Statistics of Temple Names Through Stele Inscriptions of the 17th Century in Some Suburban Districts of Hanoi

In addition, the image of the Bodhi leaf is also carved on the stele, such as on the forehead of the Mia Pagoda stele - Son Tay (1634) (photo 23), the Thay Pagoda stele (Quoc Oai) in 1653... With the Bodhi leaf as a border for the stele names, the shape is like an upside-down heart, symmetrical, the sharp tip pointing straight up. That shows the elevation of Buddhism, one of the common meanings that the Bodhi leaf symbolizes is enlightenment of the Dharma, this meaning was used by contemporaries in the visual arts.

One of the symbols directly related to Buddhism is the swastika (photo 6) which is also carved on the stele “Phap Vu tu tao le bi” at Dau pagoda (Thuong Tin) in Thinh Duc year 4 (1656). The stele’s forehead is still the image of the sun occupying the central position, surrounded by swords, spears, and clouds. On the stele’s forehead border and the border of the two stele bodies, the layout is quite balanced, with a flower box (chrysanthemum, lotus) and a swastika box in succession… According to Tran Lam Bien: “ In the end, the swastika originally did not belong to Buddhism. From a very long time ago, it was originally from the Ariang people (belonging to the Indo-European clan, spreading into Northern India) to symbolize the god of fire. It was formed into the shape seen today to express the power and development of fire ” [12, p. 116]. According to Professor Tu Chi, with eight fire heads, it has been recognized by many scholars as a symbol of the sun. Entering Buddhism, with great power, the Swastika was soon incarnated to represent the power of wisdom. It is the twisted hair on the head of Buddha as a guarantee for boundless wisdom.

In addition, in the mid- and late 17th century, the phenomenon of Buddha's descendants was quite common in villages. Those who sent descendants were mostly childless people, but were devout and generous in donating money and land to the pagoda. Therefore, their portraits were carved on stone steles such as the statue of Buddha's descendants at Thay Pagoda (Quoc Oai) (photos 30, 31, 33), the statue is carved sitting on a lotus platform, with legs crossed, two hands placed in front of the abdomen intertwined, a round face, two large ears, and a rosary on the chest.

Another Buddha statue is also carved in a sitting position, right leg folded, right hand on the knee. The left leg is propped up, the left elbow is placed on the knee, the right palm is facing down with long fingers, both hands are holding a rosary. The nose is high, the eyes are open but looking down, the two ears have long earrings reaching to the shoulders, the head is wrapped in a turban, the appearance of an aristocrat.

The appearance of Buddha images such as the word " Buddha ", the word " Van ", or the Buddha statues as described above only appear on the stone steles of pagodas... That shows a quite clear distinction between the decorations on stone steles in religious relics and stone steles in other religious relics.

Chapter 2 Summary:

To complete the stone steles, there must be a stele writer, a calligrapher, and a stele engraver, but very few steles record all these titles, and they are often lacking, because the participants had different statuses, or in some places, only the Confucian scholars - the people who wrote the stele or calligraphers - were focused on, without mentioning the names of the engravers.

Through the stone steles in the pagodas in some suburban districts of Hanoi today, we can see that the Buddhist belief is quite deep in the villages to meet the spiritual needs of the social classes. The pagoda was supported by the mandarin class, King Le - Lord Trinh and the concubines, the Confucian scholars (not a few of them were Doctors) wrote the steles, proving that the pagoda has the ability to harmonize the spiritual beliefs of the social classes of Vietnam, typically in the Doai region. It can be said that Confucianism mainly belongs to the ruling mandarin class, belongs to the Confucian scholars (mandarin and non-mandarin), while Buddhism mainly belongs to the masses, has a higher attractive influence, and the temple steles in some suburban districts of Hanoi are typical examples. In terms of society, temporarily assuming that Confucianism belongs to the government, to the scholar class, Buddhism belongs to many different classes,

especially the rural classes. Here there is a broad integration of different components of society as shown in the stele inscription.

The materials used to make stone steles in 17 pagodas in 10 suburban districts of Hanoi are also diverse in materials. The most commonly used types of stone are still bluestone and sandstone, along with rough stone and limestone... One thing that is easy to see is that the stone source during this period is not regional in nature like the early Le and Mac periods.

The characteristics of steles in the 17th century are many different shapes and sizes. If in the early 17th century, 2-sided steles were popular, then in the middle and late 17th century, the shape of the steles was more diverse, 4-sided steles appeared more, in addition, there were also 6-sided or 8-sided steles... The main techniques used in this period were relief and engraving techniques; especially the engraved lines were deeper and more square than in the previous period. The art of decorative sculpture reached its peak and changed in the early, middle and late 17th century. If in the early 17th century, the images were stereotypical and still had the style of the Mac Dynasty, then from the middle and late 17th century, the art of carving had a great breakthrough, the images of everyday life associated with farmers were depicted quite clearly such as shrimp, crab, fish, turtle, mouse, buffalo... realistic and full of folk character.

The 17th century stone steles in the relics of the Vietnamese people in the Northern Delta in particular are stone pages that condense high historical, cultural and artistic values. However, many 17th century stone steles have been preserved intact to this day, but many have been lost or eroded due to erratic climate, plus people's awareness of not preserving relics in the relics well... Therefore, it is necessary to combine interdisciplinary research and raise community awareness to fully understand the value of stone steles and increase the longevity of stone steles.

Chapter 3

REFLECTION CONTENT OF 17TH CENTURY STONE ...

Buddhism has permeated deeply into the emotional and religious life of the people, affirming its high position compared to other religions and beliefs. From Kings, Lords, Princesses, Royal Concubines, to officials holding important positions in the royal court, from scholars with strong Confucian ideology to the people, all have contributed to the pagoda. Therefore, compared to other relics in the village, the pagoda is often better preserved. This has contributed to protecting and preserving the stone steles erected in the pagoda from the 17th century until now.

In the stone steles in 10 suburban districts of Hanoi in the 17th century, there were records of the renovation and expansion of pagodas, from rebuilding new pagodas, to building corridors, foundations, walls, and three-door gates; from painting old statues, sculpting new statues, to building towers, making nine-grade lotus towers; from casting bells to building stele houses, planting trees around pagodas... It seems that this was the period when villages consolidated the role of Buddhism by renovating and repairing village pagodas? and this work attracted the participation of many classes of people.

3.1. Names and classification of temples

3.1.1. Names of temples:

Chua is a Vietnamese word whose origin is still subject to many different opinions. Some say that Chua originates from the word Thùpa ( Pali), or Stùpa (Sanskrit), which originally means a stupa worshiping Buddha. The Chinese translated it as Phù Đồ or Đồ Ba, which is read in Chinese as Phù Tố, or Thu Ba, and in Vietnam it was shortened to Chùa. “ In religious architecture in Vietnam, a place to worship Buddha is called a pagoda, distinguished from a temple, shrine or church.

place to worship gods in other beliefs and religions " [49, p. 16]. To call the type of Buddhist architecture, in addition to the word " pagoda ", there is also the word " tu" , this word comes from China. But there is also an opinion that " pagoda" with its origin from India is different from the word " Tu" which comes from Chinese [49, p. 16]. According to Sino-Vietnamese, "tu" has many meanings, but one of them is "pagoda", because since the time of Emperor Han Minh De, two monks from India were invited to come, because they had not yet

Only when they had their own place to live could they be welcomed into the Hong Lo Temple, so later on all the places where monks lived were called "tu" 11 .

In addition, to refer to a Buddhist architecture, in Vietnamese there are also the words Chiền, Am, Viện... There is also an opinion that " Chiền" comes from Cetiya , Cetiyan (Pali), or Caitya (Sanskrit) which means Buddha's Temple. "Am" refers to a small architecture, often roofed with grass or thatch, mainly serving the religious needs of a region and the need for hermit-like practice (more or less with Tantric elements). And Viện is a large temple, both a place of practice and a Buddhist school, a place of enlightenment and propagation of Buddhism.

In the early days, some researchers assumed that monks might have taken advantage of temples to "transform Buddha into gods " and thus "pagodas into temples" [65, p. 10]. Sharing the same view, Professor Ha Van Tan said: " In the beginning, people brought Buddha statues into temples, not statues of gods into Buddhist temples " [49, p. 27]. From integrating with indigenous beliefs to survive and develop, by the 10th - 11th centuries, it became the most important religion. Along with the growth of Buddhism, pagodas sprung up more and more. In the beginning, pagodas were born only due to the patronage and construction of the state government, but gradually Buddhist pagodas also integrated into villages and hamlets and turned into village pagodas. After nearly 1000 years of development, by the Tran Dynasty (13th - 14th centuries), Buddhism had made steady progress. Many sects:

11 ACCORDING TO THE CHINESE-VIETNAMESE DICTIONARY (ELECTRONIC VERSION).

Zen, Esoteric Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism... appeared and especially popularized the Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen sect of the Vietnamese people, founded by Tran Nhan Tong.

Besides the large pagodas built with state funds, “ village pagodas” (Huong Tu) began to appear during the Ly Dynasty and became popular during the Tran Dynasty. History also records that in 1010, King Ly Thai To, after only two years on the throne, “ ordered the hamlets and villages to repair any pagodas or temples that were dilapidated [17, p. 243]. In 1031, he also hired workers to build pagodas or temples in the villages, a total of more than 150 places [17, p. 260]. During the Tran Dynasty, Nguyen Du in Truyen Ky Man Luc wrote: pagodas were built, large villages had more than ten pagodas, small villages had about five or six.

In addition to the village name, the temple name is also called by the dharma name. Specifically, the names of 17 temples are recorded in the stele as follows:

Table 3.1: Statistics of pagoda names on steles of the 17th century in some suburban districts of Hanoi

STT

Village name	Name of the word
1	Boi Khe Pagoda	Great Compassion Temple
2	Dau Pagoda	French Vu Temple
3	Cong Xuyen Pagoda	Chongfu Temple
4	Hung Giao Pagoda	Hung Phuc Temple
5	Perfume Pagoda	Thien Tru Temple
6	La Khe Pagoda	Dien Khanh Temple
7	Lai An Pagoda	Phuc Nha Temple
8	Le Duong Pagoda	Xa Le Self
9	Mia Pagoda	Chongyan Temple
10	Mau Luong Pagoda	Great Compassion Temple
11	Mui Pagoda	Hung Thanh temple
12	Nhi Khe Pagoda	She herself
13	So Pagoda	Linh Quan Association
14	Thay Pagoda	Thien Phuc Temple

Maybe you are interested!

Thi Nguyen Pagoda	Prisoner of Death
16	Hundred-room Pagoda	Quang Nghiem Temple
17	Tuong Phieu Pagoda	Ngo Son Temple

Most pagodas in Vietnam in general and the 17 pagodas recorded in the stele above have 2 names, the Nom name associated with the village/commune where the pagoda is located and the word name (Dharma name) accompanied by the word " tu" (Dau pagoda has the word name " Phap Vu Tu "; Thay pagoda has the word name " Thien Phuc Tu "; Huong pagoda has the word name " Thien Tru Tu "...), because it is associated with the legends or aspirations of the people of each locality. Besides, there are 02 pagodas, Mui pagoda (Thuong Tin) and So pagoda (Thanh Oai) with the word name "Quan" such as Hung Thanh Quan (Mui pagoda), Hoi Linh Quan (So pagoda). Because originally these places were once a temple - a place for religious activities of Taoism, but in the 17th century these temples were transformed into temples. Although there is a change in worship function, there is still a convergence of Taoism and Buddhism, because in these two temples today, there are still statues of Taoism.

3.1.2. How to classify temples:

The way of classifying pagodas through the inscriptions on the stele also shows the same point of view as current researchers. Some pagodas are considered "Great famous landscapes" or "Famous landscapes"... because they have certain criteria regarding history, architecture and decorative sculpture.

Table 3.2. Statistics on pagoda classification through 17th century steles in 10 suburban districts of Hanoi

STT

Village name	Name of the word	Temple type
1	Boi Khe Pagoda	Great Compassion Temple	Great place
2	Dau Pagoda	French Vu Temple	Great place
3	Cong Xuyen Pagoda	Chongfu Temple
4	Hung Giao Pagoda	Hung Phuc Temple	scenic spot
5	Perfume Pagoda	Thien Tru Temple
6	La Khe Pagoda	Dien Khanh Temple
7	Lai An Pagoda	Phuc Nha Temple	scenic spot

Le Duong Pagoda	Xa Le Self
9	Mia Pagoda	Chongyan Temple	scenic spot
10	Mau Luong Pagoda	Great Compassion Temple	scenic spot
11	Mui Pagoda	Hung Thanh temple	Great place
12	Nhi Khe Pagoda	She herself
13	So Pagoda	Linh Quan Association	Great place
14	Thay Pagoda	Thien Phuc Temple
15	Thi Nguyen Pagoda	Prisoner of Death	scenic spot
16	Hundred-room Pagoda	Quang Nghiem Temple
17	Tuong Phieu Pagoda	Ngo Son Temple

Comment