You enter Hành Thiện village along a road following the canal that encircles the settlement, and a single circuit makes it clear that this village was laid out by design rather than grown by chance. Its hamlets line up in parallel strips like ribs, a central road runs lengthwise like a spine, and the entire village sits neatly between two arms of water. Local residents call this land formation a carp leaping the Dragon Gate. At the head of the village, shaded by trees behind a calm pond, stands Keo Pagoda.
Stepping into the courtyard, you encounter a two-tiered bell tower with overlapping roofs, its ironwood frame left completely bare of paint or gilding. Beyond it stands the Buddha Hall, and behind the Buddha Hall stands the Sanctuary of the Saint. The most unusual feature of this place, however, cannot be seen with the eye, namely that for centuries the pagoda has had no resident Buddhist abbot, its daily care entrusted instead to village temple guardians who serve in rotating shifts.
INames and the two pairs of Keo Pagodas
The pagoda's Sino-Vietnamese name is Thần Quang tự (Divine Light Temple). Its vernacular name is Keo Pagoda (chùa Keo), named after the vernacular toponym of its ancestral home. Because two major monasteries bear both the same Sino-Vietnamese name and the same vernacular name, people add a modifier to tell them apart, calling this one Keo Hành Thiện Pagoda after the village, or Lower Keo (Keo dưới) after its downstream position along the river.
Within Hành Thiện village itself, moreover, two Keo pagodas stand near each other, creating a second point of potential confusion. The official heritage dossier calls the main complex Inner Keo Pagoda (chùa Keo trong), or Thần Quang tự, tracing its original foundation to 1061. Nearby stands Outer Keo Pagoda (chùa Keo ngoài), named Đĩnh Lan tự, built in the Đinh Mùi year, the first year of the Chiêu Thống reign era, which corresponds to 1787 (several tourism webpages misprint the last two digits as 1778). Both belong to the same ranked heritage complex.
The most frequent misunderstanding about this site is worth clearing up immediately, namely that there are two Keo Pagodas on opposite banks of the Red River, and they are two distinct monuments rather than a single site known by two names.
Both share a single root. That root was Nghiêm Quang Pagoda, founded along the Red River by Zen Master Dương Không Lộ and renamed Thần Quang tự in 1167. Successive dike breaches and great floods, recorded in the heritage dossier in the Mậu Tý year (1588) and the Tân Hợi year (1611), buried the ancestral monastery. The villagers split into two groups, one crossing to the left bank and the other remaining on the right bank. Each community built a new pagoda, keeping the Sino-Vietnamese name Thần Quang tự and continuing the worship of Zen Master Không Lộ.
The distinction is straightforward. Upper Keo Pagoda (chùa Keo trên), also called Thái Bình Keo Pagoda, stands on the left bank in former Thái Bình province (now Hưng Yên province), famed for its three-tiered, twelve-roofed bell tower and ranked as a special national heritage site in 2012. Lower Keo Pagoda (chùa Keo dưới), or Keo Hành Thiện Pagoda, is the monument described on this page, standing on the right bank in former Nam Định province (now Ninh Bình province), featuring a two-tiered, eight-roofed bell tower and ranked as a special national heritage site in 2016. The two monasteries have separate dossiers, separate ranking decisions, and separate festival schedules.
Both monasteries follow the Buddha in front, Saint behind (tiền Phật hậu Thánh) arrangement, venerating the Buddha according to Northern Mahayana Buddhism in the front halls and Zen Master Dương Không Lộ as Saint-Patriarch in the rear sanctuary, complete with birth and death anniversaries, palanquin processions, and ceremonial eulogies. This layout is shared by a group of lower Red River pagodas where Lý-dynasty eminent monks were elevated by folk belief to the rank of Saints and worshipped through tutelary deity rites. Folk tradition counts Dương Không Lộ among the Three Saint-Patriarchs under the Southern Sky alongside Nguyễn Minh Không and Từ Đạo Hạnh.
IIFrom Nghiêm Quang to Hành Thiện
Visitors will encounter two different foundation dates in the literature. The Department of Cultural Heritage dossier states that Inner Keo Pagoda (Thần Quang tự) was founded in the Tân Sửu year (1061) under Emperor Lý Thánh Tông by Zen Master Dương Không Lộ. That 1061 date belongs to the ancestral monastery by the river that was later buried by floodwaters. Documents from the National Museum of History and most press reports instead use 1611, the year villagers resettled on the land of Hành Thiện and rebuilt the temple, which is why the pagoda is commonly described as being over four hundred years old.
Those two dates lie five hundred and fifty years apart, and the library records both. They do not contradict each other once understood properly, since 1061 is the age of the devotional lineage while 1611 is the age of the pagoda standing on this ground today. Which date a source cites depends on which question it asks, and readers benefit from knowing both.
- 1061Foundation of Nghiêm Quang PagodaIn the Tân Sửu year under Emperor Lý Thánh Tông, Zen Master Dương Không Lộ founded a monastery along the Red River, the common ancestor of both later Keo pagodas.
- 1167Renamed Thần Quang tựThe monastery was given the Sino-Vietnamese name Thần Quang tự, still borne by both Keo pagodas today.
- 1588 and 1611Red River floods bury the original pagodaThe heritage dossier records major floods in the Mậu Tý year (1588) and Tân Hợi year (1611). Villagers divided across the two riverbanks, each group founding a new settlement and rebuilding the pagoda.
- 17th centuryRebuilt on Hành Thiện landThe right-bank group established Hành Cung village (renamed Hành Thiện in 1823 under Emperor Minh Mệnh) and rebuilt Thần Quang tự, erecting a commemorative stele in the thirteenth year of Hoằng Định (1613).
- 1787Construction of Outer Keo PagodaIn the Đinh Mùi year, the first year of the Chiêu Thống reign (1787, misprinted as 1778 on some tourism pages), the village's second pagoda was built under the name Đĩnh Lan tự, facing northeast across one northern mẫu of land.
- Nguyễn dynastySuccessive restorationsThe heritage dossier notes restorations across the Lê and Nguyễn dynasties. Most of the surviving ironwood framing and woodcarvings belong to Later Lê and Nguyễn restoration layers.
- 2016Special national heritage siteDesignated under Prime Ministerial Decision No. 2499/QĐ-TTg on December 22, 2016 as an architectural and artistic monument.
- 2019 and 2026Intangible heritage and National TreasureIn 2019 the pagoda festival was inscribed on the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. In early 2026 the pagoda's set of three Restored Lê stone stelae was recognized as a National Treasure.
Another distinctive trait belongs to the village rather than the monastery alone, yet cannot be separated from it. Hành Thiện is one of the most celebrated scholarly villages of the lower Red River basin, with local historical records counting more than four hundred examination laureates across the dynasties. In a village of so many Confucian scholars, monastery and village study hall lived side by side, leaving a direct mark on how the pagoda itself is governed.
IIIArchitectural layout and the bell tower
Inner Keo Pagoda covers more than one hectare, faces south, and comprises 13 buildings with 121 bays built entirely of ironwood (gỗ lim) in the inner-Công (工) outer-Quốc (國) plan. The central halls form an I-shaped (Công) core while the two long side corridors and rear buildings enclose them in a rectangular outer frame. Moving inward along the main axis, one passes the three-bay outer gate, the inner gate doubling as the bell tower, the Buddha Hall, and finally the Sanctuary of the Saint.
The five-bay, two-story inner gate and bell tower built with overlapping double-tiered, eight-roofed eaves (chồng diêm). Sources record its height as 7.5 meters, supported by 8 main pillars and 16 secondary pillars.
Three linked halls comprising a five-bay front hall, a three-bay incense-burning hall, and a three-bay upper hall, forming the front half of the Buddha in front, Saint behind layout.
Standing behind the Buddha Hall, comprising a five-bay front hall, a three-bay middle hall, and a three-bay rear sanctuary honoring Zen Master Dương Không Lộ as Saint-Patriarch, highlighted by three sets of ten 17th-century openwork dragon doors.
Left and right corridors recorded in the heritage dossier as having 38 bays each and stretching roughly 86 meters long, enclosing the outer Quốc-shaped (rectangular) perimeter.
Auxiliary halls within the compound, including a three-bay storehouse (nhà ký đồ) where ceremonial weapons, palanquins, and processional regalia are kept.
The second pagoda in the village, named Đĩnh Lan tự, facing northeast across one northern mẫu of land with a three-entrance gate, two side corridors, a five-bay front hall, a two-bay incense hall, and its own two-tiered, eight-roofed bell tower.
Artifacts preserved in the pagoda include statues, stone stelae, imperial decrees, incense altars, palanquins, bronze bells, stone chimes, horizontal plaques, and parallel couplets across wood, stone, bronze, ceramics, and paper. Notably, the set of three Restored Lê stone stelae comprising Tu tạo Thần Quang tự bi ký of the thirteenth year of Hoằng Định (1613), Thần Quang tự Đại pháp sư bi of the ninth year of Cảnh Trị (1671), and Hưng chú Thánh tượng Đại pháp sư bi ký of the twenty-fifth year of Chính Hòa (1704) was recognized as a National Treasure under Decision No. 236/QĐ-TTg on February 3, 2026. From a woodworking standpoint, the ironwood structural frame is left completely unpainted and unvarnished, allowing the relief carvings to speak through the natural grain of the timber rather than pigment.
One frequent mix-up in popular media is worth noting, namely that the bell tower of Keo Hành Thiện Pagoda is not the three-tiered, twelve-roofed bell tower often seen in photographs. That taller tower belongs to the Keo Pagoda on the left bank in Hưng Yên province (former Thái Bình). The bell tower at Hành Thiện is a two-tiered, eight-roofed structure, lower and more compact, with a quiet proportion of its own. Photographs of the two towers are frequently swapped because both temples share the name Thần Quang tự.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
This section presents the library's reading through the lens of traditional feng shui, not content copied from stone inscriptions or official monument dossiers. The library states this clearly so readers can distinguish historical documentation from interpretive reading.
The first thing to read here is not the pagoda alone, but the entire village. Hành Thiện sits neatly between two arms of water, its body elongated, its residential lanes arranged in parallel crosswise strips, and a central road running down the middle. Villagers call this land formation a carp leaping the Dragon Gate (cá chép vượt vũ môn). In classical geomancy, a settlement completely encircled by water keeps its qi from dispersing in the four directions, while the carp formation speaks directly to civil service examinations, since a carp leaping the Dragon Gate transforms into a dragon, the traditional Confucian metaphor for passing the royal examinations.
The pagoda sits right at the head of that carp. In land-reading doctrine, the head is where qi gathers most strongly in a zoomorphic landform, and the village founders placed their sanctuary squarely at the head rather than mid-body. In front of the pagoda lies a half-moon lake serving as the bright hall (minh đường), while behind it the tightly clustered village houses provide backing. In a delta plain without mountains to serve as a rear pillow (hậu chẩm), a dense residential settlement fulfills that supporting role, a classic adaptation of Red River Delta geomancy.
In terms of the Five Phases (ngũ hành), the entire area belongs to flourishing Water, with the great river outside, the encircling canal arms inside, and the crescent lake before the gate. Water governs wisdom, letters, and circulation. When a village sited on such a water formation becomes renowned for examination scholarship, classical geomancy calls the correspondence proper form (đắc cách), where landform and human endeavor mirror each other. Because the Saint-Patriarch enshrined within the pagoda was himself a master who traveled the rivers to found monasteries, that water vein runs continuously from sacred biography to village geography to scholarly vocation.
Regarding orientation, Inner Keo Pagoda faces south toward the open water at the head of the village, whereas the official dossier notes that Outer Keo Pagoda faces northeast. While northeast is rarely favored in textbook geomancy, in flatland villages the orientation of a secondary temple is often governed by the curve of the encircling canal and the village road rather than the magnetic compass alone, illustrating where field geomancy diverges from book theory.
VTwo festival seasons and the standing boat race
The pagoda observes two festival seasons each year, one in spring and one in autumn. The larger of the two is the autumn festival held in the middle of the ninth lunar month to commemorate the birth of Saint-Patriarch Dương Không Lộ.
| Festival season | Lunar date | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Inner Pagoda spring festival | 1st lunar month | New Year observances at Thần Quang tự with incense offerings and village liturgical rites. |
| Spring festival and elders' banquet | 15th of the 2nd month | Spring festival observances at the pagoda accompanied by the longevity banquet (lễ trương yến or yến lão) honoring village elders. |
| Autumn festival, ceremonial rites | Mid-9th lunar month | Procession of the sacred tablet (lễ phụng nghinh), Saint's birthday liturgy, palanquin processions, and incense offerings. Sources record the main dates as running from the 10th or 12th to the 15th of the 9th month. |
| Autumn festival, folk festivities | Mid-9th lunar month | Sacred puppetry liturgy (khoa giáo rối), dry-land boat singing (chèo cạn), elders' banquet, swinging, and cockfighting organized by village lineages. |
| Standing boat race (Bơi trải đứng) | During the autumn festival | Boat races along the waterway encircling the village in which the entire crew rows standing upright rather than seated, the signature custom of the festival. |
The standing boat race (bơi trải đứng) is the festival's most distinctive custom. In most regions, racing crews row while seated. At Hành Thiện, the entire crew stands upright inside the narrow hull while wielding their paddles, demanding a distinct sense of balance and weeks of prior practice. A pagoda festival culminating in a village-wide boat race shows that this is not a purely monastic observance, but the communal festival of a water-bound settlement.
One final custom belongs to everyday life at the temple. For centuries the pagoda has had no resident Buddhist abbot. Daily care is carried out by village temple guardians (thủ từ), recorded across sources as roughly thirty elders who rotate in fifteen-day shifts passed down from father to son. Folk tradition explains the absence of monks through an old vow linked to Zen Master Không Lộ, while a more practical historical explanation notes that the pagoda lacked dedicated monastic endowment land (ruộng tam bảo) to support a resident sangha. The library records both explanations without ranking one above the other.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- làng Hành Thiện, xã Xuân Hồng, tỉnh Ninh Bình
- Getting there
- The pagoda is located in Hành Thiện village, Xuân Hồng commune, Ninh Bình province (formerly Xuân Trường district, Nam Định province), on the right bank of the Red River. The sister Keo Pagoda on the opposite bank of the river now belongs to Hưng Yên province as a separate heritage site.
- Coordinates
- 20.3422, 106.3217
This is an active place of worship cared for directly by the village community, so visitors should respect village customs. Please dress modestly, remove hats when entering the inner halls, walk quietly and speak softly in the rear Sanctuary of the Saint, and refrain from touching the stone stelae, incense altars, palanquins, or unpainted woodcarvings. Because the two side corridors are long and narrow, please walk in a single direction during busy days. Since the pagoda has no resident monk, any request for permission should be directed to the village guardian on duty for that shift.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
Are Keo Hành Thiện Pagoda and Thái Bình Keo Pagoda the same place
No. They are two separate monuments that share the Sino-Vietnamese name Thần Quang tự and both venerate Zen Master Dương Không Lộ because both trace their origin to Nghiêm Quang Pagoda, which was buried by Red River floods in 1611. The left-bank pagoda now lies in Hưng Yên province (ranked a special national site in 2012), while Keo Hành Thiện Pagoda lies in Ninh Bình province (ranked in 2016).
When was Keo Hành Thiện Pagoda built
Sources cite two different benchmark dates. The Department of Cultural Heritage dossier records its foundation in the Tân Sửu year (1061) under Emperor Lý Thánh Tông, which measures the age of the devotional lineage from the original riverside monastery. Museum documents and most press reports use 1611, when villagers resettled in Hành Thiện and rebuilt the pagoda, describing it as over four hundred years old.
Who is worshipped at Keo Hành Thiện Pagoda
The pagoda worships the Buddha according to Northern Mahayana Buddhism in the front halls and Zen Master Dương Không Lộ as Saint-Patriarch in the rear sanctuary, following the Buddha in front, Saint behind layout. The compound also includes a Mother Goddess shrine. Folk tradition counts Dương Không Lộ among the Three Saint-Patriarchs under the Southern Sky alongside Nguyễn Minh Không and Từ Đạo Hạnh.
Why does Keo Hành Thiện Pagoda have no resident abbot
The pagoda is tended by roughly thirty village temple guardians (thủ từ) who rotate in half-month shifts passed down through family lines. Folk tradition attributes this to a vow associated with Zen Master Không Lộ, while a practical historical explanation notes that the temple lacked dedicated monastic farmland to support resident monks.
When does the Keo Hành Thiện Pagoda festival take place
There are two seasons. The spring festival is held in the first lunar month and on the fifteenth day of the second lunar month. The main autumn festival takes place in the middle of the ninth lunar month (from the 10th or 12th to the 15th) to commemorate the birth of Saint-Patriarch Dương Không Lộ, highlighted by the standing boat race (bơi trải đứng).