Crossing the fields north of the ancient citadel, visitors come upon a broad lotus pond beyond which a low temple gate nestles beneath old trees. Behind the gate lies a brick courtyard leading to a tile-roofed main hall with thick walls whose bricks vary unevenly from bright red to dark brown. That uneven brickwork is worth pausing over, as part of the temple wall was built with bricks gathered from collapsed Champa towers that once stood on this very mound.
The name states its origin plainly. Thập Tháp means ten towers, counting the Champa sanctuaries that once rose on this hill. Di Đà is the shortened name of Amitābha Buddha. Together the two halves recount both historical layers of the ground, the lower layer being a religious complex of the Cham people and the upper layer being an ancestral temple of the Linji Zen lineage founded by a master from Guangdong.
IThe name Thập Tháp and the Champa tower foundations
The full title inscribed on the horizontal plaque is Sắc tứ Thập Tháp Di Đà tự. Its three components come from three different sources, with sắc tứ bestowed by the ruler, Thập Tháp drawn from the terrain, and Di Đà chosen by the monastery. The Chinese characters at the top of this page show the temple's name in standard characters inferred and shortened by the library, rather than a calligraphic tracing from the plaque.
Di Đà is the short form of Amitābha (A Di Đà), the Buddha of the Western Pure Land in Northern-tradition Buddhist scriptures. Placing that name in the temple's title indicates from the outset the Pure Land practice emphasized here.
Sắc tứ means imperially bestowed by an emperor or ruling lord, signifying that a temple granted an official plaque was recognized among state-sanctioned monasteries. In Đàng Trong, such grants served both as royal patronage for Buddhism and as a way of ordering religious institutions.
An ancestral temple (tổ đình) is the root monastery where a founding patriarch established his seat and from which his Dharma lineage spread to later generations, whereas temples founded elsewhere by disciples are called branch temples. Calling Thập Tháp an ancestral temple means it stands at the root of a monastic family tree spanning Central Vietnam.
Regarding the name Thập Tháp, historical records state that on this mound, commonly called Long Bích Hill, ten towers of the Cham people once stood. They collapsed gradually over the centuries until only ruins remained when the pagoda was built, and their fallen bricks were gathered to construct the temple walls.
To use the exact historical term, those were Cham towers, sanctuaries of Cham Hinduism (also called Cham Brahmanism) rather than Buddhist stupas. The Cham built brick temple-towers to worship Hindu deities and deified kings, following a religious tradition distinct from that of the later Buddhist monastery. The mound lies immediately north of Đồ Bàn Citadel, the former Vijaya capital of Champa. Some sources regard the ten towers as a ritual complex, while others suggest they also reinforced the northern approaches to the citadel.
Two common misconceptions deserve a straightforward historical clarification.
First, Thập Tháp Pagoda does not have ten standing towers. Many visitors count the stupas in the garden behind the temple and assume those are the ten towers in its name. The ten towers in the temple's name were Cham brick sanctuaries that had already collapsed before the pagoda was built, whereas the towers in the rear garden are monastic funerary stupas (mộ tháp) erected between the 18th and 20th centuries.
Second, reusing Cham tower bricks does not mean the pagoda was built by tearing down an intact sanctuary. Historical sources consistently note that by the time the monastery was founded, the group of ten towers had long since fallen into ruin on the hill. Reclaiming bricks from collapsed structures was a common practice, leaving here a rare material trace where two religious traditions rest within the same wall.
IIPatriarch Nguyên Thiều and the Linji lineage in Đàng Trong
The founder was Zen Master Nguyên Thiều, style name Hoán Bích, Dharma name Siêu Bạch, born in 1648 in Chaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province, belonging to the 33rd generation of the Linji (Lâm Tế) Zen school. He sailed to Đàng Trong aboard a merchant vessel around 1677 and established this monastery north of Đồ Bàn Citadel.
- 1648Birth of Patriarch Nguyên ThiềuBorn in Chaozhou Prefecture, Guangdong Province, ordained at age nineteen with the style Hoán Bích and Dharma name Siêu Bạch of the 33rd generation of the Linji school.
- Circa 1677Arrival in Đàng Trong and founding of Thập ThápThe patriarch arrives in Quy Ninh Prefecture by merchant ship and builds Thập Tháp Di Đà Pagoda on the mound north of Đồ Bàn Citadel. Sources record different founding years.
- Circa 1682 to 1684Journey north to Thuận Hóa to found templesEntrusting the temple to his disciple Minh Lý, the patriarch travels to Thuận Hóa (Huế) to establish Hà Trung Pagoda, Phổ Đồng Stupa, and Quốc Ân (Vĩnh Ân) Pagoda, from which his Dharma lineage spreads across Đàng Trong.
- 1691Grant of the plaque Sắc tứ Thập Tháp Di Đà tựThe temple receives the plaque Sắc tứ Thập Tháp Di Đà tự (many Buddhist sources record it was bestowed by Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu and re-carved by Most Venerable Mật Hoằng in 1821, while some other articles attribute the 1691 plaque to the Lê royal court).
- 1728Passing of the founding patriarchAccording to Việt Nam Phật giáo Sử lược, the patriarch passes away on the 19th day of the tenth lunar month of the Mậu Thân year at Hà Trung Pagoda and his stupa stands in Thuận Hóa (another theory holds that he traveled to Đồng Nai to found Kim Cang Pagoda and was interred there).
- 1905Succession of Master Phước Huệ as abbotMost Venerable Chơn Luận Phước Huệ (1869 - 1945), 40th generation of the Linji school, succeeds as abbot. Later honored as National Master (Quốc sư) by Emperor Bảo Đại and invited to lecture in the Huế Imperial Palace.
- 1924 - 1928Building of the abbot's hall and carving of woodblocksThe surviving abbot's hall (nhà phương trượng) is built in 1924 under National Master Phước Huệ, who in 1928 also commissions the Thập Tháp tự chí woodblocks.
- 1990National heritage siteThe temple is designated a National Historical and Cultural Heritage Site on January 9, 1990.
First, regarding the founding year, three dates circulate side by side. Many Buddhist press articles write 1665. Biographical records of the patriarch state that he arrived in Đàng Trong around 1677 before building the temple. The library's main index lists 1683, a date treated in some sources as the year of a major construction using bricks gathered from the Cham tower ruins. Because 1665 is difficult to reconcile with the patriarch's arrival in Đàng Trong, the library records all three. Regarding the horizontal plaque of the Tân Mùi year (1691), Buddhist historical sources state that Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu bestowed the plaque Sắc tứ Thập Tháp Di Đà tự (re-carved by Most Venerable Mật Hoằng in 1821), whereas several press articles write that a Lê king granted the plaque in 1691.
Second, regarding the memorial date and stupa location of the founding patriarch, most sources record that he passed away on the 19th day of the tenth lunar month (some write the 20th) at age eighty or eighty-one at Hà Trung Pagoda with his stupa in Huế, while another theory holds that he traveled to Đồng Nai to establish Kim Cang Pagoda and passed away there.
Regarding the Dharma lineage, outsiders sometimes confuse the character Chơn in National Master Phước Huệ's Dharma name Chơn Luận with another branch. According to National Master Phước Huệ's biography and the ancestral temple's genealogy, both Founding Patriarch Siêu Bạch Nguyên Thiều (33rd generation, character Siêu) and all succeeding abbots at Thập Tháp followed the transmission gatha of Patriarch Vạn Phong Thời Ủy of the Linji school (Hành Siêu Minh Thiệt Tế, Liễu Đạt Ngộ Chơn Không...), passing from Patriarchs Minh Lý (34th), Thiệt Vinh (35th), Tế Vũ (36th), Liễu Triệt (37th, who conducted the first major restoration in 1749), Đạt Giác Mật Hoằng (38th), and Ngộ Trước Minh Giác (39th) down to National Master Chơn Luận Phước Huệ (40th, character Chơn) and Most Venerable Kế Châu (41st, character Không), rather than the character Chơn of the Lâm Tế Chúc Thánh gatha.
IIICourtyard-square layout, the Execution Stone, and the woodblock repository
The monastery is built in the courtyard-square (chữ khẩu) layout, with four connected buildings enclosing an inner courtyard. The main Buddha hall stands on the central axis, the abbot's hall (nhà phương trượng) lies behind, and the east and west wings close the sides. In front of the triple gate spreads a lotus pond of roughly five hundred square meters lined with laterite stone.
The main hall is especially noteworthy for its building material, as its brick walls incorporate bricks salvaged from the ruined Cham towers on the hill, giving the masonry an uneven range of hues. Inside, massive wooden columns are carved with foliage and sacred animals in the central Vietnamese style of the Nguyễn era.
The principal building on the central axis, covering about 400 square meters and enshrining the Buddhas of the Three Times, Amitābha Buddha, Avalokiteśvara, Kṣitigarbha, the Eighteen Arhats, and patriarch statues. Portions of the walls are built with Cham tower bricks.
Located behind the main hall and covering about 130 square meters, built in 1924 as the residence of the abbot and repository of ancestral documents.
The two side halls completing the courtyard-square plan, covering about 150 and 120 square meters, used as monastic living and study quarters.
A pond of roughly 500 square meters directly before the gate, lined with laterite embankments, serving both as scenic approach and as water gathering before the temple.
The funerary stupa garden of deceased monks north and behind the temple on Long Bích Hill, built between the 18th and 20th centuries (featuring the White Tiger Stupa and Council Stupa). Sources count either twenty-one or twenty-four stupas.
A white granite block measuring 0.38 meters high, about 1.58 to 1.6 meters long, and 0.58 to 1.3 meters wide depending on the source, neatly squared at its four corners, now placed as a step at the entrance to the abbot's hall.
The Execution Stone. Local legend relates that this stone block originally stood at the gate of the old citadel and was used as a chopping block for executions during the turbulent transition of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, until an abbot of Thập Tháp Pagoda held a three-day, three-night requiem service and brought the stone to the temple as a threshold step.
It should be noted clearly that this story belongs to local oral tradition rather than official court chronicles. The granite block itself is physically measurable on site, whereas its former use comes down through folk memory.
Scripture repository and printing woodblocks
The temple's most precious textual heritage lies in its scripture repository, which preserves an 18th-century Chinese Tripitaka (Đại Tạng Kinh) bearing the seal of Hà Tiên Governor Mạc Thiên Tứ (regarded by scholars as one of the most complete sets surviving in Vietnam), alongside a collection of printing woodblocks (mộc bản) carved in reverse for printing Buddhist texts.
| Artifact | Quantity | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese Tripitaka (Đại Tạng Kinh) | 1,200 to 1,377 volumes | Donated by Hà Tiên Governor Mạc Thiên Tứ, with some press reports counting 1,377 volumes across 479 sets and Buddhist studies noting about 1,200 surviving volumes alongside Koryo and Taiwan Tripitaka sets |
| Scripture woodblocks (Mộc bản) | Over 2,000 blocks (including 60 Thập Tháp tự chí blocks from 1928) | Carved woodblocks for the Amitābha Sutra, Diamond Sutra, Lotus Sutra, and the 1928 Thập Tháp tự chí gazetteer commissioned under National Master Phước Huệ |
| Main hall statues | Multiple statues | Buddhas of the Three Times, Amitābha, Avalokiteśvara, Kṣitigarbha, Eighteen Arhats, Bodhidharma, and patriarch images |
| Imperial plaque | One plaque | Sắc tứ Thập Tháp Di Đà tự, granted in 1691 and re-carved in 1821 |
The woodblock repository reveals something that architecture alone does not show, namely that this monastery once functioned as a printing house. In an era before modern presses, an ancestral temple preserving hundreds or thousands of carved blocks held the means of producing scriptures for an entire region.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
This section presents the library's reading through the lens of traditional feng shui, rather than content copied from stele inscriptions, temple archives, or heritage dossiers. The library states this clearly so that readers can distinguish historical documentation from interpretive reading.
The first feature worth reading is the mound itself. The temple stands on a raised mound higher than the surrounding rice fields, known as Long Bích Hill. In lowland geomancy, where no mountain range stands behind to serve as a backing cushion (hậu chẩm), elevated ground takes its place. A dry, well-drained rise amidst flat fields is naturally favored for structures meant to last.
The second layer is precedent on the land. The Cham erected ten Hindu temple-towers here centuries earlier, and when a Chinese Zen master later sought a site to establish a monastery, he stopped at this exact mound. Traditional geomantic eyes call a site repeatedly chosen for sacred use across different eras land with spiritual affinity. In practical terms, the reasons are equally clear, as the mound offered high ground near waterways and adjacent to a former royal capital.
Third is water. The lotus pond before the gate forms a classic water-gathering bright hall (minh đường tụ thủy), placing a calm sheet of water directly in front of the entrance so that qi settles rather than rushing past. A raised earth mound amidst watered plains with a pond before its face represents the configuration of Earth receiving Water (Thổ đắc Thủy), a formation of gathering rather than dispersal.
Fourth is orientation and layout. The main sanctuary faces south, the direction most favored in Vietnamese temple architecture. Its courtyard-square (chữ khẩu) plan, with four wings enclosing an inner court, is read in classical manuals as four sides protecting the center, blocking wind and rain on the outer perimeter while leaving a tranquil courtyard within.
Finally, one distinction avoids misunderstanding. The Cham did not build their towers according to Sino-Vietnamese feng shui, as Cham temple architecture followed Hindu canonical rules in which the main sanctuary door typically opens east toward the rising sun. Reading this mound through Vietnamese geomantic principles belongs to the later layer of the pagoda.
VLunar calendar ceremonies and patriarchal memorial days
As an ancestral temple, the monastery observes two layers of liturgy, namely the general annual festivals of Northern-tradition Buddhism reckoned by the lunar calendar and the patriarchal memorial days (kỵ tổ) marking the death anniversaries of its patriarchs. The memorial day of the founding patriarch brings monks from branch temples across the lineage back to the ancestral seat.
| Lunar date | Ceremony | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 19th of the 10th month | Commemoration of Founding Patriarch Nguyên Thiều | Death anniversary of the founder of the ancestral temple, the largest patriarchal memorial of the year. Some sources record the 20th. |
| 15th of the 4th month | Buddha's Birthday (Vesak) | Major festival of Northern-tradition Buddhism, also marking the start of the three-month rains retreat. |
| 15th of the 4th to 15th of the 7th month | Monastic rains retreat (An cư kiết hạ) | Three months during which monastics remain in residence for intensive practice, a custom preserved since the Buddha's lifetime. |
| 15th of the 7th month | Vu Lan and Pavāraṇā (Tự tứ) | Conclusion of the rains retreat and festival of filial piety, drawing the largest gathering of lay Buddhists after the spring New Year. |
| 8th of the 12th month | Buddha's Enlightenment Day | Commemoration of Shakyamuni Buddha's awakening according to the Northern Buddhist calendar. |
| Patriarchal memorial dates | Commemorations of succeeding abbots | Alongside the founder's memorial day, the temple observes the death anniversaries of succeeding abbots, notably the 22nd day of the 1st lunar month for National Master Chơn Luận Phước Huệ (1869 - 1945). |
Beyond those dates, the temple is busiest during the early spring New Year season and on the new-moon and full-moon days of each month. Local visitors often combine a visit to Thập Tháp Pagoda with a tour of old Đồ Bàn Citadel and the nearby Cham tower clusters in the same outing.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Phường Nhơn Thành, thị xã An Nhơn cũ (nay thuộc phường An Nhơn Bắc), Gia Lai (Bình Định cũ)
- Getting there
- The temple stands in Vạn Thuận Hamlet, former Nhơn Thành Ward, former An Nhơn Town (now An Nhơn Bắc Ward), Gia Lai Province, immediately north of old Đồ Bàn Citadel. Visitors traveling along this route can also visit the ancient citadel and nearby Cham tower complexes.
- Coordinates
- 13.938, 109.0798
Visitors should observe several customs of the monastery. Because this is an active ancestral temple where monastics reside and study, the abbot's hall and the east and west wings are living quarters, so visitors should remain within the outer grounds, lotus pond area, and main hall. Dress modestly, remove hats when entering the main sanctuary, and walk and speak quietly. Do not touch the statues, the imperial plaque, or especially the antique printing woodblocks, as carved wood is easily damaged by moisture from hands. In the stupa garden, please stay on the paved paths.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
Where is Thập Tháp Di Đà Pagoda located
The pagoda is located in Vạn Thuận Hamlet, former Nhơn Thành Ward, former An Nhơn Town (now An Nhơn Bắc Ward), Gia Lai Province, immediately north of old Đồ Bàn Citadel. Formerly part of Bình Định Province prior to the 2025 provincial merger, the site lies about twenty-seven to twenty-eight kilometers northwest of former Quy Nhơn City.
Why is the temple named Thập Tháp
Because ten brick towers of the Cham people, belonging to the Cham Hindu tradition, once stood on the mound where the monastery was built. Those towers collapsed gradually over the centuries until only ruins remained when the pagoda was founded, and their fallen bricks were gathered to build the temple walls. The temple itself does not have ten towers, while the structures in the rear garden are monastic funerary stupas built between the 18th and 20th centuries.
In what year was Thập Tháp Pagoda built
Sources record different dates. Many Buddhist press articles write 1665, biographies of the founding patriarch state that he arrived in Đàng Trong around 1677 before building the temple, and the library's main index lists 1683. What sources agree on is that the temple received the plaque Sắc tứ Thập Tháp Di Đà tự in the Tân Mùi year (1691).
What is the Execution Stone at Thập Tháp Pagoda
It is a white granite block measuring 0.38 meters high, about 1.58 to 1.6 meters long, and 0.58 to 1.3 meters wide depending on the source, neatly squared at its four corners and now used as a threshold step at the entrance to the abbot's hall. Local oral tradition recounts that the stone originally stood at the gate of the old citadel before an abbot held a requiem ceremony and brought it to the temple.
Who was Patriarch Nguyên Thiều
He was a Guangdong-born Zen master (1648 - 1728), style name Hoán Bích, Dharma name Siêu Bạch, belonging to the 33rd generation of the Linji school (under the transmission gatha of Patriarch Vạn Phong Thời Ủy). Arriving in Đàng Trong around 1677, he founded Thập Tháp Di Đà Pagoda and later traveled to Thuận Hóa (Huế) to establish Hà Trung Pagoda, Phổ Đồng Stupa, and Quốc Ân Pagoda. According to Việt Nam Phật giáo Sử lược, he passed away in 1728 and his stupa stands in Thuận Hóa (while another theory holds that he went to Đồng Nai to found Kim Cang Pagoda and was interred there).