Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [262]
Visitors to the mausoleum must leave bags and cameras at one of the reception centres, the most convenient being that at 8 Hung Vuong, from where you’ll be escorted by soldiers in immaculate uniforms. Respectful behaviour is requested, which means appropriate dress (no shorts or sleeveless vests) and removing hats and keeping silence within the sanctum. Note that each autumn the mausoleum usually closes for a few weeks while Ho undergoes maintenance.
Inside the building’s marble entrance hall Ho Chi Minh’s most quoted maxim greets you: “nothing is more important than independence and freedom.” Then it’s up the stairs and into a cold, dark room where this charismatic hero lies under glass, a small, pale figure glowing in the dim light, his thin hands resting on black covers. Despite the rather macabre overtones, it’s hard not to be affected by the solemn atmosphere, though in actual fact Ho’s last wish was to be cremated and his ashes divided between the north, centre and south of the country, with each site marked only by a simple shelter. The grandiose building where he now lies seems sadly at odds with this unassuming, egalitarian man.
Hanoi and around | The City | Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and around |
The Presidential Palace and Ho Chi Minh’s house
Follow the crowd on leaving Ho’s mausoleum and you enter the grounds of the Presidential Palace via the side gate. The palace was built in 1901 as the humble abode of the governor-general of Indochina – all sweeping stairways, louvred shutters and ornate wrought-iron gates of the Belle Époque – and these days is used to receive visiting heads of state. It’s closed to the public but you can admire the outside as you walk through the palace gardens to Ho Chi Minh’s house (daily: April–Oct 7.30–11am & 1.30–4pm; Nov–March 8–11am & 2–4pm; 5000đ). After Independence in 1954 President Ho Chi Minh built a modest dwelling for himself behind the palace, modelling it on an ethnic minority stilthouse, a simple structure with open sides and split-bamboo screens. Ho and his Politburo used to gather in the ground-level meeting area, while his study and bedroom upstairs are said to be as he left them, sparsely furnished, unostentatious and very highly polished. Ho lived here for the last eleven years of his life, even during the American War, tending his garden and fishpond; tradition has it that he died in the small hut next door.
Hanoi and around | The City | Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and around |
The One Pillar Pagoda
Close by Ho’s stilthouse, the One Pillar Pagoda rivals the Tortoise Tower as a symbol of Hanoi. It is the most unusual of the hundreds of pagodas sponsored by devoutly Buddhist Ly Dynasty kings in the eleventh century, and represents a flowering of Vietnamese art. The tiny wooden sanctuary, dedicated to Quan Am whose statue nestles inside, is only three square metres in size and is supported on a single column rising from the middle of an artificial lake, the whole structure designed to resemble a lotus blossom, the Buddhist symbol of enlightenment. In fact this is by no means the original building – the concrete pillar is a real giveaway – and the last reconstruction took place after departing French troops blew up the pagoda in 1954.
The pagoda’s origins are uncertain but a popular legend recounts that it was founded in 1049 by King Ly Thai Tong, an ardent Buddhist with no male offspring. The goddess Quan Am appeared before the king in a dream, sitting on her lotus throne and holding out to him an infant boy. Soon after, the king married a village girl who bore him a son and heir, and he erected a pagoda shaped like a lotus blossom in thanks. The fact that King Ly Thai Tong already had a son born in 1022, six years before he came to the throne, gives greater credence to a less romantic version. According to this story, King Ly Thai Tong dreamt that Quan Am invited him to join her on the lotus throne. The king’s advisers, deeming this an ill omen, advised him to found a pagoda where they could pray for their sovereign’s longevity.