling Cambodia & Vietnam 2018 / Sites / Hokkien Clan Temple (Phước kien hội quán) @ My Tho

Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels

Hokkien-Teochew Clan Temple (Phước kien-Thiếu cháu hội quán) @ My Tho

My Tho, Vietnam - July 2018

While visiting the My Tho Old Farmers' Market (Chợ Cũ) during a cycling tour in Vietnam, we found tucked behind the market, a nice old temple. It's actually a Chinese clan temple called the Hokkien-Teowchew Clan Temple. In Chinese the name indicated by Google Maps is 福潮會館（福建公所、潮州公所） which means "Fuzhou Association (Fujian Temple, Chaozhou Office)", meaning it's a clan temple for the Fujian (Hokkien) and Chaozhou (Teochew) people originating from Fuzhou (Foochow) area of China.

The main entrance door.
It's an old temple with fading paintwork and fading artwork, but it still captured our attention with its authenticity and old charm.

On each side of the main doors are two smaller doors, each with temple guards painted on each leaf. Above is the left door.

And this is the right side door. Both doors are closed and are probably only opened on festive occasions.
The temple guards looked friendly unlike those stern looking ones at other temples. A group of Vietnamese, including the caretaker, were chatting and sipping Chinese tea, peacefully below the eyes of the benign guards.

To each side of the main temple were annexes dedicated to the Hokkien and Teochew clans respectively. They may have separate door, but indoors they main temple and annexes are connected. A signboard above the entrance door stated "Phước kien hội quán" which means "Hokkien Assembly Hall".

On the other side is the Teochew Clan Annexe. The sign above the door states "Thiếu cháu hội quán" which means "Teochew Assembly Hall". No, those are not friendly temple guards but my cycling buddies, Fenn and Ying.

On both side walls of the main entrance were large mural paintings. This one on the right shows Red-crowned cranes in a lake scenery. That's the caretaker on the far right.

On the other wall was a mural of Spotted Deers in a mountain scenery.

On the high walls above the main doors were also wall panel painting, most of which depicted sceneries done in monotone Chinese brush style. At the centre is that of a Qilin. But what caught our attention were the two small panels besides the Qilin. These showed foreigners with their face and hands painted pinkish over the monochrome tones; were these French men who were somehow associated with the temple's past?

A close up look at the Qilin painting. It is done in Vietnamese style which like to emphasize on the detailing of the scales.

The roof joists and gable walls also had paintings of Chinese scenery, but these too were faded with age.

A close up of the painting on the left gable wall.

The right side roof joists and gable wall paintings.

Okay, let's go into the temple.
From the entrance door, a corridor with bright flowery tiles leads to the main prayer hall...

... er... but let's have a look at the paintings at the external wall next to the main door.
This one showed an old Chinese scene.

Another one showing an old Chinese scene.

This one showed loving birds...

... and the birds kissing lovingly.

Just above the main door is the temple's main sign board with two cute lions at its base.

A corridor with round Chinese lanterns hanging from above leads to the main prayer hall. On both sides of this corridor are open courtyards. On the other side of each courtyard are the clan annexes.

A view of two of the dragon lanterns, a blue one and a colourful one.

And a red one with a green dragon.

View of the main prayer hall, the main altar is at the centre while at the two sides are altars to secondary gods.

The main prayer altar. Like most Chinese temples, at the front-most is the incense burner, followed by the offering altar and at the far end the god's altar.

At one of the open air-well is a small pavilion for making offerings through the burning of hell notes.
I am not sure whether the lady in blue is the assistant caretaker, but her unique hat caught my attention.

On one side was a wall panel sculpture of a dragon flying in the blue sky. Below it seems to be a walled up pond. It's empty now, but most likely from the dragon's mouth water sprays into it.

On the other side was a wall panel sculpture of a tigress and her cub. This sculpture is done in a typical Vietnamese style of using porcelain shards to make ups the animals.
The tiger and dragons represents the yin and the yang; facing outwards the the tiger is always situated on the right.

Well, it's time to leave and continue our cycling. But it's raining, so it's time to say a prayer for the rain to stop.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Hokkien Clan Assembly Hall
(Phước kien hội quán)
ấp Mỹ An, Phường 8, Thành phố Mỹ Tho, Tiền Giang, Vietnam.
Entry fee: Free
GPS & Direction Map: 10.357699, 106.375960

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