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"Ong"
pagoda is the Chinese people's ancient pagoda with the largest scale in
BinhThuan; it is located at DucNghia quarter, Phanthiet city. According to
the pagoda's system of diffused and inherited documents and epoch
imprinted on the bar of the central chamber top with Chinese sentence, this pagoda was established in November CanhDan (The Tiger one )year
1770.
 Furthermore, inside it
they have worshiped only the statue of "QuanThanhDeQuan" together with
other statues, but not Buddha; besides there have been no head monks
here. But in the popular of people from the old day until now, both the
Vietnamese and Chinese people have been used to calling it "Ong
pagoda".
Before
1975 in PhanThiet, there was a periodic religious celebration named "NghinhOng" at
Ong pagoda - this is, the biggest folk one. In
1996, this celebration was reorganized, attracting ten thousands of people
from everywhere.
 "NghinhOng" periodic
religious celebration is considered as the national non material
cultural heritage due to its scale and cultural historical values and due
to the Chinese as well as the Vietnamese people's large admiration. For
many generations, Ong pagoda has been the place where the people gather
to pray for a happy and warm life and lucky business for everybody and
every family on the occasion of the national traditional New Year Days.
TACU MOUNTAIN PAGODA
 This pagoda is located
on the top of TaCu mountain, so they call it TaCu mountain pagoda to
distinguish it with some pagodas on the other mountains in BinhThuan
province. This mountain pagoda was built in 1879 but many years before,
there was a thatch - roofed pagoda worshiping Buddha. The pagoda
belongs to the area of TanLap commune, HamThuanNam district, about 30
km South East of PhanThiet city. The
head monk of the mountain pagoda is Buddhist priest TranHuuDuc, the pagoda - building site chosen by him is now at the
height of 475 meters; all the year round there are green trees, flowing streams,
singing birds and apes beside the pagoda. Later because of many different
reasons, the pagoda has been separated into two, the upper one still at
the old place has got the name of "LinhSonTruongTho" and the
lower one "LinhSonLongDoan", both of them are called the
Mountain Pagoda (ChuaNui).
TaCu Mountain Pagoda has combined and alternated with the forest and
mountain making an area of famous beautiful sights since formerly. Its
whole sight is an architectural overall including: 3 door gates, temples,
statues of Buddy, tomb towers, the First's Ancestor's grotto ... well
concealed under the all year round green fresh ancient tree
forest.
From the foot of the mountain are hundreds of steps along twisting roads
through the jungle leading to the pagoda. Here the air is cold and fresh,
the steam radiates from the rock mountain with the attractive cool air
even in summer. The beautiful sights of TaCu Mountain pagoda are famous
for the poetic majestic scenery of the mountain and forest. On the other
hand, human hands through many generations in turn have built up the
unique huge art architectural projects in the province as well as the
nearby ones. That's the huge giant statue of "ThichCaNhapNietBan" lying on the highest position about 100 meters from the pagoda.
By the skill and talent, techniques of sculpture and veneration, the
artisan - artists created the rare statue in the history of the Vietnamese
Buddhism. This work was presided in 1962 by TruongDinhY
engineer
.
 About 50 meters from the statue of Buddha is the group of TamThe
Buddha: ADiDa, QuanamBoTat, DaiTheChi; all of these 3 statues are about 7 meters
high, with mild faces looking over the whole world as if they were ready
to save and support human beings.
Every season in the year, there are always pilgrims coming to visit
Buddha, to watch the beautiful sights of the pagoda and mountain
forest; especially on the occasion of Spring and New Year, ten thousands
of people come to the pagoda, following each other to climb the mountain
like dragons and snakes. Recently every year they organize a mountain -
climbing competition attracting many young people from the Eastern
provinces. In the next future here they will carry out the project of
hanging cables in order to bring travelers up and down to visit the
pagodas more conveniently. The
TaCu Mountain Pagoda with the forests in the Natural
Preserve Area has
classified as the national beauty spot by the Government in 1993.
PHATQUANG PAGODA
PhatQuang pagoda was built at the first half of the eighteenth century,
located at HungLong quarter, PhanThiet city. The place
where this pagoda was being built was thinly - populated, and this pagoda
was surrounded by immense sand dunes stretching out to the sea, so it was also named
"Sand pagoda" by the folk.
Among
the ancient pagodas in BinhThuan, beside the architecture and content
containing a lot of cultural heritages generally as well as Buddhism
culture separately, PhatQuang pagoda also has a beautiful flower garden
attracting many Buddhists and tourists to come here in order to worship
and to go for sightseeing.
GHOTTO
PAGODA
 Grotto
pagoda named " CoThachTu" was
built at the beginning half of the nineteenth century, located in the
grottoes on CoThach mountainous hill at the height of over 64 meters,
belonging to the area of BinhThanh commune, TuyPhong district, BinhThuan
province. CoThach is a large stone mountainous area consisting of thousands and ten
thousands of big and small rocks, some full mass rocks are as big as
houses, some are like stone tables, some lie on one another as if human
hands had arranged and some have mysterious strange shapes and forms, all
of them contain the unique rudimentary beauty with a lot of primitive grottoes
twisting deep into the mountain.
The
above is the rock mountain with forest trees pushing one another; at the
foot of CoThach is the clear blue sea. With whispering
splashing waves all the year round, and naturally - formed beach, not far
away from there is a bank of multicolored pebbles which has existed for
thousands
of years, all of these have made CoThach full of factors of lovely and
attractive mountain and water. Beside the natural beauty of the grottoes
combined with the human creativeness, here CoThachTu has still
preserved a lot of rare precious historical cultural heritages: lots of
Chinese - Vietnamese cultural heritages such as parallel scrolls,
horizontal boards inscribed with Chinese characters and the documents
from the days of making this pagoda. Some other culturally and
historically valuable ancient objects such as the Great Bell, BatNha drum have got the epoch from the
beginning half of the nineteenth century. The head monk of CoThachTu has
been Buddhist priest ThichMinhDuc for scores of years, CoThachTu, it
is BinhThuan province's main tourist place, every year ten thousands of
travelers from every part of the country come here in order to worship and
kowtow Buddha and to go for sight seeing tours
of the rare special beautiful sights here. With its values about the
natural beautiful sights and about history - culture, CoThachTu
has classified as the National
beautiful place of historical interest in 1993 by the Government.
"THAYTHIM" SHRINE
ThayThim shrine is located
in the middle of an old forest named BauCat belonging to TanHai commune,
HamTan district, about 70 km South East of PhanThiet city. According to
the folk legend under
Dynasty
of
King TuDuc, there was a
Taoist couple from LaQua village, DienBan district, QuangNam
province. The Taoist was a well talented and moral person who often
helped the poor, hated the mandarins and commanders bullying the local
villagers, and fought against the contemporary regime; so he was accused
of making troubles, planning a rebel and got the punishment of "TamBanTrieuDien" by Dynasty
of
King TuDuc. Before this
punishment, the Taoists turned the silk ribbon into a dragon to fly toward the South. This
couple stopped at Tam Tan village, everyday they prepared the medicine to
cure the local people and cut firewood in order to earn their living.
Their talent and virtue were famous everywhere in the area, since then the
local villagers have called this Taoist couple the familiar names of
" Thay, Thim". There have been many their folk legends about
their talent, virtue and magical power. When this couple died, the local
villagers buried them in a nearby area. Every year, on the 5th
of Lunar
January, they often see a couple of tigers comes to visit
their tombs.
Until King ThanhThai the eighteenth's time in BinhNgo year (the Horse year, 1906), the
King reconsidered "ThayThim" merit and virtue and decided to
abolish the punishment for them and granted them the nomination of
"ChiDucTienSinh, ChiDucNuongNuongTonThan".
In
order to show their respect and gratitude to "ThayThim"
couple's merits, the villagers made a shrine at the present position to
worship them. The local people have considered "ThayThim" as
the Village's Tutelary God and Goddess symbolizing many precious
characters such as talent and morality, industriousness, hard working,
human compassion for the poor. For
over 100 years, "ThayThim" shrine has become the place where
the people come to worship and honor; recently it has been an area of
tourist famous beautiful sights combined with the surrounding mountain
and forest, the beach and Poplar hill. Every year, people everywhere come
to visit the tombs and the shrine, but the most crowded are on the
occasions of ThayThim death anniversary on the 5`h of Lunar
January and the ritual of its Autumn offering sacrifices from the 14`h to
the 16`~ of Lunar September.
The
Ministry of Culture Information classified it as the Art Architectural
place of historical-interest in 1997.
POSHANU
CHAM TOWER TEMPLES
 The
group of Poshanu Cham tower temples are situated on BaNai hill top at
PhuHai commune, about 7 Km North - East of PhanThiet city. From the end
of the eighth century to the beginning of the ninth century, they were
constructed in the manner of HoaLai art
architecture - one of Champa Kingdom's ancient art architectural manners,
but now there are only very a few of these tower temples left such as some
ruins in MySon Holy Land area, HoaLai group
(PhanRang) and PoDam one (TuyPhong - BinhThuan) left and only the group of Poshanu Cham tower temples are comparatively integral.
Poshanu
is the group of Cham tower temples with the important role among BinhThuan's Cham architectural places of historical interest, from the
architectural form to the building technique and art decoration on the
body, the rolling domes, the main doors and false ones inside and up to
the top. Only the building technique and art decoration on the tower body
can evoke quite specific aesthetic factor of HoaLai manner.
Compared with other Cham towers, until now every year, crowds of Cham
people from the nearby areas come here in order to carry out the ritual of
appealing for the rain and other religious ones related to their own
customs and habits. Another interesting thing is that the fishermen living
in the vicinity also come here to appeal for safe sea journeys before
they go out to the sea. The group of Poshanu Cham tower temples were
repaired, improved and upgraded from 1990 to 2000 and now completed. This place of historical interest
was classified as the National art architectural one in 1991 by the Government.
PODAM CHAM TOWER TEMPLES
 The group of PoDam (PoTam) Cham tower
temples are located at the foot of OngXiem mountain belonging to the
locality of PhuLac commune - TuyPhong district - BinhThuan province,
about 11.0 Km North West of PhanThiet city. The building techniques as
well as the architectural art are similar to Poshanu tower temple
group's, this group had the epoch from half the end of the eighth century
to the beginning of the ninth century and they belong to HoaLai art and architectural style.
PoDam Tower is the
place where Cham people living in PhuLac and its nearby areas carry out the rituals to worship
the Cham Kings every year. Nowadays, the King's
Descendant's family
ancestries have still preserved 8 nominations granted to PoDam King by
Nguyen King’s Dynasties from MinhMang to KhaiDinh. They have been kept
specially as the family ancestry's precious properties and the King’s
Descendant’s responsibility. This place of historical interest was
classified as the National Art - Architectural one in 1996.
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BinhThuan:
Old Temples, Pagodas
