One Pillar Pagoda in serious damage; officials indifferent

Despite the serious damage of the One Pillar Pagoda, one of Vietnam's two most iconic pagodas in Hanoi alongside with the Perfume Pagoda, local authorities seem to be indifferent.

The One Pillar Pagoda has been heavily flooded during the rainy season since 2007.

The Buddhist statues in the pagoda even have to wear conical hats to avoid the rain.

“After four suffering years, some statues’ outer layers have sustained cracks”, Thich Tam Kien, the pagoda’s abbot told Tuoi Tre Newspaper on Monday.

Moreover, the pagoda usually turns into a pond full of trash after heavy rains.

Still, local authorities seem to think it’s not urgent to restore the relic.

Officials on vacation

“We not only sent letters to the government but also often called and met Ba Dinh District’s authorities to ask for the restoration, but received no answer.

Recently, they told us to wait for a seminar since concerned officials have gone on vacation”, the abbot added.

Vu Dinh Khanh, vice director of Ba Dinh District’s Project Management Board told the newspaper it will take almost a half a year to discuss ways to fix the situation.

He also said the flooding is unavoidable since the pagoda is located in a low land area.
The One Pillar Pagoda was built under the reign of King Tong who ruled from 1028 to 1054.

Legend has it that when the King was a child, he dreamt that he met the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who handed him a baby son while on a lotus.

The King then married a peasant girl and she bore him a son. With the suggestion of a monk named Thien Tue, he constructed the pagoda in 1049 in gratitude to the bodhisattva.

The pagoda stands only on one single pillar in the middle of a lotus pond, similar to the lotus the King saw in his dream.

One pagoda has been recognized as a national historical and cultural relic since 1962.

Buddhist statues inside One Pillar Pagoda have to 'wear' hat like this when it rains