Travel some twenty-five kilometers south of Paris along the historic Nationale 7 corridor and the valley of the Seine, and upon entering the Parc aux Lièvres district of Évry-Courcouronnes in the Essonne department, you come suddenly upon a monumental East Asian palace complex rising amid green trees and a still sheet of water. Against the sky of the Île-de-France, tiered upturned eaves tiled with more than one hundred thousand golden glazed tiles, crowned by twin dragons flanking the Dharma wheel and two tall towers, cast their golden reflection across the calm lake.
This is Khánh Anh Pagoda, Évry (慶英寺, Pagode Khánh-Anh d'Évry or Grande Pagode d'Évry), the largest Vietnamese Buddhist monastery on the European continent and the central headquarters of the Unified Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation in Europe. Initiated in 1992 by the late Most Venerable Thích Minh Tâm (1940 to 2013) with the laying of its foundation stone in June 1995 to relieve the overcrowded Khánh Anh Mother Temple, Bagneux, the sanctuary was built over more than two decades through the voluntary donations of tens of thousands of Buddhists worldwide before its grand inauguration in 2016 and 2017.
IThe Khánh Anh lineage and the 5-tonne gilded bronze statue of Shakyamuni Buddha
Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry belongs to the Vietnamese Mahayana (Northern Buddhist) tradition, carrying forward the Orthodox Lâm Tế (Linji) Chan lineage and the harmonized practice of Zen and Pure Land Buddhism characteristic of central and southern Vietnam. At the heart of the 550-square-meter Grand Hall of the Great Hero, seated upon a lotus throne nearly 2 meters high, rises the monumental statue of Shakyamuni Buddha in the earth-touching and meditation mudras, cast in solid bronze covered in pure gold leaf, measuring 4 meters in height and weighing 5 tonnes. Crafted in Thailand, the great statue was brought to France and installed in the Évry sanctuary in 2002 as soon as the reinforced-concrete shell of the main hall took shape. Enshrined alongside Shakyamuni Buddha in the main and side halls are statues of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and Amitabha Buddha, together with the Patriarch Hall honoring Bodhidharma and the founding masters.
The name Khánh Anh (慶英) is not a random literary epithet but a direct tribute to the Dharma title of the late Patriarch Thích Khánh Anh (1895 to 1961), the revered Supreme Patriarch of the All-Vietnam Sangha Congregation who founded the ancestral Khánh Anh Temple at Phổ Nhì (Đức Phổ, Quảng Ngãi) and Khánh Anh Temple in Saigon. In Sino-Vietnamese Buddhist terminology, Khánh (慶) denotes auspicious joy and the fullness of merit when the Dharma flourishes, while Anh (英) signifies spiritual essence and the blossom of wisdom born of pure precepts. When the late Most Venerable Thích Minh Tâm, an ordained disciple within Patriarch Khánh Anh's monastic lineage, gave the name Khánh Anh first to the modest prayer hall in suburban Paris and then to the grand pagoda in Évry, he linked the spiritual stream of central Vietnam directly to the banks of the Seine in France.
The rise of Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry reflects the coming of age of the Vietnamese Buddhist community in France and Europe at the close of the twentieth century. After 1975, the original Khánh Anh Temple at 14 Avenue Henri-Barbusse in the town of Bagneux occupied a converted residential property of only a few hundred square meters. During major festivals such as Lunar New Year, Vesak, and Vu Lan, thousands of faithful arriving from across the Greater Paris region had to stand outside on the sidewalks in the cold rain, listening to the chanting over loudspeakers.
Responding to this urgent need, Most Venerable Thích Minh Tâm and the Vietnamese Buddhist Association in France began searching in 1992 for a site south of Paris large enough to build a continental monastic center. After selecting a plot of more than 4,000 square meters overlooking the lake in the Parc aux Lièvres district of the new city of Évry, the project received warm support from the then Mayor of Évry, Jacques Guyard. Remarkably, in the 1990s the city of Évry became home to three landmark religious sanctuaries of modern France: the Catholic Cathedral of the Resurrection (Cathédrale de la Résurrection, consecrated in 1995), the Grand Mosque of Évry-Courcouronnes, and the Grand Khánh Anh Pagoda. In tribute to the lifelong dedication of the founding abbot, who passed away on 8 August 2013 before the final completion of the complex, the municipality of Évry-Courcouronnes named the street running beside the temple Rue du Très Vénérable Thích Minh Tâm.
Visitors to Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry sometimes assume that the older temple in Bagneux closed once the grand complex in Évry opened. In fact, the Bagneux sanctuary remains fully active as the Khánh Anh Mother Temple (Tổ đình Khánh Anh), serving daily devotional life for Buddhists in the inner southern suburbs of Paris, while Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry serves as the central cathedral monastery hosting assemblies of several thousand people, European summer retreats, monastic ordination platforms, and international Buddhist conferences.
IIOver two decades of building from the 1995 foundation stone to the grand inauguration
The construction history of Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry is a chronicle of perseverance by the Sangha and the overseas Vietnamese community. Originally estimated at 70 million French francs (later rising to between 18 and 21 million euros due to stringent French public safety codes and the importation of traditional architectural craftwork from Asia), the entire budget was raised brick by brick and tile by tile through voluntary offerings from Buddhists over more than twenty years.
- 1992 to May 1995Site selection at Parc aux Lièvres and architectural planningMost Venerable Thích Minh Tâm initiated the project for a new grand pagoda to relieve the Bagneux temple, selecting the lakeside site in the Parc aux Lièvres district of Évry and conducting the official site visit in May 1995.
- June 1995Laying of the first stone for Khánh Anh Pagoda in ÉvryThe foundation-stone ceremony took place in June 1995 (chronicles of the Unified Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation in Europe record Sunday, 11 June 1995, whereas French encyclopedic and municipal sources cite 18 June 1995) in the presence of senior monastics and Essonne civic authorities.
- 1998 to 2002Reinforced-concrete structure and installation of the 5-tonne Buddha statueFollowing deep foundation engineering near the lakeside soil, the structural frame of the Grand Hall of the Great Hero rose, and in 2002 the 4-meter, 5-tonne gold-leafed bronze statue of Shakyamuni Buddha crafted in Thailand was installed in the main sanctuary.
- 2004 to 2007Roofing with over 100,000 glazed tiles and imperial relief workThe temple imported more than 100,000 golden glazed tubular tiles fired in traditional kilns in Foshan (Guangdong) along with precious timber, bringing master artisans from Vietnam and Asia to assemble the upturned eaves, twin dragons, and Dharma wheel.
- 14 August 2008Consecration of the Main Hall by the 14th Dalai LamaThe 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, visited Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry and, together with Most Venerable Thích Minh Tâm and venerable masters of the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana traditions, consecrated the Grand Hall of the Great Hero before thousands of practitioners and the French Minister of Culture.
- 8 August 2013Passing of Most Venerable Thích Minh TâmAfter nearly two decades of tireless devotion to building the monastery, founding abbot Most Venerable Thích Minh Tâm passed away at the age of 73. Venerable (now Most Venerable) Thích Quảng Đạo and the monastic community carried the final stages to completion.
- May 2016 to July 2017Official grand inauguration of Khánh Anh Pagoda, ÉvryOn 8 May 2016 (during the Vesak celebration), Khánh Anh Pagoda held its official Grand Inauguration attended by top leaders of the French Republic, international Buddhist dignitaries, and tens of thousands of faithful, followed by the full completion ceremonies in summer 2017.
When comparing historical records on Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry, two minor chronological variations between monastic chronicles and French municipal publications should be noted. First, regarding the June 1995 foundation stone: records of the Unified Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation in Europe state that the ceremony took place on Sunday, 11 June 1995, whereas the Grand Paris Sud urban community and French Wikipedia list 18 June 1995. Second, regarding the inauguration: the monastery celebrated three milestone openings, namely the consecration of the main prayer hall on 14 August 2008 during the visit of the 14th Dalai Lama, the official Grand Inauguration coinciding with Vesak on 8 May 2016 attended by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, and the completion ceremonies for the entire complex in July 2017. The library records all of these dates so readers have the complete historical picture.
IIIImperial Huế architecture blended with modern engineering and 100,000 glazed tiles
Seen from the outside, Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry evokes a classical royal palace of central Vietnam inspired by the imperial architecture of Huế and Thiên Mụ Pagoda, while inside it relies on advanced European reinforced-concrete engineering. Because the plot slopes gently down toward the lake of the Parc aux Lièvres, the architect designed a multi-level complex offering 3,300 to over 4,000 square meters of floor space, clearly separating the sacred worship halls on the upper level from the cultural auditorium, refectory, library, and monastic quarters on the lower levels.
The most striking visual feature of the sanctuary is its double-tiered upturned roof covered with more than 100,000 golden glazed tubular tiles custom-fired in Foshan (Guangdong Province, China) and shipped by sea to France. Along the main ridge of the Grand Hall of the Great Hero, two sculpted dragons flank the Wheel of the Dharma, while phoenixes, qilin, and stylized lotuses adorn the curving eaves. Flanking the main complex rise two multi-story bell and drum towers measuring 18 meters and 25 meters in height, establishing a commanding vertical silhouette south of Paris.
The front facade opens onto a spacious forecourt with a traditional Triple Gate and monumental stone steps ascending to the main sanctuary terrace. Flanking the steps are finely carved stone dragons in the Nguyễn-dynasty style, guiding pilgrims upward from the street to the sacred precinct.
The central prayer hall spans 550 square meters with wide-span engineering capable of accommodating up to 1,500 worshippers during major festivals. At its center sits the 4-meter, 5-tonne gold-leafed bronze statue of Shakyamuni Buddha upon a lotus pedestal nearly 2 meters high. Around the walls stand thousands of small gilded Buddha niches alongside lacquered and gilded horizontal boards and parallel couplets.
Rising on either side of the main complex are two multi-tiered towers reaching 18 meters and 25 meters in height, roofed with golden glazed tiles. They house the great bronze bell (đại hồng chung) and Prajna drum while anchoring the vertical skyline of the monastery.
Behind and beneath the main hall lie the Patriarch Hall honoring Bodhidharma, Patriarch Thích Khánh Anh, and founding abbot Most Venerable Thích Minh Tâm, preserving his robes, scriptures, and historical mementos in Europe, adjacent to the Memorial Hall enshrining ancestral tablets and funerary urns.
The lower levels contain a conference auditorium equipped with simultaneous interpretation booths, a library housing thousands of Buddhist texts in Vietnamese, French, English, Chinese, Sanskrit, and Pali, monastic living quarters, and a spacious refectory serving thousands of vegetarian meals.
| Feature | Technical specification and date | Reference sources |
|---|---|---|
| Total built floor area | Approx. 3,300 m² on a site of over 4,000 m² | Grand Paris Sud, French Wikipedia (Pagode Khánh-Anh) |
| Grand Hall of the Great Hero | 550 m² floor area, capacity up to 1,500 people | Khánh Anh Pagoda archives (khanhanh.fr), Grand Paris Sud |
| Statue of Shakyamuni Buddha | Gold-leafed bronze, 4 m tall, 5 tonnes (on a ~2 m lotus base), installed 2002 | Khánh Anh Pagoda (khanhanh.fr), Wikidata (Q3246658) |
| Glazed roofs and twin towers | Over 100,000 golden glazed tiles from Guangdong, towers of 18 m and 25 m | Grand Paris Sud, Explorez Essonne |
| Satellite coordinates | 48.6274° N, 2.4441° E | Wikidata (Q3246658), OpenStreetMap (Parc aux Lièvres, Évry) |
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
Buddhism teaches that a pure mind makes a pure land, without binding temple construction to geomantic divination. Yet traditional Vietnamese monastic architecture, from the imperial capital of Huế to overseas monasteries, consistently values harmony between terrain, water bodies that gather qi, and natural sunlight. The section below reads the site of Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry through the library's traditional landform lens.
Within the broader topography of the southern Paris Basin at coordinates 48.6274° N and 2.4441° E, Khánh Anh Pagoda stands on the western plateau rim overlooking the valley of the River Seine (located about 1.2 kilometers to the east). On the macro scale, the River Seine curving northward toward central Paris acts as the great waterway conducting vital energy across the Île-de-France, while the elevated slope of the Parc aux Lièvres district provides a firm rear backing (hậu chẩm) supporting the multi-thousand-tonne structure.
The most auspicious feature in the local landform of Khánh Anh Pagoda is its classical posture of backed by high ground, facing water right inside a modern city. Directly in front of and beside the monastery lies the broad ornamental lake of the Parc aux Lièvres, bordered by weeping willows and green lawns. In traditional landform reading, this calm body of water directly before the facade forms an ideal inner bright hall (nội minh đường) that gathers qi and prevents wind from scattering it, while acting as a mirror reflecting the golden glazed roofs of the Grand Hall of the Great Hero to create the image of twin golden palaces, one on land and one in the water. The principal axis opens toward the southeast and south, receiving warm southern sunlight and orienting toward the valley of the Seine while balancing the stillness of the park lake with the outer arterial flow of the Nationale 7 boulevard.
VVesak, Lunar New Year, and the European Buddhist cultural center
As the central seat of the Unified Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation in Europe, the liturgical calendar of Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry combines major festivals observed on the Vietnamese Lunar Calendar with weekly devotional services, conferences, and cultural tours on the Gregorian calendar.
| Date (calendar system) | Festival or event | Core rituals and community activities |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Eve to 3rd day of the 1st month (Lunar calendar) | Lunar New Year's Eve and Tết Spring Festival | Midnight prayers, lion and dragon dances on the main terrace, New Year incense offerings, spring blessings, and vegetarian food stalls drawing tens of thousands of Vietnamese residents and French visitors. |
| 15th day of the 1st month (Lunar calendar) | First Full Moon and Medicine Buddha Peace Assembly | Recitation of the Medicine Buddha Sutra for national peace, lotus lantern offerings for world peace, and communal vegetarian meals in the Refectory. |
| 15th day of the 4th month (Lunar calendar, usually held on a Sunday in May) | Vesak (Buddha's Birthday) | The largest annual celebration, bringing together monastics from across Europe for the Bathing the Infant Buddha ceremony, floral processions, bilingual Vietnamese-French Dharma talks, and performances by the Khánh Anh Buddhist Youth Family. |
| 15th day of the 7th month (Lunar calendar) | Vu Lan Filial Piety Festival and Ancestral Requiem | Rose-pinning ceremony honoring parents, robe offering, ancestral memorial services in the Memorial Hall, and the annual commemoration of the passing of founding abbot Most Venerable Thích Minh Tâm (August). |
| Weekly on Sundays and public holidays (Gregorian calendar) | Chanting services, Buddhist Youth Family, and guided cultural tours | Weekly peace chanting, Dharma lectures, Khánh Anh Buddhist Youth Family activities, and guided architectural visits for the French public organized with the Grand Paris Sud Tourist Office. |
Beyond serving the overseas Vietnamese community, Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry has become a major center of cultural exchange and interfaith dialogue in France. Every year during the European Heritage Days (Journées européennes du patrimoine in September) as well as during Vesak and Lunar New Year, the monastery opens its doors to thousands of French neighbors, students, and scholars who come to admire its glazed-tile architecture, learn about Buddhist teachings of compassion, and share traditional Vietnamese vegetarian cuisine.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Getting there
- Located at 8 Rue François Mauriac (now co-named Rue du Très Vénérable Thích Minh Tâm) in the Parc aux Lièvres district of Évry-Courcouronnes, about 25 kilometers south of central Paris. From central Paris, take the RER D suburban train toward Corbeil-Essonnes or Melun and alight at Évry - Val-de-Seine or Bras de Fer - Évry - Génopole station, followed by a 10-to-15-minute walk or local bus ride to the Parc aux Lièvres lake and Khánh Anh Pagoda.
- Coordinates
- 48.6274, 2.4441
When visiting Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry, please wear modest, respectful attire and remove your shoes and hats before entering the Grand Hall of the Great Hero and the Patriarch Hall. Inside the worship halls, walk quietly, maintain silence while monastics are chanting, and refrain from touching the great Buddha statue or ritual instruments. Groups wishing to join a guided tour in French on the temple's history and architecture may book in advance through the Grand Paris Sud Tourist Office or the temple reception desk.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
Why is Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry recognized as the largest Buddhist pagoda in Europe?
With a total built floor area of 3,300 to over 4,000 square meters on a plot exceeding 4,000 square meters, including a 550-square-meter Grand Hall of the Great Hero seating 1,500 people, two towers of 18 meters and 25 meters, and roofs covered with over 100,000 golden glazed tiles, Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry is the largest Buddhist temple complex in France and across Europe.
Who founded Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry and how long did construction take?
The pagoda was initiated in 1992 by the late Most Venerable Thích Minh Tâm (1940 to 2013), President of the Unified Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation in Europe, with the first stone laid in June 1995. Funded by voluntary donations from Buddhists worldwide over more than twenty years, its main hall was blessed by the 14th Dalai Lama in 2008 and officially inaugurated in 2016 and 2017.
What are the dimensions of the great Buddha statue in the Main Hall?
The statue of Shakyamuni Buddha seated in the center of the Grand Hall of the Great Hero is cast in solid bronze covered with gold leaf, standing 4 meters high (upon a lotus throne nearly 2 meters high) and weighing 5 tonnes. It was crafted in Thailand and installed in the temple in 2002.
How is Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry connected to the Khánh Anh Temple in Bagneux?
The Khánh Anh Temple in Bagneux (14 Avenue Henri-Barbusse) is the historic Mother Temple founded by Most Venerable Thích Minh Tâm in the 1970s. When the growing congregation outgrew the small Bagneux site, he launched the grand pagoda project in Évry. Today both temples remain active within the same monastic lineage.
How can visitors reach Khánh Anh Pagoda in Évry by public transport from Paris?
From major central Paris stations such as Gare de Lyon or Châtelet - Les Halles, take the RER D suburban train south for about 35 minutes to Évry - Val-de-Seine or Évry-Courcouronnes Centre station, then walk through the Parc aux Lièvres or take a local bus directly to the pagoda.