Travelling along the road at the foot of Mount Két in Thới Sơn Ward, pilgrims visiting the Seven Mountains region regularly stop at a cluster of three neighboring heritage sites comprising Phước Điền Pagoda, Thới Sơn Pagoda, and Thới Sơn Communal House. Local residents seldom use the Sino-Vietnamese title Phước Điền Tự, calling it simply Chùa Trại Ruộng (the Farm Camp Pagoda). That vernacular name preserves the exact mid-19th-century origin of the temple, when it stood as an agricultural camp built by Master Tây An (Đoàn Minh Huyên, 1807 - 1856) and his disciples so followers could clear wild land, plow fields, and practice self-cultivation together.
Stepping into the main hall of Phước Điền Pagoda, visitors immediately encounter the distinctive hallmark of the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương tradition. Upon the Three Jewels altar stand no bronze or wooden Buddha statues, no painted scrolls, and no bells or drums, only a solemn red cloth known as the Crimson Cloth (trần điều) stretched above fresh flower vases, fruit plates, and a cup of pure water. Along the granite pillars supporting the roof, alongside parallel couplets in classical Chinese, stand couplets engraved in an unusual script whose characters are read in Sino-Vietnamese and native Vietnamese sounds yet look unlike either standard Chinese characters or traditional Chữ Nôm.
IWhy the pagoda is called Trại Ruộng (Farm Camp)
Between 1849 and 1851, after gathering a large following along the Hậu River and residing at Tây An Pagoda at Mount Sam, Master Tây An appointed his disciples to lead poor settlers into the wild forest beneath Mount Két (Anh Vũ Sơn) to open new land. The pioneer contingent beneath Mount Két divided into two groups, one led by Bùi Văn Thân (known as Tăng Chủ Bùi Thiền Sư) to establish the Hưng Thới farm camp, and the other overseen by his younger brother Bùi Văn Tây (known as Đình Tây) to establish the Xuân Sơn farm camp. From these two camps, settlers formed the two villages of Hưng Thới and Xuân Sơn, which later joined to become the Thới Sơn area.
In Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương practice, a farm camp (trại ruộng) was a settlement where followers worked for their own food in order to cultivate the Way, clearing brush and plowing fields by day and returning in the evening to venerate the Buddha and listen to teachings on the Four Debts of Gratitude (Tứ Ân). The Hưng Thới farm camp was later renovated into Phước Điền Pagoda, while the Xuân Sơn farm camp became Thới Sơn Pagoda. The Sino-Vietnamese name Phước Điền (Field of Merit) carries two interwoven meanings, denoting both the physical rice fields that sustained poor pioneers during early land clearance and the Buddhist field of merit where practitioners sow wholesome seeds within daily labor.
The book Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương by Vương Kim and Đào Hưng (republished on hoahao.org under section 7. Heritage sites connected to Master Tây An) records the full text of two early Chinese couplets at Phước Điền Tự. The first couplet opens with the characters Phước Điền in a reversible palindrome reading Phước điền võ lộ công gia võ, Võ lộ công gia võ phước điền, while the second reads Mộc thủy bổn nguyên duy triệu tịch, Từ bi phổ tế độ chúng sanh. This textual record confirms that the formal name Phước Điền Tự has been attached to the site since early times.
IIFrom the Hưng Thới farm camp to the present pagoda
- 1849 - 1851Opening the Hưng Thới farm camp at the foot of Mount KétMaster Tây An sent his chief disciple Bùi Văn Thân (Tăng Chủ Bùi Thiền Sư) and his younger brother Bùi Văn Tây (Đình Tây) to lead followers to the foot of Mount Két to clear hillsides, cultivate rice, and establish the Hưng Thới and Xuân Sơn farm camps. Local lore relates that Master Tây An's buffaloes Sấm and Sét helped haul timber to build this farm camp.
- Late 19th - 20th centuryRenovation from farm camp into a pagoda and preservation of ancient coupletsAfter the brothers Tăng Chủ and Đình Tây passed away, generations of followers and temple caretakers expanded the farm camp into a solemn pagoda. During subsequent rebuildings in permanent materials, the temple caretakers reproduced the original Chinese and unusual script couplets of their predecessors onto the granite pillar system.
- August 26, 1999Recognition as a provincial historical heritage siteThe An Giang Provincial People's Committee issued a decision recognizing Phước Điền Pagoda as a provincial historical heritage site on August 26, 1999, together with Thới Sơn Pagoda and Thới Sơn Communal House in the heritage cluster at the foot of Mount Két.
When first built, the farm camp consisted of simple structures framed with forest timber and thatched with leaves to shelter farm tools and seed grain while providing a space for worship. Master Tây An did not stay permanently in one place but travelled back and forth between Tây An Pagoda at Mount Sam and the farm camps to guide followers in both farming and spiritual practice. Day-to-day oversight of the farm camps in Thới Sơn was entrusted to the brothers Tăng Chủ and Đình Tây along with senior disciples.
As migrants settled in growing numbers, the wild forest beneath Mount Két turned into rice paddies and orchards. After the chief disciples passed away, followers rebuilt the Hưng Thới farm camp into a temple named Phước Điền Tự. When the book Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương on hoahao.org mentions a major reconstruction in the Tân Tỵ year (1941) along with a lotus pond and a row of casuarina trees in front, that passage refers generally to the Thới Sơn farm camp near the tombs of Tăng Chủ and Đình Tây. At Phước Điền Pagoda itself, according to the temple caretaker interviewed by local epigraphic researchers, the unusual script couplets had already been present under earlier generations of caretakers and were faithfully re-engraved on granite pillars when the pagoda was rebuilt.
IIITwo-hall Crimson Cloth layout, Master Tây An's spirit tablet, and unusual script couplets
According to field surveys at the pagoda, in front of the entrance stands a shrine dedicated to the Hundred Mandarins (Trăm quan, honoring former mandarin deities). Inside the temple grounds also survives an ancient water well tied to the daily life of the earliest settlers, sheltered beneath a roofed pavilion bearing the Chinese inscription Tỉnh đường kiến lập kỷ niệm sư.
The main temple consists of two consecutive halls backed by a spacious rear quarters (hậu liêu). The front hall serves as the main sanctuary venerating the Three Jewels, the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Holy Assembly beneath a red cloth (trần điều) stretched overhead, without statues, bells, or wooden fish. The rear hall venerates the Patriarchs and the Nine Generations and Seven Ancestors of the hundred families, housing the spirit tablet of Master Tây An, which records that he belonged to the 38th generation of the orthodox Linji (Lâm Tế) Chan lineage, with Dharma name Minh Huyên and religious title Giác Linh, born at the Ngọ hour on the 15th day of the tenth lunar month of the Đinh Mão year (1807) and passed away at the Ngọ hour on the 12th day of the eighth lunar month of the Bính Thìn year (1856).
A unique feature of Phước Điền Pagoda is that its pillars bear, alongside classical Chinese couplets, a series of couplets written in an unusual script unlike standard Chinese characters or traditional Chữ Nôm. When recited according to the oral reading preserved at the pagoda, these couplets combine Sino-Vietnamese readings (such as Thổ vượng nhơn tùng nhơn thổ vượng, Thần an trạch dẫn tự an thần) with vernacular Vietnamese sentences (such as Ngày mười tám tháng bảy hoàn cầu tỏ rạng). Local linguistic researchers note that the characters follow consistent internal rules and were likely devised by early figures of the sect during the pioneer era.
Some general articles have occasionally conflated the list of altars inside Thới Sơn Pagoda (such as the altars to the Twelve Worthy Disciples and the Five Peaks and Seven Mountains described in Cần Thơ Newspaper) with Phước Điền Pagoda. Cross-checking directly against the book Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương on hoahao.org and the field study An Unusual Script at Phước Điền Pagoda, the library clearly distinguishes the two-hall layout of Phước Điền Pagoda together with Master Tây An's spirit tablet and the front shrine to the Hundred Mandarins.
IVThe lie of the land at the foot of Mount Két in the former farm camp area
Phước Điền Pagoda stands on level ground at the foot of Mount Két (Anh Vũ Sơn) along the eastern edge of the Seven Mountains range. In the mid-19th century, the area stretching from Mount Sam toward Nhà Bàng and the base of Mount Két was dense forest interspersed with flooded marshes, reachable only by winding trails. Sheltered behind by rocky cliffs and fronted by low-lying plains, the site offered both seclusion for Master Tây An's disciples to practice and alluvial soil watered by mountain streams to turn wild forest into rice paddies.
The three heritage sites of Phước Điền Pagoda, Thới Sơn Pagoda, and Thới Sơn Communal House are distributed along the perimeter at the base of Mount Két. Behind them rise steep granite slopes topped by stacked boulders shaped like a parrot's beak at an elevation of about two hundred and twenty-five meters, while before them opens the flat plain stretching toward Tịnh Biên and Châu Đốc.
Viewed through traditional form-school feng shui, the strip of land chosen for the Hưng Thới farm camp takes the Mount Két massif as a sturdy backing pillow mountain (hậu chẩm) behind, shielding the settlement from strong winds and retaining qi across the entire foothill cluster. In front of the pagoda opens the level agricultural plain serving as a spacious bright hall (minh đường).
Unlike monasteries perched high on mountain slopes or peaks for solitary retreat, placing Phước Điền Pagoda right along the meeting line between rocky foothill and rice plain reflects its close bond with agricultural life. Fresh groundwater at the base of the mountain was tapped through the ancient well inside the temple compound, forming a point of water gathering (thủy tụ) that sustained life across the farm camp from the earliest days of clearing the land.
The library notes that no published survey provides an exact compass degree reading for the architectural axis of Phước Điền Pagoda, so this reading of the lie of the land considers the overall topography of Mount Két's foothills and the Thới Sơn plain.
VRitual calendar and pilgrimage route through the Thới Sơn cluster
Each year, Phước Điền Pagoda welcomes large numbers of followers and visitors during major observances of the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương tradition, above all the First Full Moon festival (the 14th and 15th days of the first lunar month) and the death anniversary of Master Tây An (the 12th day of the eighth lunar month). Pilgrims visiting the Seven Mountains region typically follow a connected route, paying respects first at Tây An Pagoda at the foot of Mount Sam before travelling along National Highway 91 and Provincial Road 948 into Thới Sơn to visit all three sites, namely Phước Điền Pagoda, Thới Sơn Pagoda, and Thới Sơn Communal House, as well as the nearby tombs of Đình Tây and Tăng Chủ.
Worship at the pagoda maintains the simple custom handed down by Master Tây An. Visitors offer only incense, fresh flowers, and pure water, remembering the land-clearing merits of the pioneers and reminding themselves to practice the Four Debts of Gratitude (to ancestors and parents, to the country, to the Three Jewels, and to compatriots and humanity) in daily life.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Khu vực chân núi Két, phường Thới Sơn (phường Thới Sơn cũ, thị xã Tịnh Biên cũ), tỉnh An Giang
- Getting there
- The pagoda is located at the foot of Mount Két in Thới Sơn Ward (formerly Thới Sơn Ward, former Tịnh Biên Town), An Giang Province. From Châu Đốc Ward (former Châu Đốc City), follow National Highway 91 toward Tịnh Biên for about ten kilometers to the Nhà Bàng area, then turn onto Provincial Road 948 toward the Mount Két tourist area to reach the cluster of Phước Điền Pagoda, Thới Sơn Pagoda, and Thới Sơn Communal House. Take care not to confuse this site with Phước Điền Pagoda (Chùa Hang) on the slope of Mount Sam.
- Coordinates
- 10.6, 105.0263
When paying respects inside the main hall, offer only incense, fresh flowers, and fruit, without burning votive paper or bringing meat offerings into the temple.
Take time to examine the granite pillars inside the hall to see firsthand the couplets carved in the unusual script alongside the two early Chinese couplets and the ancient well sheltered beneath its pavilion.
Combine your visit with nearby Thới Sơn Pagoda and Thới Sơn Communal House to gain a complete view of the Hưng Thới and Xuân Sơn farm camps and the village communal house of 19th-century Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương settlers.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
Is Phước Điền Pagoda in Thới Sơn the same as Chùa Hang on Mount Sam
No. An Giang Province has two pagodas sharing the Sino-Vietnamese title Phước Điền Tự that are completely distinct. Phước Điền Pagoda on the slope of Mount Sam (in Vĩnh Tế Ward, former Châu Đốc City) is popularly called Chùa Hang (Cave Pagoda) and belongs to Northern-tradition Buddhism. Phước Điền Pagoda at the foot of Mount Két (in Thới Sơn Ward, former Tịnh Biên Town) is popularly called Chùa Trại Ruộng (Farm Camp Pagoda) and is the original Hưng Thới farm camp site of the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương tradition.
Why does Phước Điền Pagoda have no Buddha statues and only hang a red cloth
The pagoda belongs to the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương tradition founded by Master Tây An in 1849. According to the teaching of Studying Buddhism and Cultivating Human Virtue (Học Phật Tu Nhân), spiritual practice centers on inner purity and fulfilling the Four Debts of Gratitude rather than outward forms, so only a red Crimson Cloth (trần điều) is hung above the Three Jewels altar to symbolize perfection and reverence.
What is the unusual script carved on the pillars of Phước Điền Pagoda
The pillars of Phước Điền Pagoda are engraved with parallel couplets in a distinctive script whose strokes superficially resemble Chinese or Chữ Nôm characters yet follow an entirely different structural system. According to studies by local cultural researchers, these couplets are read using both Sino-Vietnamese and native Vietnamese pronunciations and follow consistent rules, likely created by early figures within the Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương tradition.
What biographical details does the spirit tablet in the rear hall of Phước Điền Pagoda record about Master Tây An
According to the book Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương, the spirit tablet at Phước Điền Tự records that Master Tây An belonged to the 38th generation of the orthodox Linji (Lâm Tế) Chan lineage, with Dharma name Minh Huyên and religious title Giác Linh, born at the Ngọ hour on the 15th day of the tenth lunar month of the Đinh Mão year (1807) and passed away at the Ngọ hour on the 12th day of the eighth lunar month of the Bính Thìn year (1856) at the age of fifty.