Passing through the three-entrance gate and two heritage mango-plum (muỗm) trees over three hundred years old, and crossing the circular lotus pond, visitors see the stupa before they see the main hall. Square in plan and fourteen stories high, rising between 19.5 and 21.2 meters depending on the measurement source, the stupa has a green-stone pedestal and first story, thirteen upper stories of darkened red fired brick with four arched doorways on each level, and a five-layered lotus bud at the summit that sources describe either as a stone lotus bud resting on a two-tiered red terra-cotta base or as an unopened lotus bud of dark-fired terra-cotta. Standing near the base and looking upward, one sees the stories taper evenly like a candle. That stupa has stood on this ground for more than seven hundred years.
The stupa was not built for ornament. According to temple records and scholarly studies, inside the stupa rests a portion of the relics of Emperor-Monk Trần Nhân Tông, the sovereign who abdicated the throne, ascended Mount Yên Tử to ordain as a monk, and founded the Trúc Lâm Zen school. Inside the upper sanctuary, at the central bay, his statue reclines on its side in Nirvana, flanked by his two successor patriarchs. For that reason, followers of Trúc Lâm regard Phổ Minh as an ancestral seat in the lowlands, paired with the mountain seat on Yên Tử.
ITrần-era Trúc Lâm and its Three Patriarchs
The Trúc Lâm Zen school is a Zen lineage founded in Vietnam rather than transmitted directly by a foreign patriarch. Its founder was King Trần Nhân Tông, who after abdicating ascended Mount Yên Tử to enter monastic life under the Dharma name Hương Vân Đại Đầu Đà and was revered by later generations as the Buddhist Emperor (Phật hoàng) and Điều Ngự Giác Hoàng. This lineage unified the three earlier Zen streams in Đại Việt, namely Tỳ Ni Đa Lưu Chi (Vinitaruci), Vô Ngôn Thông, and Thảo Đường, into a single school and passed down through three founding patriarchs known in Buddhist history as the Three Patriarchs of Trúc Lâm (Trúc Lâm Tam Tổ).
Third king of the Trần dynasty, born in 1258, ordained on Mount Yên Tử in 1299, founded the Trúc Lâm Zen school, and entered Nirvana in 1308 at Ngọa Vân Hermitage.
Zen Master Pháp Loa (1284 to 1330), secular name Đồng Kiên Cương, received the robe and bowl from the First Patriarch in 1308, reorganized the monastic sangha, and printed scriptures for Trúc Lâm.
Zen Master Huyền Quang (1254 to 1334), secular name Lý Đạo Tái, passed the court examinations and served as a mandarin before ordaining, succeeded Pháp Loa as the third patriarch, and was celebrated for his Zen poetry.
The spirit of Trần-era Trúc Lâm is summed up in a four-word phrase written by Trần Nhân Tông himself, cư trần lạc đạo, meaning dwelling in the world while rejoicing in the Way. Zen practice here does not require abandoning worldly duties in order to cultivate. A king still governs the realm and a farmer still tills the fields, while the essential task is keeping the mind unmoved by external circumstances. That explains how a monarch could serve both as head of state and as a Zen master, and why a royal secondary palace complex like Thiên Trường had such a major Buddhist temple right beside it.
It is helpful to distinguish two uses of the name Trúc Lâm. Trần-era Trúc Lâm refers to the lineage of the Three Patriarchs in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, whose transmission grew sparser in later centuries. Modern Trúc Lâm Zen is the revival movement established by Most Venerable Thích Thanh Từ in the twentieth century, taking the Three Patriarchs as its source and guiding principle, with its ancestral seat at Thường Chiếu Zen Monastery. Phổ Minh Pagoda belongs to the first layer, as a temple of the era of the Three Patriarchs themselves rather than a monastery of the modern revival network.
IIThe pagoda of Thiên Trường prefecture
Phổ Minh is closely tied to Thiên Trường Prefecture in Tức Mặc, the ancestral homeland of the Trần clan. The story of the secondary palaces and the Trần kings is covered in the library's article on Trần Temple in Nam Định. This article follows the Buddhist thread, tracing how the pagoda grew alongside the Zen practice of the Trần court and became the resting place for the relics of the Trúc Lâm founder.
- Lý dynastyEarly temple according to inscriptions and traditionAccording to stele inscriptions and local records, a pagoda already stood here during the Lý dynasty before the Trần court expanded it.
- 1262Major expansion under King Trần Thánh TôngIn the second lunar month of the Nhâm Tuất year (fifth year of the Thiệu Long era), alongside the construction of Trùng Quang and Trùng Hoa palaces in Thiên Trường, the Trần court expanded the pagoda west of Trùng Quang Palace.
- 1299Birth of the Trúc Lâm schoolIn the tenth lunar month of 1299, Retired Emperor Trần Nhân Tông departed from Thiên Trường Prefecture for Mount Yên Tử to ordain as a monk, giving rise to the Trúc Lâm Zen school.
- 1303Boundless Assembly (Hội Vô Lượng) at Phổ MinhAccording to the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Retired Emperor Trần Nhân Tông returned to Thiên Trường Prefecture and held the Boundless Assembly at Phổ Minh Pagoda, distributing gold, silver, coins, and silk to the poor and delivering Dharma teachings.
- 1305 or 1308Erection of Phổ Minh StupaKing Trần Anh Tông had the stupa built to enshrine the relics of the Buddhist Emperor after he entered Nirvana on the first day of the eleventh lunar month of 1308. Sources differ on the exact construction year, as detailed below.
- 16th century to 1668Restoration by Princess Mạc Ngọc Lâm and Cảnh Trị steleIn the sixteenth century, Princess Mạc Ngọc Lâm raised funds to restore the pagoda. In 1668, the sixth year of the Cảnh Trị era under King Lê Huyền Tông, a stele was erected recording a restoration.
- 1789 to 1818Partial dismantling, 1796 bell casting, and 1818 restorationIn 1789, Sơn Nam governor Trần Túc dismantled the upper stories searching for bronze but stopped upon reaching the stone casket. A great bronze bell was cast in 1796 (fourth year of Cảnh Thịnh), and in 1818 Trần Duy Bản rebuilt the upper stories.
- 1962 and 2012National and Special National Heritage statusRanked as a National Heritage Site on April 28, 1962, and designated a Special National Heritage Site together with Trần Temple under Decision 1419/QĐ-TTg dated September 27, 2012.
Regarding the year the stupa was built, sources differ and the library states both views directly. VietnamPlus and the Buddhist Studies Review (Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Phật học) record 1305, based on the inscription Hưng Long thập tam niên (thirteenth year of the Hưng Long era) stamped on the stupa's bricks. Chốn Thiêng records 1308. The chronological question is that Trần Nhân Tông entered Nirvana in 1308, so if the stupa was erected to enshrine his relics, the enshrinement must have taken place in or after 1308. It is possible that the bricks and foundation were prepared in 1305 and the stupa was completed to house the relics after the Buddhist Emperor passed away in 1308, so the library records both years.
IIIThe stupa and the sanctuary of the Three Patriarchs
The pagoda is laid out along a south-to-north axis following the nội công ngoại quốc plan, beginning with a three-bay four-roofed three-entrance gate flanked by a pair of stone crocodiles on its steps, a circular lotus pond, stele and bell pavilions on the two sides, and the stupa standing in the central courtyard, followed by the I-shaped main sanctuary consisting of a nine-bay front hall, a three-bay incense-burning hall, and a three-bay upper sanctuary. Behind lie a rectangular courtyard, two side corridors, and an eleven-bay rear hall (whose central seven bays form the Patriarchal Hall housing a white stone statue of Princess Mạc Ngọc Lâm, with the Mother Goddess shrine to the east and monastic quarters to the west). The four dragon-carved ironwood door panels at the central bay of the front hall are masterpieces of Trần-dynasty woodcarving, with the two central panels now preserved at the National Museum of History in Hanoi, the two side panels kept at the museum in Nam Định and recognized as a National Treasure, and one-to-one replicas installed at the pagoda.
Phổ Minh Stupa
The stupa has fourteen stories and a square plan. Its pedestal base and first story are built of green stone (some sources count the pedestal base and first story together as two lower stone levels), carved with lotus petals, water waves, swirling clouds, and Trần-dynasty dragons. The thirteen upper stories are built of red fired brick stamped with the words Hưng Long thập tam niên and raised dragon motifs, tapering gradually toward the top, with four arched doorways opening in the four cardinal directions on each level. Crowning the summit is a five-layered lotus bud that the Buddhist Studies Review describes as a stone lotus bud resting on a two-tiered red terra-cotta base, whereas VietnamPlus describes it as an unopened lotus bud made of dark-fired terra-cotta.
According to Chốn Thiêng and the Buddhist Studies Review, after Trần Nhân Tông entered Nirvana in 1308, King Trần Anh Tông placed seven of the twenty-one relic grains (xá lợi) of his royal father inside an eight-palanquin stone reliquary (cỗ kiệu bát cống bằng đá) on the first story. During the March 1987 restoration, workers also discovered on the third story from the top a stone outer casket enclosing a bronze box that held relics. The stupa is therefore a relic stupa, the mortuary stupa of the First Patriarch of Trúc Lâm, rather than a purely decorative tower.
Regarding the base dimensions and total height of the stupa, sources also report different figures. For the base width, the Buddhist Studies Review and the library's article on Trần Temple in Nam Định record each side as 5.20 meters, Chốn Thiêng records 5.21 meters, while VietnamPlus records 8.6 meters. For the height, the Buddhist Studies Review records 19.51 meters, the Ninh Bình Department of Tourism records 19.5 meters, the Department of Cultural Heritage records about 20 meters, and VietnamPlus records 21.2 meters. Such differences likely depend on whether measurements were taken from the courtyard pavement or the stone plinth and whether they measured the first-story shaft or the outer lotus platform, so the library records all figures alongside their sources.
Statue set of the Three Patriarchs of Trúc Lâm
In the central bay of the upper sanctuary rests the statue set of the Three Patriarchs of Trúc Lâm, carved of wood and finished in red lacquer and gold leaf, dating to the seventeenth century. The statue of Trần Nhân Tông (184 cm long, 84 cm high including the pedestal) reclines on its side in the lion-sleeping Nirvana posture at the center, flanked by statues of Second Patriarch Pháp Loa and Third Patriarch Huyền Quang. According to Dân Trí newspaper and the Buddhist Studies Review, the Buddhist Emperor rests his head on his left hand, with his head pointing east toward Trần Temple, expressing an orientation toward his ancestral roots. The three-statue ensemble was recognized as a National Treasure (2022 review batch) under Decision 41/QĐ-TTg dated January 30, 2023.
Depicting a historical king reclining in Nirvana after the manner of Śākyamuni Buddha entering Nirvana is rare in Vietnamese Buddhist sculpture. It shows that later generations remembered Trần Nhân Tông not merely as a monarch, but venerated him as a Buddha of the Vietnamese land.
Regarding the Phổ Minh Cauldron (vạc Phổ Minh), celebrated as one of the Four Great Bronze Treasures of Annam (An Nam tứ đại khí) from the Trần dynasty, many visitors still look for the giant bronze cauldron mentioned in old chronicles. The cauldron was lost in the fifteenth century, and when the sixteenth-century scholar Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm visited the pagoda he composed the poem Visiting Phổ Minh Pagoda (Du Phổ Minh tự) with the couplet Liêu liêu cổ đỉnh kim hà tại, Thức đắc vô hình thắng hữu hình (Where now is the ancient cauldron of distant days, To grasp the formless surpasses the formed). Today only the stone support blocks for the cauldron's legs and fourteen Trần-dynasty lotus-carved stone column bases remain in the courtyard.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
This section presents the library's reading through the lens of traditional geomancy, not content recorded in temple steles or heritage dossiers. Historical sources simply state that the pagoda faces south, stands about 300 meters west of Trùng Quang Palace (now the Trần Temple complex), and that the head of the Buddhist Emperor's statue points east. What follows is an interpretive reading.
The first point worth noting is that the pagoda's site was not chosen independently by a geomancer. According to historical annals, in 1262 the pagoda was expanded to the west of Trùng Quang Palace, meaning its position was determined relative to the royal secondary palace. In traditional palace planning, the west is the direction of gathering inward and of the setting sun. Placing a Buddhist temple immediately west of the residence of the Retired Emperors, where monarchs who had stepped down from the throne came to rest, carried a clear symbolic meaning as a place for those who had let go of worldly rule to return to the Way.
In terms of water, Thiên Trường lies in the flat Red River delta interlaced with canals. The circular lotus pond in front of the three-entrance gate and stupa courtyard serves as the bright hall (minh đường) with water gathering (thủy tụ), compensating for the absence of natural hills on the alluvial plain. Water in front, stupa in the middle, and sanctuary behind form a self-contained axis typical of ancient northern Vietnamese pagodas.
As for the stupa, a tall vertical structure rising out of a flat plain naturally acts as a structural anchor. Where there is no mountain, ancients erected a stupa to serve as a mountain. Rising roughly twenty meters amidst terrain without hills or mounds, Phổ Minh Stupa fulfills that role, and because it houses the founder's relics, that physical anchor is also the spiritual anchor of the entire Zen lineage.
Finally, there is the orientation of the statue. The head of the Buddhist Emperor's Nirvana statue points east toward the ancestral temple of the Trần clan. Read in traditional terms, this links two layers of origin together, with ancestral bloodline to the east at the temple and spiritual lineage to the west at the stupa. A king who left home to become a monk still did not turn his back on his ancestors, and the placement of his statue expresses that bond through direction.
VAnnual observances
Phổ Minh observes the general liturgical calendar of northern Mahāyāna Buddhism alongside the commemoration day of the First Patriarch of Trúc Lâm. While the main national ceremony commemorating the Buddhist Emperor for the entire Trúc Lâm system is held on Mount Yên Tử, pilgrims come to Phổ Minh, where his relic stupa stands, to offer incense at the foot of the tower.
| Lunar date | Observance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| First lunar month | New Year pilgrimage | During the spring festival season at the Trần Temple complex, visitors to Thiên Trường also come to Phổ Minh Pagoda to offer incense. |
| 15th day of the 4th lunar month | Buddha's Birthday (Phật Đản) | Celebration of the birth of Śākyamuni Buddha, observed across Mahāyāna temples. |
| 15th day of the 7th lunar month | Vu Lan (Ullambana) | Festival of filial piety and offerings to wandering spirits. |
| 1st day of the 11th lunar month | Commemoration of the Buddhist Emperor's Nirvana | Marks the day Trần Nhân Tông entered Nirvana in 1308. Pilgrims gather at Phổ Minh Stupa to offer incense in memory of the First Patriarch of Trúc Lâm. |
Followers of Trúc Lâm often make a two-part pilgrimage, ascending Yên Tử, where the First Patriarch practiced asceticism and entered Nirvana, and then visiting Phổ Minh, where his relics are enshrined inside the stupa. One is a mountain and the other a lowland plain, both honoring the same patriarch.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Phường Nam Định (phường Lộc Vượng cũ, thành phố Nam Định cũ), tỉnh Ninh Bình
- Getting there
- The pagoda is located in Tức Mặc neighborhood, Nam Định Ward, Ninh Bình Province, on the historic Thiên Trường land of former Lộc Vượng Ward, just west of the Trần Temple complex. According to the Ninh Bình Department of Tourism, the pagoda lies about 300 meters from Trần Temple and is easily reached on foot between the two sites.
- Coordinates
- 20.4542, 106.1632
The pagoda is an active place of worship and a Special National Heritage Site. Visitors are asked to dress modestly, remove hats before entering the worship halls, and walk and speak softly before the statues of the Three Patriarchs. Do not climb onto the stupa plinth, and do not touch the carved Trần-dynasty stone base, stupa bricks, or the stone crocodiles on the gate steps. Place incense only in the designated censers in the courtyard rather than wedging incense sticks into crevices of the stupa. Please ask the temple caretakers before taking photographs inside the sanctuary.
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?Quick Questions
Which Buddhist lineage does Phổ Minh Pagoda belong to
It belongs to the Trần-era Trúc Lâm Zen school founded by Emperor-Monk Trần Nhân Tông in 1299. The pagoda venerates the Three Patriarchs of Trúc Lâm and preserves the relic stupa of the First Patriarch. It is a historical temple from the era of the Three Patriarchs rather than a modern monastery of the twentieth-century Trúc Lâm revival led by Most Venerable Thích Thanh Từ.
When was Phổ Minh Stupa built
Sources differ. VietnamPlus and the Buddhist Studies Review record 1305, based on the inscription Hưng Long thập tam niên stamped on the stupa bricks. Chốn Thiêng records 1308, the year Trần Nhân Tông entered Nirvana. Both accounts agree that the stupa was erected under King Trần Anh Tông to enshrine the Buddhist Emperor's relics.
What is inside Phổ Minh Stupa
According to temple records, King Trần Anh Tông placed seven of the twenty-one relic grains of Emperor-Monk Trần Nhân Tông inside an eight-palanquin stone reliquary on the first story, and the 1987 restoration also uncovered a stone casket enclosing a bronze relic box on the third story from the top.
Who are the Three Patriarchs of Trúc Lâm
They are the first three founding patriarchs of the Trần-era Trúc Lâm Zen school, namely First Patriarch Trần Nhân Tông, Second Patriarch Pháp Loa, and Third Patriarch Huyền Quang. The seventeenth-century gilded wooden statue set of the Three Patriarchs at Phổ Minh Pagoda was recognized as a National Treasure under Decision 41/QĐ-TTg on January 30, 2023.
How wide is the base and how tall is Phổ Minh Stupa
Sources report different measurements depending on the reference points. The base width is recorded as 5.20 meters by the Buddhist Studies Review, 5.21 meters by Chốn Thiêng, and 8.6 meters by VietnamPlus. The height is variously given as 19.5 meters, 19.51 meters, about 20 meters, or 21.2 meters.