Temple of Literature, Hanoi, Vietnam

Temple of Literature was the last stop of our Vietnam trip that was part of our babes tour.  We were tired, but still were excited, and as in all our trips wondered, why did we not think of staying here for a few more days?

At the entrance of Temple of Literature

This was one academia we had decided on visiting and was originally built as a university in 1070 dedicated to Confucius, scholars and sages of his time. The entire university is well maintained and is a superb example of traditional Vietnamese architecture that uses a lot of wood and tiles.  This is an ancient revered place of the older dynasties of Vietnam, which was frequented by the elite and royal class and these historic buildings have seen many doctors’ graduate from their  annals and now has become a memorial to education and literature.

Can you see the Steles and turtle heads?

The university campus offers a lake of literature, well of heavenly clarity, turtle steles, pavilions and passage ways that were once open only to the royalty.  Initially this university had its gates open only for the elite aristocrats, bureaucrats, nobles and the members of royal family, but later extended it to the bright commoners.  Names of successful graduates are carved on the stone stele on top of stone turtles.

The steles of carved blue stone turtles with elaborate motifs were made to honor talent and encourage study. The Turtle is one of the nation's four holy creatures - the others are the Dragon, the Unicorn and the Phoenix. The turtle is a symbol of longevity and wisdom. The doctors' steles are a valuable historical resource for the study of culture, education and sculpture in Vietnam. 82 stelae out of the original 116 remain. They depict the names and birth places of 1307 graduates of 82 triennial royal exams. The ancient Chinese engravings on each stele praise the merits of the monarch and cite the reason for holding royal exams. They also record the mandarins who were tasked with organizing the exams. It used to be common to rub the stone turtles' heads,  for good luck in exams by the students and tourists, but now there is a fence that is meant to prevent people from doing this in order to preserve the turtles.

The campus is the focus here.  ( remember our narcissism, and thats why we are there) 

I

Temple of literature is rather a place of study than a place of religious worship and probably that’s the reason we found many groups of young children from Vietnam who were brought in here for a tour of this place. The layout of the temple is based upon the birthplace of Confucius with a magnificent main entrance and a path, once reserved solely for the king, running through the center. The immaculate gardens are rich in ancient trees and are considered a serene place in which students can relax. There are stone statues and inscriptions dotted throughout the temple which has retained many of its original features as the most renowned landmark of academia in Vietnam.

The babes at the Well of Heavenly clarity!!!

Statue of Confucius

There are five courtyards at the temple, two brimming with landscaped gardens, the third is home to a large pond known as the Well of Heavenly Clarity, the fourth courtyard is called the Sage Courtyard and features a statue of Confucius and a house of ceremonies, and the last courtyard is Thai Hoc in which stands a large drum and bell tower. This historic site is ranked as one of Hanoi’s most important cultural places and is steeped in Vietnamese history.

At Thaihoc which houses the large drum and bell tower, with children who were posing

Hanoi  has puts effort into maintaining this elegant space, and the temple’s lawns and gardens are still carefully manicured today as they were hundreds of years ago. Hanoi flaunts an endless amount of history, grandeur, and mythical tales to enchant even the most seasoned traveler. The hustle and bustle of Vietnam’s capital city is entangled with hidden sites of peace and serenity. One such treasure is Hanoi’s ancient Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first national university and we were glad we stopped by this place sacrificing our shopping time..  Yes! We had to cut short our shopping to just one hour, but yeah, no regrets on that one.  But wait, really?

At the entrance of the third courtyard

Post script:

The temple is featured on the back of the 100,000 Vietnamese banknote.

100,000 Vietnamese Dong

Tran-Quoc Pagoda, Hanoi, Vietnam

The post on the last leg of our Vietnam Itinerary took longer than usual to take off.   Reasons not worth recording on the blog, (sheer laziness for example), I would now not go into them.

I know never late is better, but I think it is better late than never.   So here we go..

Last day at the hotel, Smiles wont betray us, but our eyes will

Happiness does lie in waking up each day and believing, as though it is the first day of our trip, but its difficult on the last day. We know our wonderful trip is coming to an end, the babes will go our own ways after this and though we knew we were coming to the tail end of our trip, our only reason to smile was the memories we were creating. The silent good byes to our hotel rooms and warm ones to our chefs and the people in hotel are done in the morning.  Lan, our guide was on time and we started pretty early on the last day too.

Live birds and  turtles on sale @ the pavement

Never to forget to put on our brightest smile along with our basic make-up, our first stop for the day was the historic Tran-Quoc pagoda and it opens as early as 7.30 am. One of the most interesting stuff I saw on the entrance of this pagoda was the sale of turtles, live ones, tiny and large too – never have seen them before.  Looks like that is legal in Vietnam.

The 15 metre main stupa of  Tran-Quoc Pagoda

Tran-Quoc Pagoda is the oldest of its kind in Hanoi, dating back to the 6^th century ( that’s around 1500 years) and this Buddhist shrine has undergone several changes throughout the years. Standing at 15 meters, the main stupa is made of up eleven levels, with gemstone statues of Amitabha within each open vaulted windows. It also has surrounding buildings that include an incense burning house and a museum housing historic relics. 

The intricately carved statues there date back to 15th century and they all bear unique facial features.  One of the main attractions here is also the gold sculpture of the Shakyamuni Buddha's Parinirvana. Also, this pagoda is filled with Buddhist symbolisms like the eight-spoked wheel, that represents the Noble Eight-fold Path.

Lan was also a great photographer - the babes posing with Tran-Quoc in the background

Tran-Quoc, its reflection  & me

Monks have lived at the Tran-Quoc Pagoda for centuries, teaching the ways of Buddhism to the public. The main pagoda itself is surrounded by 9 other smaller varying sizes of pagodas that are in reverence to some of the Buddhist monks and carries their ashes, and the taller the pagoda, higher was their level in the monastery.   Thanks to Lan’s knowledge on these, I still remember these little details she shared with us.

Notice the lady Buddha statue on top, tiny though

In the Tran Quoc pagoda they also worship female Buddhas, known as the "Mothers". Their shrines are in the front of the courtyard. The green Mother has domain over the mountains and forests. The white Mother has domain over the water. And lastly the red Mother has domain over the sky. These are some of the oldest gods or goddesses that have been worshiped in Vietnam and were in Vietnam before the Buddha.  For all of us, this was again our “firsts” – a lady Buddha.

The focus is on the Bodhi tree, taken from the original tree in Bodh Gaya

On the grounds of Tran Quoc is a Bodhi tree ( which is pretty large ) taken as cutting of the original tree in Bodh Gaya, India under which the Buddha sat and achieved enlightenment. The gift was made in 1959, marking the visit of the Indian president Rajendra Prasad.

In the incense burning house of Tran-Quoc

With some pretty women travellers from Hongkong 

The lush greenery, the west lake surrounding the pagoda and the architecture of the pagoda all are in harmony here and makes it look quite picturesque, bringing in peace and serenity than an oriental religious place would bring on.

One last picture with the Westlake and Skyline of Hanoi