Visitors stepping through the temple gate in the late afternoon hear the place before seeing it. High in the canopy of ancient sao (Hopea odorata) and dầu (Dipterocarpus) trees across the garden rises a continuous soft screeching mixed with the flapping of wings. Looking up, one sees thousands of dark shapes hanging upside down from the branches, the largest with wingspans reaching one and a half meters. As daylight fades, they leave the trees in waves, gliding in streaks over the main hall roof to forage far away.
In the middle of that wooded garden stands a main hall set on a platform about one meter above the ground, its tiled roof stacked in four overlapping tiers with four corner eaves curving sharply upward into the tails of Naga serpents. Vietnamese residents in the area call the entire compound Chùa Dơi (Bat Pagoda). Its official name, however, is Sêrâytêchô Mahatup, and this is a temple of Khmer Theravada Buddhism, not a Mahayana pagoda of the Kinh majority.
ITwo names and one Buddhist tradition
The temple bears several names at once. Sêrâytêchô Mahatup, often written in full as Wath Sêrâytêchô Mahatup or Serây Tê Chô Mahatúp, is its formal Khmer name. Chùa Mahatup is the shortened form. Chùa Mã Tộc is the Sino-Vietnamese phonetic adaptation used by local Kinh and Chinese residents for the word Mahatup. Chùa Dơi is the popular vernacular name inspired by the bats in its garden. The temple has no Chinese character name like Northern Buddhist (Mahayana) pagodas of the Kinh, because scriptures and liturgical texts here use Khmer and Pali.
This is a temple of Khmer Theravada Buddhism, the Pali-canon tradition preserved by the Khmer community in the Mekong Delta. It differs from the Northern (Mahayana) tradition of the Kinh in several immediately visible ways.
Object of veneration. A Khmer Theravada main hall enshrines only Śākyamuni Buddha, with no statues of other Buddhas and no Bodhisattvas. Northern Buddhist pagodas venerate multiple tiers of figures including the Three Ages Buddhas, Amitābha, Avalokiteśvara (Quán Thế Âm), and Kṣitigarbha (Địa Tạng), alongside altars to Đức Ông, Đức Thánh Hiền, and often Mother Goddesses.
Scriptures and language. Khmer Theravada monks chant scriptures in Pali and teach in Khmer, whereas Northern Buddhist monastics chant Chinese-character scriptures in Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation.
Monastic discipline. Khmer Theravada monks observe early Buddhist monastic precepts, go on alms rounds, eat two meals a day, and finish eating before noon, without practicing lifelong vegetarianism as Northern Buddhist monastics do. Their robes are saffron-orange rather than brown or grey-blue.
Role of the temple. By Khmer custom, village boys past the age of twelve ordinarily ordain at the local temple for a period ranging from seven days to three months or longer, treating it as a formative stage of moral education. The temple therefore serves simultaneously as a place of worship, a school, and a community center, a role not shared by Northern Buddhist pagodas. The library notes these differences so readers can understand the site accurately, without ranking one tradition above another.
Sources interpret the Khmer name in two different ways. Việt Nam Law Newspaper (Báo Pháp Luật), Chốn Thiêng, and several local accounts analyze the compound Mahatup into maha (great) and tup (resistance), translating it as great resistance in connection with a folk tradition about a peasant uprising that once took place on this land. Meanwhile, the Vietnam Records Organization (Kỷ Lục Việt Nam) and the Vietnamese Wikipedia translate the full phrase Serây Tê Chô Mahatúp as created by merit and virtue. The library records both explanations as stated in their respective sources.
The most common misconception about this site lies in its name.
Many visitors assume Chùa Dơi (Bat Pagoda) was named by the Khmer community after the bats in the garden. That is not the case. Its proper Khmer name is Sêrâytêchô Mahatup, which contains no word meaning bat. Chùa Dơi is a vernacular name given by neighboring Vietnamese speakers after the site's most striking feature, which then spread nationwide through print and travel media until it overshadowed the formal name. The temple signboard and official documents still read Mahatup.
A smaller misconception concerns the bats themselves. They are not the small insect-eating bats commonly seen around houses, but flying foxes (dơi ngựa, locally called dơi quạ or crow bats), a large fruit-eating species. They do not eat the fruit growing inside the temple garden, flying far away each night to forage.
IIOver four hundred and fifty years of a village temple
The temple was founded in the 16th century when this area was still sparsely settled. In its earliest phase it was built of wood and roofed with nipa palm leaves, like most newly established Khmer temples. Brick and tile structures came later through multiple reconstructions across nineteen generations of abbots.
- 1569FoundationAccording to ancient temple records, the temple was founded in 1569 under the initiative of Mr. Thạch Út. The initial structure was built of wood and roofed with nipa palm leaves.
- Later centuriesRebuilt in brick and tileThe temple was rebuilt several times in more durable materials, gradually forming the main hall on a platform one meter high along with the sala, monks' quarters, and stupas in the garden.
- 1960Major restoration of the main hallA major renovation of the main hall using solid materials, cited in temple documents as a key 20th-century restoration milestone.
- 1989Start of keeping and burying five-toed pigsAccording to temple accounts, around this year a female pig with five toes appeared at the back gate, was named Năm Hợi, and lived at the temple until dying of old age in 1996. Local residents subsequently brought five-toed pigs to the temple.
- 1999National heritage siteOn February 12, 1999, the temple was designated a national architectural and artistic heritage site under Decision No. 05/1999/QĐ-BVHTT.
- 2007 or 2008Main hall fireA fire broke out in the main hall in August, destroying most of the wooden structure and interior artifacts. Contemporaneous press reports record 2007, while some reference sites record 2008. The bat colony dispersed for a period afterward.
- 2009 to 2010Main hall reconstructionThe main hall was reconstructed following its traditional architectural form. Sources record completion in April 2009 or in 2010. The bat colony gradually returned, though in smaller numbers.
Sources diverge on several dates, so the library records both sets. Regarding the main hall fire, a 2007 report in Thanh Niên newspaper, Báo Pháp Luật, and VietNamNet record 2007, whereas Chốn Thiêng and Kỷ Lục Việt Nam record 2008. Regarding the completion of the rebuilt main hall, Chốn Thiêng, Kỷ Lục Việt Nam, and Wikipedia record April 2009, while VietNamNet records inauguration in 2010.
For the dimensions of the main hall, Báo Pháp Luật and Chốn Thiêng give 20.8 meters in length by 11.3 meters in width, while Wikipedia rounds to nearly 21 meters by over 11 meters. For the monolithic stone statue of Śākyamuni Buddha inside the main hall, sources record a statue about 2 meters tall set on a lotus pedestal about 1.5 meters or 2 meters high. Although the temple has passed through 19 generations of abbots, lost records mean that only the names of 8 abbots from the 12th to the 19th generation are preserved today.
IIIKhmer main hall and the four-hectare garden
The temple grounds cover roughly four hectares, mostly ancient trees and a stone-lined pond. Unlike Northern Buddhist pagodas arranged along a deep linear axis, the structures here are distributed around the central main hall raised on a platform. Facing the main hall to the west are the sala assembly hall, the abbot's quarters, the guest hall, and funerary stupas.
The principal building measures 20.8 by 11.3 meters, set on a stone-and-cement-bordered platform about 1 meter above the natural ground and facing East. Its tiled roof consists of four overlapping tiers, with four corner eaves curving up into Naga serpents and a pointed spire crowning the ridge. Inside sits a gilded monolithic stone statue of Śākyamuni Buddha about 2 meters high on a lotus pedestal, alongside a statue of the Buddha sheltered by the serpent king Muchalinda.
Surrounding the main hall are rows of supporting columns, each topped with a celestial maiden Kemnar (Kẽn naarr) clasping her hands before her chest. Inside, murals narrate the life of the Buddha from birth to enlightenment and parinirvāṇa. The temple also preserves ancient palm-leaf scriptures (kinh lá buông) and traditional Ngo racing boats.
The sala is the temple assembly hall facing the main hall to the west, used for large ceremonies, teaching Khmer script and Pali to local children, and training young novices in the five-tone ensemble. The monks' quarters house the resident monastics.
Scattered around the main hall are numerous small stupas holding the cremated remains of former abbots and laypeople, each built in a distinct shape. By Khmer custom, the deceased are cremated and their ashes placed in temple stupas so the extended family can venerate them together.
Nearly four hectares of sao and dầu trees shelter the colony of flying foxes (dơi ngựa, locally called dơi quạ). According to a 2013 to 2015 study by researchers from Cần Thơ University, the colony comprises Lyle's flying fox (dơi ngựa Thái Lan) and the small flying fox (dơi ngựa bé), gathering most densely from September through February, weighing 0.5 to 1.5 kilograms with wingspans of 1 to 1.5 meters, and giving birth to a single pup once a year around May and June.
Behind the temple stand small graves, each painted with the image of a five-toed pig (ordinary pigs have four toes). Here lie the pig Năm Hợi, kept at the temple from 1989 to 1996, and other five-toed pigs entrusted by locals. The temple later stopped accepting pigs to preserve the grounds.
The five-toed pig cemetery is the most unusual feature on the grounds, belonging to local folk belief rather than Buddhist doctrine. In regional folklore, a pig born with five toes instead of four was thought to carry the reincarnated spirit of a human, so owners dared neither slaughter nor sell it, bringing it instead to the temple to avert misfortune. Viewing all creatures as sentient beings, the monks cared for the pigs until they died of old age, then cremated or buried them in the back garden and painted a pig on each grave. The library records this as an actual local custom without judging its merits.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
This section presents the library's reading through the lens of traditional Vietnamese feng shui, not content recorded in temple texts. An important clarification is needed first, Khmer Theravada Buddhism does not teach feng shui. The orientation of a Khmer main hall is fixed by its own sectarian rule, facing East in accordance with the tradition that the Buddha sat facing east when attaining enlightenment. The observations below serve solely as a comparative reading for readers familiar with traditional Vietnamese geomancy.
First is the eastern orientation. In traditional Vietnamese land-reading, the East belongs to the Wood phase, the direction of the rising sun and of generating qi at the start of the day. A building facing East receives direct morning light straight into the center of the sanctuary while avoiding harsh afternoon glare on its facade. Read by the old method, it is the direction of beginnings. Notably, Khmer religious convention and Vietnamese feng shui reach the same conclusion here despite starting from completely different premises, one from the narrative of the Buddha's enlightenment, the other from the Five Phases and directional bearings.
Second is the stone-bordered raised platform. Because this delta terrain is low and seasonally flooded, the main hall is elevated on a platform about one meter above the natural ground, bordered by cemented stone and crowned by a four-tiered roof. The practical reason is flood protection. Read through traditional geomancy, however, the raised base acts as an artificial rear cushion (hậu chẩm), where there is no mountain to lean against, builders construct their own elevation.
Third is the tree ring and pond. Four hectares of mature trees encircle the main hall, with a large stone-banked pond inside the compound. In traditional geomancy, a dense belt of trees stands in for the flanking ridges on the left and right required of a complete node (huyệt), while the pond performs water gathering (thủy tụ) to keep qi from dispersing. On a flat plain without hills or mounds, these two elements are the natural compensation, and Khmer builders consistently pair a wooded grove with a pond at every temple.
Finally comes the most distinctive feature, the bat colony. Traditional land-reading regards wild birds and animals gathering of their own accord as a sign of auspicious ground. Here common sense explains the phenomenon, a broad canopy of old trees without hunting, loud blasts, or nest disturbance naturally attracts large fruit bats. Yet common sense and the old geomantic reading converge on the same point, the animals stay because the caretakers of the land have created a peaceful refuge. The fact that the bats scattered after the fire and returned once the main hall was rebuilt shows that auspicious ground here is largely the work of human stewardship.
VFestivals according to the Khmer calendar
The ritual calendar here follows Khmer Theravada Buddhism rather than the Northern Buddhist lunar calendar. The three largest annual festivals are Chôl Chnăm Thmây, Sen Đôlta, and Ok Om Bok, alongside the three-month rains retreat of the monastic sangha and the Kathina robe-offering ceremony. Because dates are reckoned by the Khmer calendar, their equivalents on the standard calendar may shift by a day or two from year to year.
| Time | Festival | Observance |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-April on the solar calendar, usually three days | Chôl Chnăm Thmây | The Khmer New Year festival, whose name means entering the new year. Observances include the procession of the great calendar (Maha Sangkran), bathing Buddha statues, building sand stupas, offering food to monks, and respectful bathing rites for senior monks. |
| Full moon of the 4th lunar month | Visakha Bochea | Commemorates three events in the life of the Buddha, his birth, enlightenment, and parinirvāṇa, observed together on a single full-moon day in the Theravada tradition. |
| Full moon of the 6th to the 9th lunar month | Rains retreat entry and exit | The three-month rains retreat (vassa) of the monks, called Chôl Vossa upon entering and Chênh Vossa upon concluir. During these three months monks do not travel far. |
| Late 8th to early 9th month of the Khmer calendar | Sen Đôlta | The ancestor-veneration festival, the most important annual observance dedicated to forebears. Khmer families come to the temple to offer food, listen to merit-transfer chanting for the deceased, and visit their clan's funerary stupas. |
| Full moon of the 10th lunar month | Ok Om Bok | The Moon Worship Festival giving thanks to the moon goddess after the harvest. Rituals include feeding flattened young rice (cốm dẹp) to children, floating water lanterns and sky lanterns, and in many localities Ngo boat races. |
| Between the full moon of the 9th and 10th lunar months | Kathina robe offering | The ceremony of offering saffron robes and monastic requisites to the monks after the three-month rains retreat, sponsored by groups of local families. |
A distinctive cultural feature maintained by the temple is its five-tone ensemble (nhạc ngũ âm). This traditional Khmer orchestra comprises instruments made from five acoustic material groups, practiced over several years at the sala by about ten young novices aged seven to thirteen who study at the temple and perform during major festivals. Keeping the five-tone ensemble alive is part of the broader role as a cultural center that a Khmer temple fulfills alongside religious worship.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Số 73B đường Văn Ngọc Chính, phường Phú Lợi (phường 3 thành phố Sóc Trăng cũ), Cần Thơ
- Getting there
- The temple is located at 73B Văn Ngọc Chính Street, Phú Lợi Ward, Cần Thơ City, an area formerly in Ward 3 of Sóc Trăng City, about two kilometers from the old Sóc Trăng center. Across from the gate is a visitor service area opened in 2013 with ample parking. Visitors on the same route can also stop at Chùa Kh'leang.
- Coordinates
- 9.5789, 105.9722
Visitors are expected to observe the temple's own customs, dressing modestly, removing hats and shoes before entering the main hall, and not turning their backs to the Buddha statue when stepping out. Female visitors do not hand objects directly to monks, placing them down for the monk to receive instead. The bats in the trees are protected by the temple, so visitors are asked not to clap, shout, or throw objects into the canopy. Around the pig graves and funerary stupas, visitors should walk quietly and not climb onto the structures.
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?Quick Questions
Who is worshipped at Chùa Dơi in Sóc Trăng
The main hall enshrines only Śākyamuni Buddha, centered on a gilded monolithic stone statue about 2 meters tall set on a lotus pedestal alongside a statue of the Buddha sheltered by the serpent king Muchalinda. In accordance with Khmer Theravada Buddhist convention, only the historical Buddha is venerated, without other Buddhas or Bodhisattvas as found in Northern Buddhist pagodas.
What is the real name of Chùa Dơi
Its official name is Wath Sêrâytêchô Mahatup, shortened to Chùa Mahatup and adapted phonetically by local Kinh and Chinese residents as Chùa Mã Tộc. Chùa Dơi (Bat Pagoda) is a popular name given by local Vietnamese speakers after the flying foxes roosting in the garden, not a name given by the Khmer community. In Khmer, Mahatup contains no word meaning bat.
How does Chùa Dơi differ from Northern Buddhist pagodas of the Kinh
It differs in using the Pali canon rather than Chinese-character scriptures, enshrining only Śākyamuni Buddha, wearing saffron-orange robes, practicing alms rounds and eating only before noon, maintaining the custom of young men ordaining temporarily as a stage of education, and following the Khmer ritual calendar centered on Chôl Chnăm Thmây, Sen Đôlta, and Ok Om Bok.
Why are there five-toed pig graves inside Chùa Dơi
According to local folk belief, a pig born with five toes instead of four carries the reincarnated spirit of a human, so owners do not slaughter it but bring it to the temple. The monks cared for the pigs until they died of old age, then cremated or buried them in the back garden and painted a pig on each grave. The custom began in 1989 with a female pig named Năm Hợi that lived at the temple until 1996, though the temple later stopped accepting additional pigs.
What species of bats live at Chùa Dơi
They are Lyle's flying fox and the small flying fox (locally called dơi ngựa or dơi quạ), large fruit-eating bats weighing 0.5 to 1.5 kilograms with wingspans of 1 to 1.5 meters, giving birth to a single pup once a year around May and June. They hang from the ancient sao and dầu trees throughout the day and fly far away at dusk to forage without eating the fruit in the temple garden.