Chùa Vĩnh Nghiêm - bản sắc văn hóa Phật giáo Việt Nam

Vinh Nghiem Pagoda (Bac Giang) has long been known to domestic and international tourists not only as a tourist destination, because of the beauty of rare architecture and scenery, but also by its special identity. of Vietnamese Buddhist culture here ...

Located on a low hill, surrounded by mountains, rivers and water, the ancient and tranquil Vinh Nghiem pagoda attracts the eyes of tourists from the cross as a charming scenery. The pagoda overlooks the junction of rivers, on Luc Dau Giang - Kiep Bac area, Cam Ly area, the gateway to Yen Tu mountain. The pagoda is surrounded by mountains including Co Tien Mountain. Across the river is the king of Tran Hung Dao, Kiep Bac temple.

Legend has it that the pagoda was built from the beginning of Ly Thai To (1010-1028), to the time of King Tran Thanh Tong (1258-1278), there were high monks who practiced spiritually, so the pagoda was magnificent and magnificent. When King Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308) renounced the throne, he came to Vinh Nghiem pagoda to receive ordination, named Huong Van Dai Dau Da, founder of Zen Buddhism in Vietnam, he and his two disciples, Phap Loa and Huyen Quang created Truc Lam Tam to be the founder of Truc Lam Zen school in Vietnam.

Because of the special role that Vinh Nghiem Pagoda was built on a very large scale. The area of ​​the whole pagoda is about 10,000 m2, starting with Tam Quan gate, going into more than 100m is Ho Pagoda (also called Tien Duong). The road to Ho pagoda was once planted with pine trees so that the pagoda could escape from the forest, and there are still a few trees standing on the temple grounds as evidence of time. Right on the temple grounds is a six-sided stele that is a year of Hoang Dinh. This is the oldest remaining traces of the temple. Opposite to the ancient stele is the tomb tower garden of 8 monks, all built forever.

From Ho pagoda back to the building, blocks of architecture build on the main axis in a southeast direction and are separated by a narrow yard. In the temple, there are 4 blocks: Buddha Pagoda (the ancestors of the house, ie the Ho, Thieu Huong and Thuong Dien temples). The "public" shape of the first ancestor's house is also the "public" shape - a two-storey bell tower with roofs - the Second Patriarch's house and the Trai Duong family's mallet. The two sides also have the rows of Ta Vu and Huu Vu houses, each consisting of 18 spacious rooms where the monks settle and settle every year.

All 4 architectural blocks are based on traditional wooden frame structure, but from the First Group onwards, there are a number of additional brick pillars and bearing brick walls. Even the architectural wooden components, except for the four main pillars of the great Thuong Dien building, are glossy traces of the time of the Le Dynasty, the remains of the elegant rafters of the Nguyen Dynasty. The pagoda architecture shows the great aesthetic level of the ancients with the whole scene of the pagoda having low altitude, different spacing, creating a rich rhythm. But in general it absolutely does not rise suddenly but tends to spread, stretching in depth, to always surprise visitors.

Vinh Nghiem pagoda used to be a place to train Buddhist monks so it was a place to store carved wooden blocks. According to the pagoda's book, the "Tang Dynasty" was expanded to 10 compartments. That is the business set from 700 years ago, is an extremely valuable ancient bookstore. Many shelf printing still. It is a warehouse of carved boards, ancients called Moc Moc loi, an artifact proving that Vinh Nghiem pagoda once dominated 72 places of forest.

The woodblocks at Vinh Nghiem pagoda currently have 3,050 woodblocks with 9 major books of two main types of scriptures: The books originated from China and India are inherited by Truc Lam Zen Buddhist ancestors. notes according to the Vietnamese ideology and type of scriptures written by the Zen masters of Truc Lam Zen.

Through the survey, the researchers found that these woodblocks were engraved by artisans in Bac Giang, Bac Ninh and Hai Duong. The materials used for the woodblock are wooden planks and most are exploited at the temple gardens. This type of wood is often used for making woodblock prints because the wood is soft, smooth, tough, easy to engrave, less warping, hard to crack.

The woodblocks were engraved in Chinese or Nom with reverse engraving, which is a very difficult and sophisticated technique so that when printed on paper, it will become plain text. Each side corresponds to 2 pages of a book. The font is very straight and sharp. This proves that the ancient Vietnamese artisans were not only technically competent but also very knowledgeable about how to organize the documents, as well as being fluent in Han and Nom scripts, a type of ancient writing. Very complicated structure of Vietnamese people.

The woodblocks have an uneven size. The largest one is over 1m long, 40-50cm wide, the smallest one is about 15x20cm. Through observation, it was found that the surface of the printed boards is covered with a glossy black layer, which is the trace of the remaining ink on the surface of the plate after printing. And it is also thanks to this ink that protects the engravings that persist over time without being damaged by termites or mold.

The woodblocks mainly record Buddhist scriptures, the history of the formation and development of Truc Lam Zen Buddhism, written by the three Zen Zen masters Tran Nhan Tong, Phap Loa and Huyen Quang; There are also works of poems, poems, diaries of Mac Dinh Chi and some high monks. Studying carpentry archives, we have a rich and diverse amount of information about the Buddhist history, the ideology of religion and the incarnation of Truc Lam Zen Buddhism, literature, customs and the development of carving. woodblock printing and Vietnamese wood carvings ...

Experiencing many ups and downs of historical events, this treasury is now considered a national treasure. Especially, in the afternoon session on 16/5/2012 in Bangkok (Thailand) The woodblocks of Vinh Nghiem pagoda were officially recognized as World Documentary Heritage, Asia - Pacific region.

When I held it in my hand, looking at the intricate inscriptions with my own eyes, it felt like I was holding treasures, as if I was touching Vietnamese Buddhist history, as if I was feeling the warmth of my ancestors. passing on the posthumous world messages about the human realm, about the impermanence of the vast sky and the universe ... It is true that "Who has passed Yen Tu - Quynh Lam / Vinh Nghiem has not come, meditation has not yet reached".