Bai Dinh tourist area is a large pagoda known for many Asian and Vietnamese records, located at the western gateway of Hoa Lu ancient capital, on National Highway 38B, in Gia Sinh commune, Gia Vien. Ninh Binh, 15 km from Ninh Binh city, 95 km from Hanoi. Bai Dinh Pagoda is located in the north of the world heritage complex of Trang An. The population of Bai Dinh Pagoda currently has an area of 1700 hectares, including 27 hectares of ancient Bai Dinh Pagoda, 80 hectares of new Bai Dinh Pagoda, and areas such as a cultural park and Buddhist academy, reception area, and park. Landscape, roads and parking lots, Dam Thi Lake area, and discharge lake,… are still being built and expanded.
Over 1000 years ago, in Ninh Binh, there were three successive king dynasties: the Dinh, the Tien Le, and the Ly. These three feudal dynasties were very interested in Buddhism and considered Buddhism the National religion; Therefore, in Ninh Binh, there are many ancient pagodas, including Bai Dinh Temple in the Trang An mountain range.
In 1136, when Zen master Nguyen Minh Khong looked for medicinal plants to cure “tiger transformation” for King Ly Than Tong, he discovered the cave on Dinh mountain and chose this place to build Buddha statues, as a place for spiritual practice.
In 968, Dinh Tien Hoang put down 12 warlords and ascended the throne, he ascended to Dinh mountain – this sacred mountain set up an altar to pray for good rain, wind, national status, people peace and ordained general. doctor. Next, King Quang Trung also came here to set up an altar to encourage his soldiers before going to Thang Long to destroy the Qing army.
The current population of Bai Dinh pagoda includes an old pagoda and a new pagoda built in 2003. The pagoda is located on a mountain slope, between vast valleys and rocky mountains, at the western gateway to the ancient capital of Hoa Lu.
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When should you travel to Bai Dinh?
As an extremely popular spiritual resort, you can travel to Bai Dinh at any time of the year, as long as it fits into your plan. However, if you want to explore Bai Dinh at a reasonable time, you can refer to the following suggestions:
Bai Dinh pagoda festival is held from the afternoon of the first day of the new year, opens on the 6th day of the new year, and lasts until the end of March (lunar calendar). If you go to Bai Dinh at this time, chances are very high that it is always crowded, and there are rarely quiet spaces to visit the pagoda. If you combine Trang An tourism, choose the most appropriate time to travel to Trang An.
Guide to Bai Dinh
By road
Ninh Binh is an important intersection point. The most advantageous thing to come to Ninh Binh is through the road traffic system.
Bus routes to Ninh Binh from Hanoi all start from Giap Bat bus station and end at Ninh Binh central bus station. Because Ninh Binh City is also located right on the NH1A axis, in addition to these routes, you can use any other route from Hanoi to the central or southern provinces (choose bus routes from Hanoi). Thanh Hoa, Vinh, Ha Tinh,… because these routes are a lot, run quite continuously).
If you use the car, from Hanoi you can follow the Phap Van – Cau Gie – Ninh Binh highway, with a distance of about 90km, it only takes about 1 hour, you will reach the center of Ninh Binh city from here, going to tourist destinations in the province is almost no more than 30km.
By rail
Ninh Binh has the urban axis of Tam Diep – Ninh Binh located on the North-South railway line. In the province, there are Ninh Binh, Cau Yen, Ghenh, and Dong Giao stations. Therefore, whether in the South or outside the North, you can easily come to Ninh Binh by the Thong Nhat train.
From Hanoi, there are SE1 trains (19:30) to Ninh Binh at 9:46, SE3 train (22:00) to Ninh Binh at 00:10, train SE5 (9:00) to Ninh Binh at 11:21, train SE7 (6:00) to Ninh Binh at 8:22
If departing from Saigon, all trains arrive at Ninh Binh at most late hours, the only suitable train that you should go to is SE8 departing from Saigon station at 6:00 am and arriving in Ninh Binh at 13:15 the next day.
From Ninh Binh to Bai Dinh
From the end of the Ninh Binh highway to Bai Dinh pagoda, it is more than 20km. If you go to Ninh Binh by public transport, you can rent a taxi to get to Bai Dinh, this is a quite reasonable plan. Because the taxi is divided equally, the amount of money to pay per person is not much. If there are few people, choose to rent a motorbike in Ninh Binh and then from Ninh Binh city, explore Bai Dinh.
If you use a private vehicle, after leaving Ninh Binh expressway, you will return to Ninh Binh city in the direction of, Hanoi, to Trang An street, go in the direction of Trang An tourist site and Hoa Lu ancient capital. This will go to Bai Dinh.
Transportation in Bai Dinh pagoda
From the gate of Bai Dinh pagoda to the center about 3.5 km, you can choose to walk or take a tram, continuous, car and tickets are sold at the bus station.
Staying in Bai Dinh
If you only go to Bai Dinh during the day, you probably do not care what hotels or motels in Bai Dinh do. However, for those who want to visit many places in Ninh Binh and Bai Dinh is just one of the destinations, they may be interested in staying here.
Right in Bai Dinh pagoda, there is a hotel by Trang An Company, which can be considered a small resort on the temple campus. The hotel offers room types from ordinary to upscale with relatively high prices. If you want a more economical solution, you can stay at some people’s hotels or homestays right outside the temple.
Places to visit in Bai Dinh pagoda
New Bai Dinh pagoda area
Three bonded
Bai Dinh pagoda has 3 bonded triangles built high and wide, symbolizing 3 doors to enter the pagoda. Each bonded triangle has 3 doors, built of reinforced concrete and covered with stone outside, with four small curved roofs with stone above.
Three internal organs
The three inner doors are built entirely of Tu Thiet wood. Tam Quan internally has 4 pillars, each column is 13.85m high, 0.87m in diameter, and weighs about 10 tons. Tam Quan internally has 3 layers of curved roof on four sides, roofed with a ceramic tube of Bat Trang dark brown color. The three temples placed two bronze legal guardian statues, each statue 5.5m high and weighing 12 tons.
Arhat corridor
The La Han corridor is designed entirely of wood, the roof trusses are structured in the style of a pair of gongs, two rows of beds, 3,400m long with 250 rooms, each with a size of 4.5m x 4.5m. Along the two left corridors, on the right, there are 500 statues of La Han carved in monolithic stone, crafted by artisans of Ninh Van stone craft village (Hoa Lu – Ninh Binh). Each statue is 2-2.5m high and weighs about 2-2.5 tons. Each statue reveals a different shape and charisma, expressing the Taoist philosophy with joy, anger, love, and stigma in people’s daily life. The Arhat Corridor has been confirmed by the Asian Record Organization: “The longest corridor of 500 Arhat”.
Bell Tower
The bell tower was built with wood-imitation reinforced concrete, an ancient bell tower-style architecture, octagonal, with 3 curved floors, roofed with dark brown ceramic tube Bat Trang. The bell tower is 22m high, 17m in diameter, and has the look of a lotus flower.
Inside the bell tower hung a bronze bell weighing 36 tons, cast by artisans in Hue. The bell was granted by the Center of the Vietnamese Book of Records. Under the bronze bell, there is a bronze drum cast in the form of a Dong Son bronze drum, weighing 13 tons, with a diameter of more than 6m, and a height of nearly 7m.
Temple of the Buddha
Quan The Am Bodhisattva is built entirely of quartet wood, including 7 rooms, 14.8m high, 40.4m long, and 16.8m wide. In the middle of the temple is a thousand-eyed standard statue of Chuan Quan Am, cast in gold-plated bronze, weighs 80 tons, and is 9.57m high. The statue was certified by the Center of the Vietnam Book of Records as: “The largest bronze statue of the Bodhisattva in Vietnam”.
Phong Sinh Sinh Lake
Phong Sinh Sinh is 63m in width, 77m in length, and 5000m2 in area. In the Lake, The Lotus is a symbol of Buddha and Nirvana. The lower lake is yin, the high temple is yang. Therefore, Ho Phong Sinh creates a harmonious yin and yang, a beautiful “pre-post-painting” scene.
Phap Chu Temple
The temple of Bai Dinh pagoda’s owner worships the To Buddha, built entirely of massive, majestic reinforced concrete, nearly 30m high, 44.7m long, 43.3m wide, has an area of 1,945m, including 2 curved roof floors, with 8 roofs on four sides and a long neck row to raise the height, get light and ventilation, the blade is up to l, 3m high, the blade roof is 2.6m high, the moon surface is at the top of the roof. 4.4m, 3.3m high clamp.
In the shrine, the owner of Bai Dinh pagoda worshiping Buddha has three hammock doors, three panels and the opposite sentences (bronze words and textures) all praise the Buddha’s merit and the beautiful scenery of the pagoda. These are the products of human intelligence, also the cultural heritage of Buddhism, and the national culture of our country: These sentences are also the longest and largest in Vietnam.
Phap Chu Temple has 5 compartments, the nave is placed with a statue of Thich Ca Mau Ni sitting on a lotus and reciting lotus 10 m high, weighing 100 tons. Confirmed the record “The largest bronze Buddha statue in Vietnam”
Tam The Palace
Tam The Court is also built with imitation-wood reinforced concrete, with 3 curved roof floors, including 12 roofs on four sides. All roofs are curved and roofed with dark brown glazed tubes of Bat Trang. The corners of the roof are curved like a phoenix tail, making the roof curved, flexible, harmonious like tidal waves, like a boat floating on water, like two wings spreading wide to fly. In Tam The Palace, there are 3 bronze statues of Tam The Buddha (past, present, and future) made of copper 7.2 m high, weighing 50 tons. Record confirmed: “The temple has the largest bronze Tam The statue in Vietnam”.
From the courtyard, there are two ways to Tam The tower, Bai Dinh pagoda, each way is 8m wide, including 32 stone steps in height from the yard to the porch of 4m. Between the two paths up there is also a square stone relief of 10m each, with an area of 100m2, assembled by many stone slabs with a thickness of 0.2m. In the four corners of the stone reliefs, above are carved two phoenixes, the lower right is carved with a turtle, the left is carved glass, and in the middle is a wide moon-shaped face inside, carved dragon. This large stone relief carved the four spirits.
Bodhi Garden
Bai Dinh is the temple with the most Bodhi trees in Vietnam. On May 17, 2008, on the occasion of the Great Buddha’s Birthday of the United Nations of Vietnam, 100 Bodhi trees from Indian bodhi roots were planted in the temple grounds by leaders of Vietnam and the world.
Epitaph House
The stele house consists of 55 compartments, mainly inscribed with the names of people who progressed to build the Bai Dinh pagoda. To the west, east and south are 18 compartments on each side, each with a stone stele on the back of a stone turtle. Each stele placed on a turtle’s back is 2.9m high, 1.45m wide, and 0.40m thick. The stone tortoise is 2.95m long, the width of the body is 1.70m wide, and the thickness is 0.97m. The stele in the middle is placed on the highest dragon pedestal, 6.9m high (including pedestal), 3.5m wide, and 0.6m thick.
Maitreya Buddha
The statue of Maitreya Buddha is placed on the top of the highest hill in the temple area, about 100 meters high compared to the pagoda yard. That is the Dalai Buddha, cast in bronze in the incarnation posture of the Venerable monk walking begging. Statue taller than 10m, and weighs 80 tons.
Chedi of Bai Dinh Pagoda
With a height of 100 m, 13 floors, elevators, and 72 steps, the stupa at Bai Dinh Pagoda is the place to display the relics of Buddha from India.
Ancient Bai Dinh Pagoda
Ancient Bai Dinh pagoda (Ancient Bai Dinh) is located about 800 meters south of Tam The palace of the new pagoda. This temple area turns to the west, located near the top of a fairly quiet mountainous area, including a front street in the middle, turn to the right is a morning cave worshiping Buddha, and then to the Cao Son temple at the end the back door of the cave was bright; turn to the left is the temple of St. Nguyen and then to the dark cave to worship mother and fairy. This place is located in a land that fully converges the element of mastery according to Vietnamese folk concepts, that is the land of births of kings, births of saints, and births of Gods. Although the pagoda has a history dating back to the Dinh dynasty with Cao Son temple, west Hoa Lu town, ancient Bai Dinh pagoda has many architectural details and antiquities bearing a bold imprint of the Ly dynasty.
Light Cave – Dark Cave
To visit the cave in Bai Dinh mountain, you must step on 300 stone steps, through the three-door gate in the middle of the mountain. Up to the end of the slope is to reach the junction: on the right is a light cave worshiping Buddha and God, and on the left is a dark cave worshiping Mother and Fairy. Above the entrance of the morning cave, there are 4 letters “Minh Dinh Danh Lam” engraved on the stone bestowed by Le Thanh Tong, meaning: “Save the beautiful scenery”. When visiting the pagoda on the top of Bai Dinh, King Le Thanh Tong carved a quartet poem translated as:
The cave is 25m long, 15m wide, and 2m high on average, and the floor and ceiling of the cave are flat. Going to the left corner of the cave will lead to a bright and wide cave entrance, where a green valley appears. If you go down the stone steps, you will come to the temple of Cao Son. Go back to the first junction of the slope, and take the left turn about 50m to reach Toi cave. Dark cave is bigger than Sang cave, consisting of 7 chambers, with an overhead cave, some cave deep down, the caves are connected through many rocky niches, with a flat base cave, some cave with a sunken base like a basin, with a ceiling cave. By nature, there is a cave that is endowed with a hanging stalactite ceiling of all shapes. In the dark, there is a pearl well-formed by cold water falling from the ceiling. The Fairies are worshiped in many nooks and crannies.
Temple of St. Nguyen
Ly Quoc Su Nguyen Minh Khong is the founder of Bai Dinh pagoda. He is a Zen master and a talented magician who is revered by the King of Quoc Su and the people worship him as Duc Thanh Nguyen. The Dinh mountain area is located 4 km from the homeland of St. Nguyen Minh Khong. Legend has it that when he came here to find medicinal plants to cure tiger diseases for King Ly Than Tong, he discovered beautiful caves, built a pagoda to worship Buddha, and built a valuable medicinal garden to cure diseases for the people. The Temple of Nguyen is located right at the fork at the top of the slope, built in the style of leaning against the mountain, in the temple, there is a bronze statue of him.
National Professor Nguyen Minh Khong is the mapped man of the Ly Dynasty. He studied, collected folk medicine knowledge, daily searched for medicine in Sinh Duoc garden, became a famous physician, cured strange diseases for the King, and collected and revived bronze casting – the quintessence of Eastern civilization. Son – an ancient Vietnamese civilization that became the master of bronze casting. It was difficult for him to study the way from a monk who lived in Trang An palace to becoming a national monk, leading the national monks and nuns, fame, and dharma to the top. His behavior demonstrates the atmosphere of Buddhism in the mystical, bizarre Ly period, full of myths, but has made a very positive contribution to the revival and development of Vietnamese national culture in many aspects. : philosophy, literature, architecture, art, and engineering,… as the foundation for the development of Vietnamese culture in the future.
Temple of Cao Son
Going to the end of the morning cave, there is a path leading down to the valley side of the forest, which is the temple to Cao Son, the god of the Vu Lam mountain region. Dinh Bo Linh from an early age was brought to live next to the temple of the mountain god in the cave. When building the capital of Hoa Lu, Dinh Tien Hoang De also built 3 temples to worship the gods kept in 3 circles of the citadel, which are called Hoa Lu’s four towns. Accordingly, God Thien Ton guarded the entrance gate. around the eastern citadel, the god Quy Minh held the gateway to the southern citadel and Cao Son god controlled the gate to the western citadel. The current temple of Cao Son is renovated with the same architecture as Thanh Nguyen Temple, also built with its back on the mountain, with a corridor separating from the valley in front. According to legend, god Cao Son is one of 50 children of Lac Long Quan – Au Co. The main shrine of the god is in Phung Hoa (Nho Quan, Ninh Binh). This god was instrumental in assisting Le Tuong Duc’s army in destroying Uy Muc, later being brought to worship by the villagers of Kim Lien and named Cao Son Dai Vuong town south of the capital city, one of the four towns of Thang Long.
According to the genealogy of the temple of Hau mountain (Yen Thang commune, Yen Mo, Ninh Binh), Cao Son the king is Lac General Vu Lam, the 17th son of King Lac Long Quan while patrolling from Nam Linh to Thien Duong area. Vu Lam Palace has found a species of starchy tree used to make rice cake instead of rice flour, named it Quang lang (locals still call it Quang lang tree or cleavage). God taught and helped people to do business and protected them from destructive forces, so the people established temples. God Cao Son, God Thien Ton, and Quy Minh, are three gods occupying the west, east, and south gates of Hoa Lu.
Jade Well
The jade well of the ancient Bai Dinh pagoda is located near the foot of Bai Dinh mountain. Legend has it that this is the place where Zen master Nguyen Minh Khong took water to decorate the people and heal King Ly Than Tong. The rebuilt well has a moon-shaped surface, is very wide, has a diameter of 30 m, the depth of the water is 6 m, and never runs out. Wellhead building stone railing. The land around the well is square, has an area of 6,000 m², and 4 corners are 4 octagonal floors.
Some tourist schedules of Bai Dinh
Hanoi – Trang An – Bai Dinh – Hoa Lu (1 day)
- Morning departure from Hanoi to Ninh Binh, if you follow the expressway, it only takes more than 1 hour to get to Ninh Binh City. From here, we started going to Trang An tourist area.
- Around 9 am, you will start exploring Trang An by boat. Depending on the schedule, it takes you about 2-3 hours to explore all of this place. After leaving Trang An, going to Hoa Lu’s ancient capital relic, visiting the temple area of Dinh and Le Kings. Lunch break at a certain restaurant.
- Afternoon visit Bai Dinh pagoda, this is a very famous temple complex in Vietnam with many confirmed records. Finish your journey back to Hanoi
Hanoi – Cuc Phuong – Bai Dinh – Trang An – Van Long (3 days 2 nights)
Day 1: Hanoi – Ninh Binh – Cuc Phuong
Morning departure from Hanoi, about 3 hours will go down to the gate of Cuc Phuong National Park and have lunch at Cuc Phuong. Visiting Cuc Phuong forest, Cay Tro thousand years old, places along the way from the forest gate to inside. One night’s sleep in Cuc Phuong
Day 2: Cuc Phuong – Bai Dinh – Hoa Lu – Trang An
In the morning, check out, have breakfast, then depart from Cuc Phuong to go to Bai Dinh pagoda, the largest and most majestic temple. From Bai Dinh continued to move to the ancient capital of Hoa Lu. After visiting the temples of King Dinh and King Le and discovering the ancient capital, you will have a rest for lunch and then continue to move to Trang An tourist area. Choose one of 2 moving routes here, and return to Ninh Binh, Break Ngoi city. Dinner and overnight in Ninh Binh city.
Day 3: Ninh Binh – Van Long – Kenh Ga – Hanoi
Morning, check out from the building in Ninh Binh city to Van Long lagoon. This is also one of the places where Kong: Skull Island was filmed. Lunch from Van Long straight to Kenh Ga hot spring area, eating, resting, and hot spring bathing. Afternoon departure for Hanoi.
Hanoi – Phat Diem Church – Trang An – Bai Dinh (2 days 1 night)
Day 1: Hanoi – Ninh Binh – Phat Diem – Thien Ha Cave
From Hanoi, we will go straight to Phat Diem stone church. This is a Catholic church complex with unique architecture, built mainly of stone and wood for a long time from 1875 to 1899.
Rest for lunch. Afternoon from Phat Diem to visit Thien Ha Cave. Although the cave is not large, because it is located in the mountain range of General, which is a part of the solid natural wall that protects the Hoa Lu capital in the 10th century, Thien Ha cave is visited by many tourists to understand. more about the ancient capital.
Afternoon back in Ninh Binh city, rent a hotel in Ninh Binh City to rest and remember to enjoy the specialties of Ninh Binh.
Day 2: Trang An – Hoa Lu – Bai Dinh – Hanoi
From Ninh Binh city, move to Trang An tourist area, and choose one of two routes to explore Trang An to go. After finishing the journey here, continue to go to the ancient capital Hoa Lu to visit the temple of King Dinh and King Le.
Before returning to Hanoi, remember to visit Bai Dinh pago da, a new temple built with many Vietnamese records.
Related Article: Travelling to Trang An – Ninh Binh for the First Time (Tips & Tricks)
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