Giai Pagoda - Ancient beauty

(Baonghean) - Giai Pagoda (Thanh Khai Commune, Thanh Chuong) is an ancient architectural work that was built a long time ago. Up to now, the pagoda still retains its ancient architecture and preserves many valuable ancient sacrificial objects, associated with the legend of the local people about the formation and development of Buddhism in Nghe An. Currently, the Management Board of Monuments and Landscapes has prepared a dossier to propose recognition of Giai Pagoda as a provincial-level cultural and historical relic.

XMy hometown Thanh Khai, Thanh Chuong district, is located at the intersection of Lam River and Da Cuong River (Gang River). During the Later Le and Nguyen dynasties, it used to belong to Nam Duong District (now Nam Dan). If Giai communal house had not been demolished, it would certainly be ranked and preserved on par with the famous Trung Can and Hoanh Son communal houses of Nghe An. Giai pagoda was built during the Later Le dynasty and was destroyed at the same time as Giai communal house. The midland village at the gateway to Lao wind has no village gate, lacks the feng shui of banyan trees and water ferns, and loses the communal house, temples, and shrines, making them look rough. The village and neighborhood sentiments take the "rigid" (direct) as the most important thing, neglecting the "soft" which is the sediment of humanity and the spirit of the villagers that has been imbued for thousands of years.

Illustration

Although the tangible cultural values ​​are “destroyed”, the intangible ones are always durable with the community and the nation. The silent kindness of the people, the old traces of the old foundation remain, the pagoda remains. Giai Pagoda has been restored and embellished on the old foundation by the people since the late 1990s. In May 2013, the pagoda was directed to prepare a dossier to be recognized as a provincial historical-cultural relic.

Giai Pagoda is an ancient spiritual architectural work, a place for cultural and religious activities of local people and tourists from all over. It helps people to be good and unite the community. On important holidays such as Thuong Nguyen Festival, Buddha's Birthday, Vu Lan Festival, the new moon and full moon festivals or whenever there is an event... people go to the pagoda to worship Buddha, offer incense, pray for the living and make vows for the deceased. Giai Pagoda still retains its ancient, sturdy and beautiful architecture and preserves many valuable ancient sacrificial objects, such as statues, mirror stands, parallel sentences, large characters... especially the ancient Buddha statue associated with the legend of local people about the formation and development of Buddhist beliefs in a rural area of ​​Nghe An.

Giai Pagoda is sacred not because of the horizontal and vertical buildings. Giai Pagoda has a modest and small architecture, but is great in the minds of the villagers. I followed my brother-in-law to the pagoda, gently stepping on the fallen frangipani flowers in the quiet afternoon temple yard, and came across a pair of parallel sentences: "A hundred branches meet the dew to the south/ Eternal temples and shrines have enlightenment", suddenly remembering the writer Nam Ha from Kinh Bac once wrote: "We keep looking for good and strange things in foreign lands, that is not blameworthy, but we accidentally or intentionally forget the good and beautiful things of our homeland, even if we make up many reasons to defend our indifference, it is still a mistake to the ancients...". Trees have roots, water has a source, no matter where they are, they always turn to their homeland, find a spiritual space to light incense to remember, and are guided by enlightenment to cultivate humanity and goodness.

Sam Temple