Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [69]
Quan Am Pagoda
Ho Chi Minh City and around | The City |
North of Cho Lon
Two of Ho Chi Minh City’s oldest and most atmospheric places of worship, the Giac Lam and Giac Vien Pagodas, are tucked away in the hinterland to the north of Cho Lon – as is the thriving Phu Tho Racecourse, if you fancy a flutter. Also nearby is Dam Sen leisure park. The best way to get to these destinations is by xe om or cyclo, as they are hidden away in the backstreets.
Ho Chi Minh City and around | The City | North of Cho Lon |
Giac Lam Pagoda
You’ll see the gate leading up to Giac Lam Pagoda (daily 5am–noon & 2–8pm) on Lac Long Quan, a couple of hundred metres northeast of its intersection with Le Dai Hanh. From there, a short track passes a new tower (its seven levels are scaleable and afford good city views) and a cluster of monks’ tombs on its way to the actual pagoda. Built in 1744, rambling Giac Lam is draped over 98 hardwood pillars, each inscribed with traditional chu nom characters (Vietnamese script, based on Chinese ideograms). From its terracotta floor-tiles and extravagant chandeliers to the antique tables at which monks sit to take tea, Giac Lam is characterized by a clutter that imbues it with an appealingly fusty feel, and a reassuring sense of age.
Access is through an entrance at the rear of the right-hand wall, which leads into a funerary chamber flanked by row upon row of gilt tablets above photos of the deceased. The many-armed goddess that stands in the centre of the chamber is Chuan De, a manifestation of Quan Am. A right turn leads to a courtyard-garden, around which runs a roof studded with blue and white porcelain saucers. Monks would once have sat studying on the huge wooden benches in the peaceful old classroom at the back of the complex, still in use as a study centre today. The panels in this chamber depict the ten Buddhist hells; study them carefully, and you’ll see sinners being variously minced, fed to dogs, dismembered and disembowelled by fanged demons.
To the left of the funerary chamber as you enter the pagoda is the main sanctuary, whose multi-tiered altar dais groans under the weight of the many Buddhist and Taoist statues it supports (remember to take off your shoes before entering). Elsewhere in this chamber you’ll spot an ensemble of oil lamps balanced on a Christmas-tree-shaped wooden frame. Worshippers pen prayers on pieces of paper, which they affix to the tree and then feed the lamps with an offering of oil. A similar ritual is attached to the bell across the chamber, though in this case people believe that their prayers are hastened to the gods by the ringing of the bell.
Ho Chi Minh City and around | The City | North of Cho Lon |
Giac Vien Pagoda
Hidden away in a maze of backstreets, Giac Vien Pagoda was founded in the late eighteenth century, and said to have been frequented by Emperor Gia Long. Like Giac Lam, it has a dark live in atmosphere. Upon entering its red doors daubed with yellow chu nom characters, visitors are confronted by banks of old photos and funerary tablets flanking long refectory-style tables. The two rows of black pillars lend an arresting sense of depth to this first chamber, which is dominated by a panel depicting a ferocious-looking red lion. Continue around the stone walls (crafted, incongruously, in classical Greek style) and into the main sanctuary, and you’ll find a sizeable congregation of deities, as well as a tree of lamps similar to the one at Giac Lam. The monks residing in Giac Vien are hospitable to a fault, and you’ll probably be invited for a cup of tea before you leave.
Ho Chi Minh City and around | The City | North of Cho Lon |
Phu Tho Racecourse and Dam Sen leisure park
There’s no more potent symbol of the Vietnamese love of gambling than Phu Tho Racecourse (08/3855 1205), located at 2 Le Dai Hanh, just north of Cho Lon. Apart from a 14-year spell between 1975 and 1989, when gambling was seen as an example of bourgeois decadence and outlawed, the track resounds