Bich Dong Pagoda

Bich Dong Pagoda sits on the limestone ridge of Truong Yen. Its old name, Bach Ngoc Thach Son Dong, describes a stone pagoda as fine as jade, hidden deep in the mountains. It was founded in 1428, at the start of the Later Le dynasty, as a small pagoda at the top of the hill.

The complex follows the shape of the character tam (三): three separate halls stepping up the slope, each set against the rock. They are framed in ironwood and roofed in plain tiles with rounded tips, the roof corners lifted into curved points like a phoenix’s tail.

The Lower Pagoda has five bays on a high platform in a T-shaped plan, with trusses and beams of ironwood and a two-tier roof of eight curved slopes. Its stone columns, each a single block more than four metres tall, have no joints. From here, 120 steps wind up in an S to the Middle Pagoda, where the words Bich Dong are carved into the cliff face. Another 40 stone steps lead along the slope to the Upper Pagoda, which looks out over the whole landscape of limestone and water.