BUDDHAS TRACES AT PHAT TICH PAGODA At the end of 2008, during the process of digging the foundations for a reconstruction of the Buddhist sanctuary Triple Gem, which belongs to the restoration project of Phat Tich Pagoda (at Phat Tich village, Tien Du district, Bac Ninh province), a remaining foundation of the ancient Phat Tich Pagoda was discovered. It is a square foundation, similar to the sacred, magnificent 42 meter-stupa built under the reign of the Ly dynasty. From 16 to 22 of May 2009, the largest Buddhist statue in Vietnam — weighing 4.5 tons and standing 3.5 meters high, engraved out of Nephrite stone block — underwent a holy welcome at an exhibition at Phat Tich Pagoda. Before arriving at Phat Tich Pagoda, the Buddha Gem statue had visited Da Nang, Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City, and Dong Thap. Immediately after May 22, the statute continued on its tour of exhibition to other countries such as Australia, USA, and Taiwan etc. The itinerary of the Buddha Gem statute has been put together to promote world peace. On this holy occasion, Travellive has the honor of introducing a paper by Prof. Le Van Lan, a great Historian of Vietnam, called “The Vestige of Buddha at Phat Tich Pagoda”. The paper should help our readers to better understand the history of this ancient Pagoda and its association with Vietnam Buddhism. A magic lucky encounter connects two millenniums, the beginning of the second one and the beginning of the third one: two precious Buddha statues - one from the 11th century and the other from the 21st— are together at the mountain and at the pagoda whose names are both Phat Tich — meaning The Vestige of Buddha. The Legend of Phat Tich Pagoda At first, based on the book of history written by the Les’ Imperial court, Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu (Complete Works of Dai Viet History) in the 15th century, both the mountain and the pagoda were not named “Phat Tich”, but rather “Tien Du”, meaning “Fairies’ Place for Recreation”. The name Tien Du connects back to a legend of a woodcutter, who came here to cut wood and saw two fairies playing chess on the top of this mountain. He stood nearby, leaning on his axe and watching them. At the end of the game of chess, the two fairies flew to heaven, and the woodcutter realised that his axe was rotten, becatime in heaven is a thousand times longer than time in the mundane world. Another name for Tien Du Mountain is Lan Kha, meaning The Rotten Axe, also becaof the connection to this tale. As some proof of this legend from early times, today we can still see on the top of the mountain the remains of some cubic-formed graves, which were made of huge stone blocks - a monument of the “Megalith civilization” that existed a thousand years before. … (see pictures 5,6,7,8). The Given Name of Phat Tich There is a stone stele dated 1686 — the 7th year of the Chinh Hoa, Le dynasty (see picture 9), erected on the mountain with clear characters of the epitaph: “The third King of the Ly dynasty, in the 4th year of Long Thuy Thai Binh, constructed a sacred tower one thousand feet high, and a golden statue six meters high”. It seems enough evidence to show that the birth date of the pagoda, the tower, the statue and even Phat Tich as the name of this mountain, as well as the whole architecture — sculpture system dates to at least as early as 1057 (the 4th year of Long Thuy Thai Binh), and that Ly Thanh Tong (the third Ly king) had them done. However, from reading estimates in paragraphs in Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu (book II, from the period of the Ly dynasty), we can even more correctly determine the time frame, as well as add to the information passed down through the generations and recorded on the stone stele. The paragraphs include: - In the year Giap Tuat (1034): In Autumn, the eight month, His Majesty visited Trung Quang Pagoda at Tien Du mountain, and issued the order to have Trung Hung storehobuilt (for storing Buddhist scriptures). - In the year Binh Ty (1036): In the second month of Spring, His Majesty issued an edict to recopy the“ Tripitaka” to be kept in Trung Hung storehouse. - In the year Mau Dan (1038): In Winter, the tenth month, a stele was erected at Trung Quang pagoda. - In the year Tan Ty (1041): In Winter, the tenth month, His Majesty visited Tien Du mountain and watched the construction of the Institute of Tu Thi Thien Phuc. On arriving at the Royal palace, His Majesty issued an edict to give 7,500 kg of bronze from the Royal storehoto cast statues of Bodhisatva Maitreya, Hai Thanh, and Cong Duc and a bell at the Institute. In fact, before 1034 there was a pagoda on Tien Du mountain, used exclusively for serving the Ly king. Its original name was not Phat Tich, but Trung Quang (Shining Together). At this pagoda a howas built to store the Buddhist Tripitaka, named Trung Hung (To Be Prosperous Together), and this howas inaugurated in 1036. In the following years, the stele of Trung Quang pagoda was erected (1038), the Institute of Tu Thi Thien Phuc was established and statues of Maitreya, Hai Thanh, and Cong Duc Boddhisatvas were made. The statues were all made of bronze (approximately 3 tons of bronze were used) taken from the Royal storehoin Thang Long city, in 1041, under the supervision of the Ly king. The “king” was not “the third king of the Ly dynasty”, but Ly Thai Tong — “the second king ”— Ly Thanh Tong’s father, It seems natural to rely on “Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu” for information about the date of Phat Tich pagoda and the stone statues here, which were erected in 1057: - In the year Binh Than (1056): Sung Khanh Bao Thien pagoda was built, 12 thousand kilograms of bonze were taken from the Royal storehofor the casting of a great bell. - In the year Dinh Dau (1057): In the first month of Spring, Dai Thang Tu Thien tower was erected, standing about 20 feet in height, with 12 stories. It was called Bao Thien tower. According to Royal history (15th century), 1057 and 1056 were the dates the pagoda and the Bao Thien tower in Thang Long capital were built. Remains of these have been found under and around the “Great Church”, which is now facing Hoan Kiem Lake, (the Restored Sword Lake). On the brick remains that have been found here we can see characters “The forth year of the third king of the Ly dynasty, Long Thuy Thai Binh year). These also seem to prove the history of the pagoda So, how about the date of the sacred art works, sculptures and architecture of the renowned Phat Tich pagoda? These were certainly not created in 1057. There is a special sentence in “Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu” that reads: “In the year Binh Ngo (1066), in Autumn, the ninth month, Quach Man - the General - was commanded to build a tower at Tien Du mountain”. This reference gives light to the issue. It is clear that in the ninth month of 1066, the general Quach Man obeyed the order of Ly Thanh Tong (the third king of the Ly dynasty) to build a huge Buddhist pagoda tower on Tien Du Mountain, which was named “Buddha’s Trace”. The history of the tower has also been proved by another event which was also recorded in “Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu”: “In the year Tan Hoi (1071): In the first month of Spring, His Majesty wrote a huge character “Buddha” (佛) 1,6 feet long on a stone stele, erected in Tien Du pagoda”. Five years later there was a Buddhist tower built at Phat Tich pagoda on Tien Du Mountain, only 1 year before King Ly Thanh Tong entered Nirvana (1072). He was the third king of the Ly dynasty and the founder of the Thao Duong (Grass House) Buddhist sect. This was repeated after 250 years by King Tran Nhan Tong — a famous Buddhist king, and the founder of the Truc Lam Zen sect. He himself provided another trace of the Buddha on Tien Du Mountain, by writing a giant character of “Buddha” (佛) on a stone stele at this pagoda. Traces of the Buddha However, the best evidence of the Buddha on this mountain, as well as in this pagoda, that provided them with magic power, and allowed their names to be changed from Tien Du into Phat Tich, is the stone statue of Buddha Amitabha — a splendid masterpiece of stone scripture that was made using the particular art and technique of the Ly dynasty (1009-1226) It is impossible to find any paragraph or word that records the exact date of the Buddha Amitabha stone statue. This statue is sitting on a lotus throne 1.85 metres high. It is as high as “the golden statue” that stood 6 feet high, as recorded in a stone stele dated 1686: “the 7th year of Chinh Hoa”. The statue was respectfully worshiped in the main sanctuary of a pagoda built in the 17th century, named “Van Phuc Pagoda” that replaced Trung Quang pagoda built under the reign of King Ly Thai Tong, before 1034, as mentioned above. In its turn, Van Phuc Pagoda also came to be destroyed during the civil war against the French colonialists during the period 1946-1954. Only the pagoda’s roof managed to shield these masterpieces. The Buddha Amitabha statue has resided in Phat Tich Pagoda since 2008. Thanks to the great restoration of the Ly dynasty’s ancient pagoda on Tien Du (Phat Tich Mountain) towards the end of 2008, it has come to be seen as a great archaeological discovery, which has given light to many points of history and culture. One of the current debates focuses on the origin and date of the Buddha Amitabha statue. Whether more information will be found out about this depends on the unearthing of the entire foundation of the tower built by general Quach Man in 1066 The remains of this foundation, is about 1 - 4 metres deep under the base of the mountain. It was carefully built using square baked bricks. Some of these bricks were printed with characters “Third king of the Ly dynasty, the forth year of Long Thuy Thai Binh”, in the same style as the bricks found around the Great Church and in the ancient Royal city (Hoang Thanh Thang Long). Some of them were printed with the characters “Chuong Thanh Gia Khanh” (the Royal title used during 1059-1065 by King Ly Thanh Tong). This suggests that when building the foundation of the tower, workers of the Ly dynasty used both bricks made in 1057, and those made in 1059-1065. In other words, the original mould was used again to make the bricks The important information gathered from this pagoda comes from its square foundation. The size of the tower’s foot is 9.1 by 9.1 meters; the thickness of the tower’s wall measures about 2.4 meters; the inside of the tower covers an area of 82.81 square metres. According to the traditional formula of towers in these ancient times, it is possible to imagine that the height of this tower would have been about 40 meters! Specifically, the size of the tower would have been large enough to hoa stone statue as big as the Buddha Amitabha It is also possible to conclude that, as the tower deteriorated and the foot of the tower became even and flat, the stone statue would have been moved to another place in the pagoda! In conclusion, the splendid stone statue of Buddha Amitabha found in Phat Tich Pagoda (the ancient Van Phuc Pagoda of the Le dynasty) is the same statue made in 1066, and kept inside the huge tower on Phat Tich Mountain (its original name was Tien Du). They were elements of the complex of Trung Quang Pagoda, Trung Hung Storehouse, and the Institute of Tu Thi Thien Phuc, and all of these appeared on this mountain at the beginning of the 11th century. On the occasion of Buddha’s birth day (Buddhist calendar: 2553) this thousand year old statue (the 11th century) provides some great history about the changing environment of Tien Du Mountain. It gave us evidence of “Buddha’s trace” (Phat Tich), and simultaneously became the host to welcome the Buddha Gem statue — one of the world wonders in the 21st century. Both statues together appeared in Phat Tich Pagoda to bestow Buddha’s favors, and give happiness to all human beings.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Sep 2014 03:28:51 +0000
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