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History of Vinh Trang Pagoda

Formerly, it was a small leaf hermitage set up in the early 19th century by District Chief Bui Cong Dat. In 1849, the Most Venerable Abbot Thich Hue Dang put it up a big pagoda and named it Vinh Trang Pagoda. The Abbot’s successor was the Most Venerable Thich Thien De. In 1890, lay-Buddhists came to the Royal-Chartered Linh Thuu Pagoda to invite the Most Venerable Thich Chanh Hau take charge of the Abbot of the Pagoda. In 1895, he had the Pagoda reconstructed. The pagoda has many netlike panels, horizontal boards and oblong boards of the parallel sentences. These netlike panels were elaborately carved. The Most Venerable Thich Minh Dang who had the Triple Gate, the main hall and the Patria. The pagoda has many netlike panels, horizontal boards and oblong boards of the parallel sentences.

Architecture and Structure of Vinh Trang Pagoda

The pagoda makes the first impression on visitors near and far because of its superficial scale and sophisticated architecture and decoration. The pagoda has an area of ​​about 2 hectares, including many areas such as Buddha radio, main hall, Quan Am station, tower garden, book publishing room, etc.

In front of Vinh Trang pagoda, there are two large and magnificent martial arts gates, built in 1933 according to ancient architecture. A special feature of this gate is the art of porcelain mosaics illustrating the history of the Buddha with all shapes of dragons, unicorns, turtles, phoenixes, fish… very impressive and unique.

Vinh Trang Pagoda was built in a harmonious architecture that is the interference between Asian and European architecture such as French, Roman, Thai and Cham architecture. The columns and corridors on the left hand side of the temple will give you the feeling and view of being in a corridor in Europe.

Particularly in the front part of the main facade, visitors will encounter Renaissance-style patterns or Roman domes. This is French iron wool, it is Japanese ceramic tile. You’ll also find familiar features like kanji written in the ancient seal style and national language script written in Gothic script.

All these architectural patterns combine harmoniously to create a beautiful work. Due to the Western and Eastern features, up to now, the temple is many years old but still has modern and ancient features. This creates a unique attraction that no other temple in the West has.

However, the core of this type of sculptural architecture is still steeped in Vietnamese tradition. Built in the shape of the letter Quoc, including 4 consecutive rooms: the front hall, the main hall, the ancestral house and the back street.

The houses are all made of cement and precious wood, with high floors, surrounded by solid walls. Inside the pagoda, there are many paintings, couplets inlaid with jars, iridescent embossed vases, which look very beautiful. The objects are elaborately and sophisticatedly carved, typically the Bat Tien altar pair placed in the middle.

Traveling to Tien Giang, making a pilgrimage to Vinh Trang Pagoda, you have the opportunity to admire more than 60 precious Buddha statues made of wood, bronze or terracotta, all of which are inlaid with iridescent gold, of which the most prominent is the set of 18 statues. statue. The Arhats located on both sides of the main hall were carved with jackfruit wood in the early 20th century.