Xá Lợi Pagoda
The Xá Lợi Pagoda ( Vietnamese Chùa Xá Lợi chữ nho : 舍利寺 ) is the largest pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City , Vietnam . It was built in 1956 and was the headquarters of Buddhism in South Vietnam . The pagoda is located in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, on a plot of 2500 square meters. The name Xá Lợi is the Vietnamese translation of śarīra , a term used for the relics of Buddhists.
The pagoda is best known for the series of raids on August 21, 1963, when Buddhist monasteries and pagodas were attacked and devastated by special forces of the Vietnamese army under the leadership of Ngô Đình Nhu , the brother of the Roman Catholic President Ngô Đình Diệm .
history
construction
Construction began on August 5, 1956 according to the plans of the architects Trần Văn Đường and Đỗ Bá Vinh under the supervision of Dư Ngọc Ánh and Hồ Tố Thuận. The pagoda was opened by Thich Khanh Anh on May 2, 1958. The pagoda was built to hold relics of Gautama Buddha , which is where its name comes from.
Protests and raids in 1963
The pagoda was featured in a series of raids in response to protests by Vietnamese Buddhists for civil rights in the face of religious persecution by the government of Roman Catholic President Ngô Đình Diệm. Units of the special forces led by Lê Quang Tung and supported by police forces broke through the gate of the pagoda at around 12:20 a.m. on August 21, 1963. Nhu's units were armed with pistols, machine guns, carbines, HE shells and tear gas grenades. They were supported by truckloads from police forces. Monks and nuns barricaded themselves behind wooden boards and were attacked with rifle butts and bayonets. A monk was thrown from the balcony into the courtyard six meters below. Nhu's units ravaged the altar and confiscated the heart of Thích Quảng Đức , the monk who burned himself to death in protest against the government. Two monks jumped over a wall onto the US Aid Mission site, where they were granted asylum.
Thich Tinh Khiet, the 80-year-old head of Buddhists in Vietnam, was captured and taken to a military hospital on the outskirts of Saigon . The commander of the III. Corps of the ARVN , General Tôn Thất Đính, said Saigon was under military control and canceled all civil flights into the city and introduced press censorship. Across the country, it is estimated that hundreds died or were abducted and more than 1,000 monks were arrested during the action.
Administrative headquarters
The pagoda served as the headquarters of the Vietnamese Buddhist Association until 1981 and as a secondary seat until May 1993.
The attachment
The complex consists of a number of buildings including the main hall and a bell tower. The pagoda is separated from the road by a fence with a gate. Inside the complex stands a statue of Guanyin with a glass container in one hand and the other hand in a gesture as if clearing obstacles. The main hall of the pagoda is located on the upper floor. Men go up the stairs on the right and women on the left. The main hall is rectangular and supported by columns. Opposite the entrance is the shrine, which is dominated by a large Gautama Buddha .
The shrine
The statuette of Gautama Buddha shows him meditating on a lotus flower. He wears the clothes of a monk. As usual, he is shown with elongated earlobes, which represent his royal origins through the use of jewelry, his hair is cut short and shows the turning away from worldly life. Behind his head there is a disk of the sun. The statuette was made by artists from Biên Hòa . The statuette got its current appearance in 1969 when its gold coating was put on. In front of the statuette is the shrine with the relics, which are kept in a small stupa . In the foreground of the shrine is a small porcelain Buddha of the Laughing Buddha Maitreya . Between this and the golden Buddha is a figure of the multi-armed Cundi (Chuan De) Bodhisattva during meditation on a lotus flower.
Scenes from the life of Gautama Buddha
The walls of the main hall show large pictures with 14 scenes from the life of Gautama Buddha , from birth to attainment of nirvana . The pictures were taken by Dr. Nguyen Van Long designed by Gia Dinh Art School.
Bell tower
The pagoda's bell tower opened in 1961. It is 32 m high and has seven floors. It is the tallest bell tower in Vietnam. On the top floor there is a two-ton bell that was cast based on the model of the bell in the Thiên Mụ pagoda in Huế .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d CHÙA XÁ LỢI TRUYỀN THỐNG & ĐẶC ĐIỂM VĂN HÓA , accessed on November 20, 2016.
- ^ Howard Jones: Death of a Generation. Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-19-505286-2 , p. 297.
- ^ Seth Jacobs: Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War in Vietnam. 1950-1963. Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, ISBN 0-7425-4447-8 , p. 153.
- ↑ a b The Crackdown.
- ↑ Ellen Hammer: A Death in November. EP Dutton, 1987, ISBN 0-525-24210-4 , p. 168.
- ^ Howard Jones: Death of a Generation. 2003, p. 298.
Coordinates: 10 ° 46 ′ 40.7 " N , 106 ° 41 ′ 11.7" E