From Tam Thanh Street, visitors climb some thirty stone steps cut into the mountainside and pass through an eight-meter-high cave mouth into a cool, dim cavern. The pagoda has no tiled roof, no forecourt and no freestanding triple gate, its entire worship space lies inside a limestone grotto, where altars back directly against the rock walls and stalactites hang above the incense tables. A few dozen paces further in, high on the rock face above the Three Jewels hall, appears the figure of a Buddha in a white-painted monastic robe carved in relief from the mountain itself rather than set on a pedestal. That is the statue of Amitabha Buddha.
The pagoda's literary name is Thanh Thiền Tự (with one press source also noting the variant Thanh Tiên Tự), though people in Lạng Sơn commonly call it Tam Thanh Pagoda after the cave. The two words Tam Thanh (Three Pure Ones) come from Daoist cosmology and also designate the third cavern in the local trio of Nhất Thanh, Nhị Thanh and Tam Thanh. Today the temple follows Mahayana Buddhism (Phật Giáo Bắc Tông) and arranges its altars on the principle of Buddha in front and Saints behind (tiền Phật hậu Thánh), allowing visitors standing inside the cavern to read several overlapping layers of belief at once.
INames and layers of belief
This site bears several names at once, each pointing to a historical layer. Thanh Thiền Tự is the literary name, with one newspaper article also mentioning Thanh Tiên Tự, and the two characters Thanh Thiền appear on the oldest cliff stele in the grotto recording the restoration of Thanh Thiền Cave in 1677. Chùa Tam Thanh is the vernacular name taken from the cavern that shelters it. People of the region also placed this complex first among the eight scenic sights of the frontier commandery, giving rise to the title foremost of the Eight Views of Lạng Sơn (đệ nhất bát cảnh xứ Lạng).
One clarification is needed regarding the Chinese characters at the head of this page. Because the library has not located a surviving horizontal plaque or stele rubbings showing the exact calligraphed temple name, the characters 清禪寺 above are inferred by the library from the literary name Thanh Thiền Tự rather than transcribed from an artifact.
In Daoist doctrine, Tam Thanh (the Three Pure Ones) are the three highest celestial realms and their presiding deities, Ngọc Thanh (Jade Purity), Thượng Thanh (Supreme Purity) and Thái Thanh (Grand Purity), standing at the apex of the Daoist pantheon even above the Jade Emperor. Alongside that Daoist meaning, local heritage records explain that this limestone range, shaped like a herd of elephants prostrating on green grass, originally had three caves named Nhất Thanh, Nhị Thanh and Tam Thanh, with Tam Thanh being the third cavern.
In Mahayana Buddhist doctrine, the figure carved into the cave wall is Amitabha (A Di Đà), the Buddha of the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. Devotion to Amitabha centers on reciting his name to aspire for rebirth in that Pure Land, the most widespread devotional practice among northern Vietnamese Buddhists.
According to local heritage documentation, the cave initially served as a Daoist shrine to the Three Pure Ones (Tam Thanh), and later during the Lê dynasty absorbed Buddhist and Confucian elements in the spirit of the Three Teachings in harmony (Tam giáo đồng nguyên), once venerating the Buddha, Laozi and Confucius together before taking shape as a Buddhist pagoda. The current altar arrangement preserves traces of that multi-layered history, with the Three Jewels hall (cung Tam Bảo) for the Buddhas toward the front and the Holy Mothers' hall (cung Thánh Mẫu) and Mountain Goddesses' hall (cung Sơn Trang) further inside, following the northern Vietnamese pattern of Buddha in front, Saints behind (tiền Phật hậu Thánh). In short, the name Tam Thanh preserves the earliest Daoist layer, while present-day worship belongs to Mahayana Buddhism combined with Mother Goddess veneration.
The most frequent confusion here concerns geography rather than deities, as many visitors treat Tam Thanh Cave and Nhị Thanh Cave as a single site, or assume Tam Thanh Pagoda and Tam Giáo Pagoda are two names for the same temple. Historical records show clearly that they are two separate caverns lying near each other, each housing its own temple.
Tam Thanh Cave holds Tam Thanh Pagoda (literary name Thanh Thiền Tự), dating back to the Lê dynasty with its earliest stele dated 1677. Nhị Thanh Cave holds Tam Giáo Pagoda (Pagoda of the Three Teachings), established in the Kỷ Hợi year 1779 by Ngô Thì Sĩ while serving as Military Governor (Đốc trấn) of Lạng Sơn to venerate Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism together, inside that cavern the Ngọc Tuyền stream flows through to form Nhất Bình Pond, beside Di Ái Hall dedicated to Ngô Thì Sĩ and a relief portrait of him carved into the rock wall. Ngô Thì Sĩ himself named Nhị Thanh after his literary sobriquet Nhị Thanh Cư Sĩ. The two cave entrances lie about five hundred meters apart on foot, and that close proximity is why their names are so often conflated.
IIChronology and the cliff steles inside the cave
The history of this pagoda is read primarily from stone. No dynastic chronicle records the year the temple was founded, but the cavern walls preserve a system of rock-cut inscriptions (bia ma nhai) carved directly into the limestone face, forming a sequence of dated landmarks from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.
- Lê dynastyPagoda inside Tam Thanh CaveLocal heritage records state that the pagoda dates from the Lê dynasty, though no contemporary document records the exact year of its founding.
- 1677Stele on the Restoration of Thanh Thiền CaveThe oldest legible rock-cut stele in the cave, carved in the second year of the Vĩnh Trị era (1677) under King Lê Hy Tông and composed by Regional Commander Duke Vi Đức Thắng (Vũ quận công) to record a restoration.
- 1777Ngô Thì Sĩ appointed Governor of Lạng SơnNgô Thì Sĩ, courtesy name Ngọ Phong (1726 to 1780), served as Military Governor (Đốc trấn) of Lạng Sơn from 1777 to 1780, surveying and naming many scenic sites across the commandery.
- 1779Nhị Thanh Cave and the poem Vịnh Tiên Sơn TựIn the Kỷ Hợi year 1779, Ngô Thì Sĩ opened nearby Nhị Thanh Cave and built Tam Giáo Pagoda inside it. On the right rock wall at the entrance to Tam Thanh Cave is carved his poem Vịnh Tiên Sơn Tự, dated in some accounts to 1777 and in others to 1779.
- 1918Two Nguyễn-dynasty cliff inscriptionsMinister of Public Works Đoàn Đình Duyệt and Tôn Thất Tố carved two Chinese-character poems on the cave wall while accompanying Emperor Khải Định on his northern inspection tour in this year.
- 1924Chữ Nôm stele of Đào Trọng VậnProvincial Governor of Thái Bình Đào Trọng Vận carved a ten-line poem in vernacular chữ Nôm script on the rock face, the only recorded chữ Nôm cliff inscription in Lạng Sơn.
- 1962National heritage siteThe scenic complex comprising Nhị Thanh Cave, Tam Thanh Cave, Tô Thị Mountain and the Mạc Dynasty Citadel was ranked as a national historical and cultural heritage site.
Two points where sources diverge should be stated directly rather than smoothed over.
First is the date of the Amitabha Buddha relief statue. Some sources assign the carving to the fifteenth century, during the Early Lê period. Others date it by its Lê-Mạc artistic style to roughly the sixteenth or seventeenth century, a difference of more than a hundred years. Because the relief carries no dated inscription, every proposed date rests on stylistic comparison, and the library records both views.
Second is the founding date of the pagoda. Accounts commonly state that the pagoda dates from the Lê dynasty, which spans nearly four centuries rather than a single year. The earliest dated physical evidence inside the cavern is the 1677 restoration stele from the Restored Lê period, meaning worship here certainly began before 1677, though how much earlier cannot yet be verified by artifacts.
IIIA pagoda inside the heart of a mountain
The first point to grasp is that there is no constructed building here in the usual sense. The limestone cavern forms the entire shell of the pagoda, while human additions consist only of stone steps, incense tables, altars and carvings worked into the rock walls. The wider scenic zone covers more than fifty-two hectares, and geological studies estimate the age of these karst caves at around three hundred million years, making the frame of the temple vastly older than any period of human worship.
The entrance climbs some thirty stone steps cut into the mountainside to a cave mouth about twenty meters up the slope, roughly eight meters high and facing east.
Arranged on the principle of Buddha in front and Saints behind, comprising the Three Jewels hall (cung Tam Bảo), the Holy Mothers' hall (cung Thánh Mẫu) and the Mountain Goddesses' hall (cung Sơn Trang) nestled against the natural contours of the rock.
The pagoda's centerpiece above the Three Jewels hall, 202 centimeters high and 65 centimeters wide, carved in relief inside a bodhi-leaf aureole, painted white, wearing a long kasaya robe with both hands pointing down in the nectar-bestowing (ấn cam lộ) mudra.
A natural subterranean pool inside the cavern whose clear water never runs dry through the year, ringed by stalactites. Its name, meaning Lake of the Underworld, reflects the stillness of dark water deep inside the mountain.
Beyond Âm Ty Lake lies a flat natural floor like a small stage, where two skylights (cửa Thông Thiên) open through the cave vault to let daylight stream down, with steps leading up to Vọng Thị Pavilion looking toward Mount Tô Thị.
Inscriptions carved directly into the limestone walls, spanning from Vi Đức Thắng's 1677 stele and Ngô Thì Sĩ's poem to the 1918 poems and Đào Trọng Vận's 1924 chữ Nôm stele, forming the site's primary documentary archive.
This cave setting creates a ceremonial sequence opposite to that of a built temple. In a free-standing pagoda, visitors walk from bright daylight into a progressively dimmer interior where the most sacred image sits in the deepest shadow. Here one enters through a shaded cave mouth into the dim midsection housing the altars and the relief Buddha, then continues past Âm Ty Lake toward the rear of the grotto, where the two Thông Thiên skylights and Vọng Thị Pavilion open out to the sky.
Another frequent misunderstanding is to think the Amitabha statue was carved separately and mounted on the wall, or sculpted in the round. It is a rock-cut relief, where carvers hollowed back the surrounding limestone so the figure emerges from the cliff face while remaining part of the living mountain. That technique explains both how the image has endured centuries in a damp cavern and why it can never be removed for off-site conservation.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
This section presents the library's reading through the lens of traditional Vietnamese geomancy (phong thủy), not content copied from steles or official heritage files. The library states this clearly so readers can distinguish documentary records from interpretive reading.
The first point to note is that the ancients here did not erect a building but received a cavern. In traditional land-viewing, a mountain grotto is a place where vital energy (khí) has already gathered of its own accord, for the limestone peak forms a true rear cushion (hậu chẩm) rather than an earthen mound substitute on a delta plain, the rock walls hold qi from dispersing, and the interior is sheltered from wind. Such a chamber needs no structural enclosure, only incense tables placed at the proper spots.
In terms of the Five Phases (ngũ hành), this landform exemplifies Earth embracing Water (Thổ bọc Thủy). The limestone mountain is Earth, while Âm Ty Lake inside the cavern is Water, a subterranean spring held within the rock mass rather than flowing out in the open. Classical manuals state that surface water carries qi away, whereas water concealed within the earth retains qi. A cavern containing a perennial spring that never dries up is therefore classed as enduring qi-retaining ground, and the name Âm Ty captures that Yin quality of stillness and containment.
Next come the Thông Thiên skylights, which the library regards as the decisive feature in reading this site. A completely sealed cave, in traditional terms, gathers qi without circulation, turning accumulation into stagnation. The two Thông Thiên openings at the rear of the grotto, together with the upper passage to Vọng Thị Pavilion, break that stagnation by opening a shaft for heaven's qi and daylight to descend and meet the earth qi inside the mountain. The ancients named the opening Thông Thiên (Connecting with Heaven) rather than a merely descriptive title. In traditional terms, this is where heavenly qi and earthly qi intersect, making the sanctuary a living cave.
Regarding orientation, the cave mouth faces east toward Tam Thanh Street at the foot of the slope, opening toward level ground and human settlement while backing into the limestone massif. That is the favored disposition for a cave sanctuary, facing the community and resting its back against the mountain. The thirty stone steps climbing to the entrance serve to elevate the foundation (tôn nền), lifting the sacred space above everyday traffic.
Finally comes the cluster formation. Nhị Thanh Cave, Tam Thanh Cave, Mount Tô Thị and the Mạc Citadel sit close together within a continuous karst belt whose stone vein is unbroken. In traditional geomancy, multiple shrines along an unbroken mountain vein share a common vitality, and the first-full-moon procession carrying Ngô Thì Sĩ's spirit tablet from Nhị Thanh Cave to Tam Thanh Pagoda reconnects the two ends of that single vein once every year.
VFirst-full-moon festival and annual rites
The pagoda's main festival takes place on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month (Rằm tháng Giêng), and remarkably the centerpiece of its procession is not a Buddha image but the spirit tablet of Ngô Thì Sĩ, the eighteenth-century Governor of Lạng Sơn. His tablet is carried in procession from Tam Giáo Pagoda in Nhị Thanh Cave across the five-hundred-meter path to Tam Thanh Pagoda.
| Lunar date | Observance | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 15th day of the 1st month | Tam Thanh Pagoda Festival | The main annual festival, combining Buddhist and communal sacrificial rites with traditional folk performances by local neighborhoods. |
| 15th day of the 1st month | Procession of Ngô Thì Sĩ's tablet | A ceremonial procession carrying Ngô Thì Sĩ's spirit tablet from Tam Giáo Pagoda in Nhị Thanh Cave to Tam Thanh Pagoda, accompanied by dragon and lion dances. |
| 1st and 15th of each lunar month | Regular twice-monthly worship | Steady year-round incense offerings by local residents following standard Mahayana Buddhist practice. |
| 15th day of the 4th and 7th months | Buddha's Birthday and Vu Lan Festival | The two major annual Mahayana Buddhist observances, celebrated according to monastic liturgy. |
Carrying the spirit tablet of a civil mandarin at the heart of a Buddhist pagoda festival reveals how local memory works here. Ngô Thì Sĩ did not found Tam Thanh Pagoda, he built Tam Giáo Pagoda in the neighboring cavern. Yet because he surveyed, named and inscribed poems across this entire karst landscape, residents of Lạng Sơn remember him as the patron figure of the whole complex rather than of one cave alone.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Động Tam Thanh, đường Tam Thanh, phường Tam Thanh, tỉnh Lạng Sơn
- Getting there
- The pagoda lies inside Tam Thanh Cave on Tam Thanh Street, Tam Thanh ward, Lạng Sơn province, about two kilometers from the center of former Lạng Sơn city and roughly six hundred meters from the Pò Soài six-way intersection. From the rear gate of Nhị Thanh Cave, a walking path leads about five hundred meters to Tam Thanh Cave.
- Coordinates
- 21.8556, 106.7468
Local etiquette includes dressing modestly, removing hats upon entering the cave, and walking quietly and speaking softly because sound echoes far inside the cavern. The stone path inside is narrow, damp and slippery, so visitors should keep to a single file and avoid crowding on the steps. Do not touch the relief Buddha statue or the stalactites, do not write on or scratch the rock-cut steles, and do not toss coins or offerings into Âm Ty Lake. Please ask the caretakers before using bright lighting or filming equipment inside the cave.
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?Quick Questions
Who is worshipped at Tam Thanh Pagoda
The pagoda follows Mahayana Buddhism with altars arranged on the principle of Buddha in front and Saints behind, comprising the Three Jewels hall toward the front and the Holy Mothers' and Mountain Goddesses' halls further inside. Its most important image is the relief statue of Amitabha Buddha carved into the rock wall above the Three Jewels hall. The name Tam Thanh comes from Daoism and also refers to the third cave in the local trio of Nhất Thanh, Nhị Thanh and Tam Thanh.
Are Tam Thanh Pagoda and Nhị Thanh Cave the same place
No, they are two separate caverns lying about five hundred meters apart on foot. Tam Thanh Cave houses Tam Thanh Pagoda (literary name Thanh Thiền Tự), dating from the Lê dynasty. Nhị Thanh Cave houses Tam Giáo Pagoda and Di Ái Hall, built by Governor Ngô Thì Sĩ in 1779 to venerate Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism together.
How old is the Amitabha Buddha statue at Tam Thanh Pagoda
The relief statue is 202 centimeters high and 65 centimeters wide, carved directly into the limestone wall inside a bodhi-leaf frame. Sources differ on its age, with some assigning it to the fifteenth century and others dating it by its Lê-Mạc artistic style to the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Because the carving has no dated inscription, all dates are stylistic estimates.
What are Âm Ty Lake and the Thông Thiên skylights
Âm Ty Lake is a natural subterranean pool inside the cavern whose clear water never runs dry. Beyond Âm Ty Lake toward the rear of the cave lies a flat natural stage where two Thông Thiên skylights open through the rock vault to let daylight stream down onto the stalactites, with steps leading up to Vọng Thị Pavilion overlooking Mount Tô Thị.
When does the Tam Thanh Pagoda festival take place
It takes place on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. Its distinctive feature is the procession carrying the spirit tablet of Ngô Thì Sĩ from Tam Giáo Pagoda in Nhị Thanh Cave to Tam Thanh Pagoda, accompanied by dragon and lion dances. The pagoda also observes regular Mahayana Buddhist festivals on the fifteenth day of the fourth and seventh lunar months.