Exploiting the historical, cultural and architectural values of But Thap Pagoda relic in Bac Ninh in tourism development

The floor is not covered with wood and it has more symbolic meaning than practical meaning.

This house is much taller than the other houses in the temple grounds. The ground floor has 5 rooms, a rectangular floor plan with dimensions of 16.1m x 8.4m. The overall structure of this building is in the style of overlapping matchboxes with a row of high columns running from the first floor to the third floor. The rafters are made in the style of overlapping beams, making the architecture both strong, sturdy, and airy. In addition, the curved roof ends of the three floors make the building more graceful and soaring.

Entering Tich Thien Am, visitors will admire the most beautiful Kinh Mortar in Vietnam. The octagonal Kinh Mortar is 7.8m high, arranged in 9 lotus-shaped floors, representing the 9 lives of Sakyamuni's practice. Visitors can turn the millstone themselves, turning the nine lotus flowers in the east-west-south-north direction. This is a Buddhist ritual originating from Tibet.

From the remaining architectural parts, we know that this building was built in the 17th century, but was renovated many times in the following centuries, the architecture of the 19th century is shown in the simple rafters, rafters, and gong racks on the first floor.

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Size:

- Height: approximately 1030cm

- House length: 1607cm

- House width: 804cm.

f. Middle House:

Behind Tich Thien Am, through a moderately large yard, is Trung House. Trung House has 5 rooms with a roof structure in the style of "tầu dao lá mai". Because the rafters have 4 rows of columns, the columns are not very large, making us feel that the house is raised.

Nowadays, this house is surrounded by a closed wall. In the three main rooms, people open the door with a table and the small windows have bars. In this building,

People often pay little attention to decoration, mainly in the smooth planing style. We only discovered a few old pieces of wood in the dragon decoration or the spiral pattern of swords and spears. This building was renovated many times, according to the stele "renovated Ninh Phuc Tu bi" dated Thanh Thai 15th year remaining in the temple and documents from the French colonial period, this building was repaired in late 1903 to early 1904, it was further renovated in 1947.

Size:

- Height: approximately 615cm

- Length: 1610cm

- Width: 831cm

- Width of the space between: 308cm

- Width of remaining compartments: approximately 290cm.

g. Temple of Worship

From the central house, through a narrow yard of about 3m, you will reach the Temple. The temple has a higher foundation than the central house by four steps. The temple has the same architecture as the central house, but there are some differences. At the corner of the building, people mistakenly made a straight line, this straight line runs from the top of the hidden column to the top of the military column outside. Here, people discovered two corner lines made from the time of construction, on these two corner lines are embossed images of dragons, clouds, and swords in the style of the 17th century. The remaining two corner lines were remade later in a recent time.

The head is decorated very simply. A part of a fully bloomed chrysanthemum is carved, with a few swirls and swords on the front and back.

h. Later Tang

Behind the Temple, a beautiful corridor away, is the Back Hall, where there is a shrine to the Three Holy Mothers, the Four Palaces, and portraits of the 17th century patriarchs. In particular, there is a statue of Zen Master Minh Hanh with a high, intelligent, and learned forehead.

The remaining nine rooms of the back house are: the three rooms on the right are where the temple caretakers live, the remaining rooms are where the Holy Mother is worshiped.

The temple architecture is in the truss style. It is a re-made architecture. Overall, the remaining artistic value of the Later Tang is insignificant.

i. Corridor.

From the two wings of the Front Hall are two corridors running along the entire depth of the entire architecture to the Back Hall, enclosing the above-mentioned architectural works in a closed space. These two corridors were almost completely destroyed until recently, leaving only 5 rooms on the right side. In 1992, with funding from the Federal Republic of Germany, But Thap Pagoda was restored. The restoration mainly focused on completely rebuilding the two corridors and some other works.

The corridor floor is 15cm higher than the yard, paved with bricks and paved with stone.

Le Dynasty

Each corridor has 26 rooms, running long and 4m wide.

k. The First Ancestor's House

The First Ancestral House is located in the East, behind the left corridor of

The pagoda seems to be isolated from the main architecture of the pagoda. Behind the First Patriarch's house is the majestic Bao Nghiem tower and in front is a small well decorated with lotus petals.

The First Ancestor House is a rectangular house 13m long, 6.8m wide, with 5 rooms. There is a statue of Chuyet Cong 0.95m high.

3.2. Other architectures.

a. Tower architecture.

But Thap Pagoda currently has 13 towers scattered on both sides and behind the pagoda. Among them are 5 stone towers and 7 brick towers, and there is a 9-storey wooden tower with a single axis called the Nine-Plate Lotus Tower. In terms of decorative art scale, the brick towers here are less valuable.

- Nghiem tower :

The tower is built behind the First Patriarch's house. This is the tallest tower of But Thap Pagoda, the tower's door faces south. The tower was built by monk Minh Hanh to worship his teacher, monk Chuyet Cong. The tower was built in the year of Dinh Hoi, the 5th year of Phuc Thai, which is 1647 under the reign of King Le Chan Tong. Bao Nghiem here means to repay the strict teachings and admonitions of the teacher.

The entire tower is 13.5m high and sits on an octagonal base, each side measuring 2.26m long. The entire tower has 5 floors and a roof.

- Ton Duc Tower.

Behind the back hall, there are three towers standing side by side. The tower in the middle is the tallest and most imposing, the Ton Duc tower. The tower was built at the request of Queen Trinh Thi Ngoc Truc herself in November of the year Canh Ty, the third year of Vinh Tho (1660) and Zen master Minh Hanh's disciple, nun Dieu Tue, had a stone stele built in November of the year Giap Dan, the first year of Duc Nguyen (1674) to honor the merits of her master.

In recent years, due to the extensive damage to the Ton Duc tower, the government has carried out restoration work and discovered two ancient bronze scriptures engraved in 1660 placed on the top of the tower. One book is called “Great Expanse of the Flower Adornment Sutra” and the other book has no name. These two books are currently placed at the Bac Ninh Provincial Museum to continue the tower’s restoration. Currently, they are waiting for the Department of Commerce and Tourism of Bac Ninh Province to resolve the matter of bringing them back to their original location to complete the Ton Duc tower.

- Ni Chau Tower:

To the right of Ton Duc tower, symmetrical with Tam Hoa tower, is a stone tower with a similar shape and height to Tam Hoa tower, that is Ni Chau tower. The tower also has two floors with four sides, tapering towards the top.

The tower was built in the summer, the 5th month of the third year of Vinh Huu (1737) to preserve the relics and worship the monk Dieu Vien who used to practice at the pagoda.

- Tomb tower:

Behind Bao Nghiem tower, on the right side of a small tower, hidden under the canopy of sapodilla trees. The tower resembles a tomb, covered with green so it is called a tomb tower, the square tower, each side is 1.75m long, built in two levels, the second level is smaller, each side is 1.32m.

- Nine-grade lotus tower.

The tower is made of wood, placed in the middle of Tich Thien Am, the Nine-part Lotus Tower is 7.80m high, the entire structure is linked around the main pillar.

This is a unique antique that makes But Thap Pagoda unique. The decorative panels on the tower faces are very rich and associated with the ideology of Pure Land Buddhism.

b. Stone bridge architecture:

At But Thap Pagoda, there is a small bridge that is very remarkable both in terms of architecture and its symbolic meaning. This bridge connects the back of the Upper Palace with the Tich Thien Am Palace, crossing a small lake, this lake has a narrow bed, running almost the length of the Upper Palace.

The bridge has three spans, 4.30m long, 1.95m wide, curved like a rainbow, the highest point above the water is 1.16m, on both sides of the bridge there are railings made of stone panels carved with scenes on both sides. Each side has three panels fixed by three square pillars, on top of each pillar there is a round lotus bud placed on an upside down lotus leaf.

On both sides of the rainbow are two small lotus ponds also known as Bich Ba lakes, always cool, in the summer the lotus blooms, adding a dreamy, sparkling beauty to the temple scene.

The bridge's overly curved body makes us think it has more symbolic meaning than practical meaning, because the smooth stone surface makes it difficult to walk on. This is the bridge of the soul, of enlightenment. The high stone bridge and the lotus pond below are considered by a monk to be the height of enlightenment and the depth of liberation. Step onto the bridge

Pilgrimage to contemplate the meaning of life, see the brilliant halo of the compassionate Buddha's thoughts.

c. Stone well architecture:

The stone well is also known as the well of the lotus-shaped stone, representing the always cool, gentle, and never-ending state of mind of the Zen gate. The well is circular, with a mouth diameter of 1m. The well and the well yard are made of monolithic stone, the well yard is a square stone block measuring 1.44 x 1.44m. The decoration on the outer wall and the well is quite beautiful. The border around the well is a soft S-shaped wreath of flowers intertwined with each other. Below the wreath of flowers, on the outside of the well wall, are three rows of embossed lotus petals with two rows of large petals at the bottom and one row of small petals at the top.

Around the well wall, in the well yard are rows of stylized lotus petals arranged at an angle.

Based on this decorative style, it is believed that the well was made in the 17th century.

4. But Thap Pagoda statue system.

In addition to the architecture presented above, But Thap Pagoda also has a very rich system of statues, combining the principles of Buddhist statues with traditional styles in a creative way to create a unique appearance. The statues in the pagoda carry many features that inherit the sculpture style of the Mac Dynasty but have reached high artistic value. Below we will learn more about the statue system in this pagoda.

The remaining statues at But Thap Pagoda can be divided into the following types:

after:

- Buddhist statue system

- Portrait statue

- Statue of the Mother.

a. Buddhist system.

- Three Worlds statue set:

The Three Worlds are three statues of the past, present, and future. The statues of the Three Worlds here are made quite similarly, placed on the main altar of the middle room of the Upper Palace.

- The statue in the middle: In a meditative posture, with two hands stacked on top of each other, placed on the lap. The hair on the head is in a spiral shape, the face is round, the eyebrows are curved, the nose is straight. The statue's eyes are looking down, the mouth is closed, the hands are long and large, there are earrings in the shape of blooming lotus flowers, and there is a line on the neck.

The statue wears a monk's robe that covers the shoulders and arms in many layers that flow down to the thighs. The statue sits on a lotus platform, consisting of four layers of upturned lotus petals and one layer of downturned lotus petals.

- The statue on the left: Has the same shape and size as the statue in the middle. Hands are placed in a preaching position, the right hand is placed on the right thigh, the left hand is raised forward, the thumb is folded into the little finger and ring finger, the index finger and middle finger are raised high close to the nose, the sleeve hangs from the left arm down and flows over the right thigh.

The pedestal is basically the same as the statue in the middle.

- The statue on the right: is similar to the two statues above, with only a few different details in the decoration of the hand gesture and the decoration on the pedestal.

In general, we can see that the statues of the three worlds at But Thap pagoda are still made according to the principles of Buddha statues, and still carry many inherited features of the sculpture style of the previous period.

- Statue of Quan Am with a thousand hands and eyes.

* Statue:

The statue is 3.70m high, 2.10m wide, and 1.15m thick. On the head of the statue is the Buddha Amitabha. Amitabha used magic to reattach the Buddha's head when she was so worried about living beings that her head exploded into many small pieces. Therefore, it created 11 Buddha faces, 42 soft bare arms as if wanting to hug.

The whole world is vast, helping millions of suffering people. Behind the Buddha is a halo, on which are attached 952 small arms forming an open circle from 6 to 14 layers, in the middle of each heart is an eye with long, black eyelashes. With a thousand eyes and a thousand arms, the Buddha has seen through the universe, seen through distant realms, destroyed evil, saved lives, and helped religion. The Buddha is sitting practicing religion, in a leisurely posture. The Buddha wears a cassock that falls down to cover all living beings, taming the fierce Trang Ba Long Vuong, wearing a lotus throne, taking the Buddha to the sea. Under the pedestal are the words "Tue thu Binh Than nien, thu nguyet, coc nhan doanh tao" and "Nam dong giao tho nam, Mr. Truong phuong khac". Meaning that in 1656, Mr. Truong created and made this wonderful statue.

* Lotus:

The lotus pedestal is made of three main lotus petals and one secondary lotus petal. The secondary petals are placed on top with pointed tips placed alternately between the main petals. Inside each main petal are two raised edges, connecting from the base of the lotus, running upwards and then rolling in the middle to lift half of the fully bloomed chrysanthemum. From that chrysanthemum there are two spiral patterns and three knife marks.

The lotus throne is carried by a dragon. The dragon here has a double convex face, apricot horns, leaf-shaped ears, combed hair, an open mouth, and sharp and small teeth. In the dragon's mouth is a pearl. From the eye radiates down below a small fire knife and runs curved to the back, around the edge and the earlobes are all serrated fins.

The dragon has short combed hair, growing from behind the ears, a deep body showing double scales and small serrated clouds. The lotus pedestal support arm is made like a crocodile's leg with alternating single scales and five chicken claw-like claws. The dragon is made in the style of protruding its head and two arms above the surface of the sea, rolling waves with many layers. Each wave layer is created by many parallel lines, dotted on the surface of the wave are crabs, snails, clams, fish...

Exploiting the historical, cultural and architectural values of But Thap Pagoda relic in Bac Ninh in tourism development - 5

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