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Surrounding the rare statues in Vietnam are numerous intriguing stories, some with inexplicable coincidences.
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The Most Beautiful Buddha Statue in Southeast Asia
The Dong Duong Buddha statue, hailed by experts as the oldest and most uniquely beautiful, stands at 1.22 meters tall, with a width of 38 cm and a thickness of 38 cm, placed on a two-tiered round pedestal carved with lotus petals. The Buddha statue is made of bronze. A notable feature is the absence of a supporting base underneath, unlike other Buddha statues. The Buddha has curly hair arranged in regular spirals, wearing a long robe open on one shoulder, with an additional outer robe.
In April 1911, French archaeologist Henri Parmentier discovered a Buddha statue in the Dong Duong area, Binh Dinh commune, Thang Binh district, Quang Nam province. At that time, archaeologists at the Far East School and the Indochina Research Society assessed that the Dong Duong Buddha statue was one of the oldest and most beautiful Buddha statues in the entire Southeast Asian region at that time.
The Dong Duong Buddha statue was previously registered by the Far East School with the code D22.1. The statue has been exhibited in many countries around the world such as the United States, France, Belgium... Particularly, in a Southeast Asian antique exhibition at the Guimet Museum in the capital Paris (France), the Dong Duong statue was insured for $5 million. To date, this is the only statue in Vietnam to have been insured for such a high price when exhibited in foreign museums.
The exact origin of the precious statue remains a mystery to this day. Some believe that, like the Buddha statues of Amaradhapura (Sri Lanka), the Dong Duong Buddha statue dates back to around the 3rd-4th centuries and was brought from India or Sri Lanka.
However, many archaeologists lean towards the possibility that the statue was made by ancient Cham people. In the early 20th century, archaeologists excavated relics from Quang Binh to the Nam Panturang area (Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan) discovering dozens of relics and hundreds of artifacts bearing the imprint of Buddhism.
The Fascinating Tale of the Radiant Buddha Statue
Linh Ung Bai But Pagoda is the most beautiful, largest, and youngest among the 3 'Linh Ung Pagodas' in Da Nang. Linh Ung Bai But is located on the slope of Son Tra Mountain, overlooking a corner of Da Nang's sky and sea, with a Buddha statue standing 70m tall facing the sea.
Legend has it that during the reign of King Minh Mang, fishermen along the coast discovered a Buddha statue on the sandy beach, where they then built a small shrine. Then, Avalokiteshvara appeared to save people from the sea. Since then, fishermen believe that Avalokiteshvara has calmed the waves and ensured peaceful livelihoods for them.
Linh Ung Pagoda has witnessed 13 times of seven-colored radiance appearing on Son Tra Mountain.
In 2008, sculptor Thuy Lam was invited to revise the statue of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. At noon on September 16, 2008, when Thuy Lam opened the Buddha's face to make adjustments, a strange seven-colored radiance suddenly appeared around the sun. This radiance, with varying levels of expansion, covered the sun for an hour, visible to the entire city. Similar phenomena have occurred many times since then.
To date, Linh Ung Pagoda has witnessed 13 occurrences of seven-colored radiance appearing on Son Tra Mountain, where the statue of Lady Buddha is located. Whether this radiance aligns with the spiritual beliefs of coastal residents remains unexplained. If it's a phenomenon of sunlight refraction, the fact that it has occurred 12 times is truly a rare phenomenon.
A Million-Dollar Buddha Statue at the Homeland's Frontier
The journey of the Buddha statue of Thich Ca Mau Ni Zen to settle at Thanh Pagoda (Lang Son), as well as events from decades ago, when stringing together, reveal many inexplicable coincidences.
The Buddha statue of Thich Ca Mau Ni Zen meditation is crafted from natural sapphire stone, with a grayish-green color containing some veins of blue to grayish-blue. The hardness of this Buddha statue is only surpassed by diamonds, with a hardness scale of 9 compared to diamond's 10. The statue weighs 8.6 tons, stands 2.8m tall, is 1.56m wide, and 0.9m thick.
Before the jade Buddha statue of Thich Ca Mau Ni Zen meditation settled at Thanh Pagoda, this statue had undergone numerous attempts to purchase, some even reaching millions of US dollars, but all failed. The owner of the statue, artisan Nguyen Van Cam (commonly known as Ba Cam), refused many businesses' offers to acquire this precious statue. Only when Mr. Pham Xuan Phuong, a wealthy landowner in Hanoi, learned about the statue and expressed his desire to purchase it to bring to Thanh Pagoda, securing the frontier of the homeland, did Ba Cam agree.
Surrounding this extraordinary jade Buddha statue is also a peculiar story about the abbot of Thanh Pagoda, Venerable Thich Quang Truyen, who agreed to receive this precious statue.
The incident happened over a decade ago, when a group of hundreds of Vietnamese people visited Bo De Monastery (India) for pilgrimage, offering incense and prayers to the Buddha. Surprisingly, the master monk from a distant country, different in language and culture, standing beneath the ancestral Buddha statue amidst the crowd, recognized two Vietnamese Buddhists. He beckoned them closer and, with the help of an interpreter, asked if they were from Vietnam and from the homeland's frontier region. The two Buddhists nodded in astonishment at how the Indian monk knew so clearly.
Realizing he had found the right people, the monk removed the saffron robe from the ancestral Buddha statue, folded it into a cloth bag to conceal it from view, and asked the two Buddhists to bring it back to Vietnam and hand it over to a young abbot. The two Buddhists accepted the robe but asked, 'To which temple in our hometown should we bring it? We don't know who to give it to.' The monk replied, 'Just take it back; a master monk will come to be the abbot.'
When Venerable Thich Quang Truyen returned to serve as the abbot of Thanh Pagoda, still very young at 30 years old, and received the precious robe that the monk thought he was dreaming, he was extremely surprised and amazed. There were times when the venerable monk himself couldn't believe it, as in a distant country, the Indian monk seemed to know what would happen and that a young monk would return to serve as the abbot in a province where Buddhism was still young and undeveloped. Since receiving the precious robe, Venerable Thich Quang Truyen has kept it very carefully and has never opened it again.
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Source: Travel Handbook with Mytour – via kienthuc.net.vn
MytourJuly 5, 2013
