Temple of Thanh Cao Son
You are standing in front of the altar to worship Saint Cao Son, to the Vietnamese people, the saint Cao Son in the legend is like a god, a saint. Surely you are wondering why in the system of Buddha statues at Bai Dinh Pagoda, only the statue of Saint Cao Son is made of wood while the rest of the Buddha statues of the temple are made of gilded bronze? I would like to tell you a story.
In the past, when the ancient Bai Dinh pagoda was not restored, the locals here often chose flat stone slabs in the cave to worship the incense bowls, the previous statues were made from jackfruit wood. However, you know that, in the rainy season, the humidity in the cave is very high, the wooden statues cannot be guaranteed to last, so the temple has restored and replaced all the wooden statues. in the temple with gold-plated bronze statues as you can see. And when replacing the Buddha image, the temple has a ceremony to invite the Buddha image. Most of the Buddha statues here are movable. However, when moving to the statue of Saint Cao Son in front of your eyes, I don't understand why it can't be moved, he still sits like a stone table. So why can't a small statue move? Ladies and gentlemen, the history goes back to the year 968 when King Dinh Tien Hoang ascended the throne and stationed his capital at Hoa Lu. He went to Dinh mountain here to set up an altar to sacrifice to heaven, then King Dinh had a wooden statue of Thanh Cao painted and worshiped him in this cave facing south with the meaning, borrowing his power to conquer Keep the south citadel of the ancient capital of flowers. In his hand he was holding a card, with the task of the king to guard the city, so today posterity wants to move him to another position, he decided not to agree. That is the deep reason why the wooden statue of Saint Cao Son is still worshiped here.
Over the centuries, the temple is still there, the ancient statues are still there as a proof of the enduring existence of Buddhism in the spiritual life of us Vietnamese.
Dear customers, when the statue of Saint Cao Son could not be moved, the temple built a spacious new temple right below the medicine valley, going down nearly 100 stone steps you will see, in the temple, the statue of Saint Cao Son in gold plated brass. The temple was built with its back to the mountain, in front is a vast green medicine valley, extremely poetic.
Here we invite you to visit the sample cave (dark cave), thank you for listening.