Độc đáo kho mộc bản chùa Bổ Đà

Located at the northern foot of Phuong Hoang mountain in Tien Lat commune, Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province, Bo Da is a large mountain range with interesting natural landscapes, there are many relics and legends about Buddhism. That highlights the legend of Bo Da Pagoda.

The elders in the village said that in the 11th century, at the foot of Mount Bo, there was a poor, but very kind, hard-working woodcutter family, everyone in the village loved it. Unfortunately, after 40 years of age, they still do not have children. As the days passed, they could only pray "Quan The Bodhisattva" and their prayers were fulfilled. One day, the husband came into the forest to meet an old pine tree in the mountains, he raised his ax to chop but when the first cut suddenly came out of the tree 32 coins. (Those are 32 manifestations of "Guan Yin Bodhisattva"). Happy woodcutter running to show off to the villagers, everyone is happy for them. Shortly after his wife gave birth to a handsome, handsome son, he named Minh. To show his sincerity and thanks to "Quan The Bodhisattva", he built the pagoda at the base of an old pine tree. That is the "Quan Am" pagoda, popularly known as the "Bo Pagoda - Bo Da Mountain". The latter is called "Thuong pagoda" because it is high on the mountainside. In the reign of Le Bao Thai (1720-1729), the monk Pham Kim Hung, abbot of the pagoda, was restored for the first time. During the reign of King Hien Tong (1740-1786), the monk Ngo Tue Khong discovered and painted the stone paint "Tu An pagoda and Tam Duc temple (at this time, there were only three monks' monks). In the reign of King Tu Duc (1847-1883), he built more "street money". Up to now, the whole population of Bo Pagoda has been completed with up to 100 spaces. Tower garden is a colorful, colorful architecture, including nearly one hundred monks. From 1786 onwards, through many monks to build the pagoda. Presiding at the pagoda is Dai Duc Tu Tuc Vinh monk Ngo Tue Khong exploited painted stone paint "Tu An pagoda and Tam Duc temple (at this time, there were only 3 monks' monks). 

The temple has nearly a hundred spaces, still many rare relics such as the temple gate, surrounding walls, tower garden with 97 towers (is the largest garden tower in Vietnam). The towers at the temple are built mainly of stone and thread, the circuit is covered with lime mixed with molasses and pulp so very durable and smooth. The pagoda used mountains, bricks and earth to build a fence wall around the tower garden, making the garden always in solitude, a true resting place for the ancestors ...

At present, the temple still preserves a lot of rare and valuable documents about the period when Buddhism flourished in Vietnam through nearly 2000 sets of woodblocks. The sutras were formed from the ideas of the ancestors, who also built the temple, wanted a sutra to teach Buddhism, and also a special Buddhist relics to for the next life. The sutta contains the thoughts of the two largest Asian Buddhist traditions, India and China.

The sutras are arranged on 8 shelves, each of which has 4 prayer books including 240 wooden planks of composition, all with nearly 2,000 pieces. If you want to see the whole ancient storehouse here, you must have a 250m² wide area to spread the planks.

The above set of Buddhist scriptures was engraved in 1740, during the reign of King Le Canh Hung. Most of the scriptures in the woodblocks store at Bo Da pagoda are 45cm long, 22cm wide and 2.5cm thick or 60cm long and 25cm wide, but there are also huge ones of 150x30x2.5. The scriptures are engraved with both Han and Nom scripts. Over nearly 300 years, the current business is still quite intact. Especially the wooden plates used to carve are very durable, beautiful, not termite, even without using a preservative medicine. On the sutras, the ancient artisans also decorated more textured lines, skillful and sophisticated shapes, reflecting the deep thoughts and philosophies of Buddhism. Among them are the carvings of Buddha Tathagata, Guan Yin Bodhisattva,

Although it was born in the same period as the woodblocks store of Vinh Nghiem pagoda, the content of woodblocks in Bo Da pagoda was completely different. Venerable Tu Tuc Vinh said: “If the sūtra at Vinh Nghiem pagoda belongs to the Mahayana school and some of the ideological versions of Truc Lam and Yen Tu sects, the sutras at Bo Da Pagoda mainly talk about Quan The Bodhisattva and the precepts. In which the main content of the inscriptions here are three sets of sutras: Nghiem Chinh Chinh Lang, Yet Ma Hoi Ban and Nam Hai Ky Quy. ” According to Nguyen Van Phong, deputy director of the Bac Giang Museum, large blocks of austere texts in the Bo Da Pagoda's repository also imprinted messages to conduct rituals in the temple or to print robes for meditators. Professor.

Although carrying many vestiges of the history of Buddhism in the most glorious period in the North, Vietnam, but so far more than 2000 woodblocks of Buddhist scriptures at Bo Da pagoda are currently preserved very sketchy. Weakly placed on wooden shelves without moisture-proof cabinets. Venerable said for many years the temple has let the Buddhist woodblocks know that they should not be but there is no other way. Not only is there a great place to store the woodblocks, but the woodblocks are also at risk of being stolen. Therefore, the pagoda is always on high alert, anyone who wants to visit the woodblocks warehouse must have a letter of introduction or a guarantor.

Mr. Nguyen Van Phong also said that Bac Giang province has a specific plan for woodblocks preservation research at Bo Da pagoda, which will conduct inventory, classification, research numbering and translation. , encrypt, and propose appropriate safeguards. That Europe is also a good signal for the woodblocks warehouse of Bo Da pagoda in particular and the future generations in general.