Driving more than ten kilometers seaward from the center of former Bạc Liêu, you come to a long perimeter wall and a triple-arched gate modeled on Angkor temple towers, crowned by multi-headed serpent deities. Beyond the gate rises a main hall taller than the surrounding tree line, its multi-tiered roof stacked into a pointed spire, predominantly gold in color with Khmer dragon tails curving at the eaves.
This is Xiêm Cán Pagoda, originally named Komphisako in Khmer. Begun in 1887 on a plot that now covers nearly five hectares about two kilometers from the coast, it serves as a major religious center for the Khmer community of the former Bạc Liêu region. The pagoda follows Khmer Theravada Buddhism, and both its Khmer and Vietnamese names speak to its setting right by the sea.
ITwo names that both speak of the sea
The pagoda's full Khmer name is recorded by Chốn Thiêng as Komphirsakor Prêk Chru, usually shortened to Komphisako on digital maps. Chốn Thiêng and VietNamNet explain that Komphisako means deep sea, evoking the profound depth of Buddhist wisdom, while Prêk Chru, as explained by the current abbot Venerable Dương Quân in Dân Việt newspaper, means deep river. Xiêm Cán is the name used by ethnic Vietnamese and Chinese residents in the area. According to the Vietnam News Agency, the Buddhist Studies Review and VietNamNet, the term comes from the Teochew dialect of Chinese settlers from Chaozhou and means bordering the water, referring to the coastal alluvial flats where the pagoda stands.
The two names come from two communities, one framed in terms of Dharma wisdom and deep water, the other describing the coastal terrain, yet both point back to the image of river and sea. The Buddhist Studies Review sees in this pair of names a trace of the meeting between the Khmer, Chinese and Kinh communities along this coast.
The Buddhist tradition in brief. The pagoda belongs to Khmer Theravada Buddhism, keeping the Pali Tipitaka, worshipping only Shakyamuni Buddha, with monks observing the Pali bhikkhu monastic code, and the compound serving as the educational and communal heart of the hamlet, including Khmer script classes as noted by Dân Trí newspaper. Khmer Theravada monks do not take generational Dharma names from a transmission poem as Northern Buddhist schools do, so there is no lineage verse to record here. A fuller explanation of this tradition, the sala hall and the Sima boundary stones appears in the library's entries on Kh'leang Pagoda and Bat Pagoda (Chùa Dơi).
Hearing the word Xiêm, many visitors think of Siam, present-day Thailand, and assume Xiêm Cán is a Siamese temple or built in Thai style. The sources all state otherwise, explaining that Xiêm Cán is a Teochew phrase meaning bordering the water and has nothing to do with the name Siam. This is a Khmer Theravada pagoda of the local Khmer community, and its architecture bears the stamp of Angkor temple towers rather than Thai temples.
IIFrom 1887 to the rebuilt main hall
According to the Vietnam News Agency and Chốn Thiêng, the people who organized the building of the pagoda were a married couple, Mr. Nên, then aged 63, and Mrs. Ngét, aged 54, together with thirty neighboring households who contributed labor over two months on an initial plot of 4,500 square meters. Chốn Thiêng records the groundbreaking date as May 7, 1887. Regarding the first abbot, Chốn Thiêng states that villagers invited the Dharma master Thạch Mau to preside over the temple, whereas the Vietnamese Wikipedia records that the first abbot who initiated construction in April 1887, Buddhist Era 2430, was Most Venerable Thạch Nam. Regarding the number of abbot generations, Dân Trí newspaper in 2020 recorded eight generations of abbots, while Chốn Thiêng and Wikipedia record nine generations, with Venerable Dương Quân serving as the current abbot.
- 1887GroundbreakingOn May 7, Mr. Nên and Mrs. Ngét together with thirty households began building the pagoda of timber and thatch on a coastal plot.
- 1887The bronze bellThe pagoda's bronze bell bears the date of this founding year and is still preserved at the temple.
- 1903Rebuilt with timber columns and tile roofAccording to Venerable Dương Quân in Dân Việt newspaper, sixteen years after its founding the thatched main hall was blown down by a storm and rebuilt by villagers with large timber columns and a tile roof. The main hall was restored again in 1974.
- 2001Provincial heritage siteRanked as a provincial architectural and artistic heritage site by the People's Committee of former Bạc Liêu Province.
- 2018Major reconstruction of the main hallIn April, the pagoda began rebuilding its main hall, according to Dân Trí newspaper.
- 2020Inauguration of the main hallDuring the Canh Tý Lunar New Year, the rebuilt main hall was inaugurated.
- 2022Typical Mekong Delta tourism siteRecognized as a provincial tourism site in June under Decision 247/QĐ-UBND, and named a typical tourism site of the Mekong Delta in November.
Where sources give different figures. For the compound area, the Buddhist Studies Review records four hectares, while the Vietnam News Agency, Dân Việt and VietNamNet record around or nearly five hectares. For the height of the main hall, the Buddhist Studies Review gives 36.3 meters and calls it the tallest among Khmer pagodas in southern Vietnam, whereas Dân Việt gives nearly 40 meters. For the main hall platform, Chốn Thiêng records a height of 1.5 meters, Dân Trí gives about 2 meters, and VietNamNet and the Vietnam News Agency count eighteen steps leading up to the main facade. These figures may reflect measurements taken at different times before and after the 2018 to 2020 reconstruction, so the library records both sets of numbers.
Regarding heritage status, the pagoda was ranked a provincial architectural and artistic heritage site of former Bạc Liêu Province in 2001, and in 2022 it was recognized by the Mekong Delta Tourism Association as a typical tourism site of the region.
IIITemple-tower architecture
All sources note that the pagoda's architecture carries a strong Angkor temple-tower imprint. The main hall measures 18 meters wide by 36 meters long according to the Vietnam News Agency, with a multi-tiered roof stacked into a tower-like spire and serpent tails curving at the four corners. The walls, ceiling and columns inside the main hall are covered in polychrome reliefs and murals narrating the life of the Buddha from birth to Parinirvana alongside episodes from the traditional Reamker epic. Dân Việt notes that the main hall is supported by one hundred round concrete columns.
In Khmer Theravada tradition, the Naga serpent deity recalls the account of the Buddha meditating through a storm while the serpent king Mucalinda coiled his body into a seat and spread his hood to shelter him from the rain. Multi-headed serpents are therefore carved along balustrades, gates and roof edges to symbolize protection of the Buddha and the Dharma. Inside the main hall, the wall paintings do the work of a wordless book, recounting step by step the Buddha's birth, renunciation, enlightenment and Parinirvana so that worshippers looking at the walls recall his teaching.
A long wall encloses the grounds, entered through a triple gate modeled on Angkor architecture and decorated with multi-headed Naga serpents, Krud birds and Kâyno maidens.
Along the roof tiers lie double-headed Khmer dragons with outstretched bodies and curving tails, a distinctive detail worth pausing to examine.
The main Buddha statue rests on a semicircular pedestal nearly 2 meters high set atop seven altar tiers, accompanied by detailed reliefs of Shakyamuni Buddha.
Opposite the main hall stand a ritual candle pillar crowned by a five-headed Naga serpent and the two-story Jade Relic Stupa built in 2009, flanked by white elephant statues.
Alongside the newer lecture hall, the compound preserves an old wooden sala and monks' quarters built of sao and căm xe hardwoods, a bell tower and a funerary stupa garden holding the ashes of community members.
| Artifact | Quantity or date | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Buddha statues | 115 statues | Vietnam News Agency, Dân Việt |
| Bronze bell | Dated 1887 | Vietnam News Agency, VietNamNet |
| Palm-leaf scriptures | One 70-leaf bundle, over 100 years old | Dân Việt, Vietnam News Agency |
| Stone stele | One stele | Vietnam News Agency |
Many visitors see the date 1887 and assume the main hall standing before them is well over a century old. That is not the case. The year 1887 marks the founding of the pagoda, whereas the present main hall was rebuilt starting in April 2018 and inaugurated at the Canh Tý Lunar New Year in 2020, according to Dân Trí newspaper. What dates back to 1887 is the bronze bell, while the older surviving layer includes the century-old palm-leaf scripture bundle, the stone stele, the antique wooden sala and the ring of old trees around the grounds.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
This section presents the library's reading through the lens of traditional feng shui, not something written in the pagoda's own texts. Khmer Theravada Buddhism does not site temples by feng shui. VietNamNet notes that every structure at Xiêm Cán Pagoda faces east according to Khmer temple custom, where the main hall looks eastward because the Buddha is believed to look toward that direction. The notes below offer a comparative reading for readers familiar with traditional Vietnamese site analysis.
The pagoda's very name states its setting, bordering the water. The temple stands about two kilometers from the seashore on coastal alluvial land. In traditional site reading, the sea is the largest body of water, so a sanctuary facing the sea looks out toward a boundless bright hall (minh đường). Yet feng shui also teaches that where water is too vast, qi easily scatters and direct sea winds prevent energy from settling. The two-kilometer setback from the shore, together with the perimeter wall and the belt of old trees around the compound, forms the buffer that holds qi before that wide-open expanse.
As for facing east, the coastline of former Bạc Liêu lies to the southeast of the pagoda, so an east-facing main hall also turns toward the sea and the sun rising from the water. Traditional site reading assigns the east to the Wood element and growing vitality. The Khmer face their halls eastward for doctrinal reasons rather than feng shui, yet at Xiêm Cán both lines of thought meet on the same bearing.
As for height, the main hall rises on a high platform reached by eighteen steps at the main front. On flat coastal land without hills or mounds, a raised base and a pointed spire towering above the tree line create the backing that the flat terrain lacks. Lowland feng shui calls this using the building itself as a mountain.
VAnnual festivals
VietNamNet notes that the pagoda's three largest festivals are Chôl Chnăm Thmây, Sene Đôlta and the Kathina robe offering. Alongside those three, the temple observes the shared ritual calendar of Khmer Theravada Buddhism. The meaning of each festival is explained in detail in the entry on Kh'leang Pagoda, so only the dates are listed here.
| Time of year | Festival | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-April (solar calendar) | Chôl Chnăm Thmây | Khmer New Year celebrated over three days, recorded by VietNamNet from April 14 to 16. |
| Full moon of the 4th lunar month | Visak Bochea | Buddha's Birthday observance. |
| Full moon of the 6th lunar month | Chôl Vôssa | Monks enter the three-month rainy-season retreat. |
| Late 8th to early 9th lunar month | Sene Đôlta | Ancestor-offering festival, when villagers bring offerings to the pagoda. |
| 16th of the 9th to full moon of the 10th lunar month | Kathina | Robe-offering ceremony for monks after the rainy-season retreat. |
| Full moon of the 10th lunar month | Ok Om Bok | Moon Worship festival giving thanks for the harvest. |
For a coastal pagoda, the festival cycle also follows the rhythm of local livelihoods. The Chôl Chnăm Thmây New Year falls at the end of the dry season after the harvest, when families are free from field work to gather at the pagoda for three days. The Ok Om Bok festival gives thanks to the Moon deity, whom the Khmer believe governs the tides and the harvest.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Tuyến ven biển, phường Hiệp Thành (xã Vĩnh Trạch Đông cũ, thành phố Bạc Liêu cũ, tỉnh Bạc Liêu cũ), tỉnh Cà Mau
- Getting there
- The pagoda stands along the coastal road in Hiệp Thành Ward, Cà Mau Province, formerly Vĩnh Trạch Đông Commune, Bạc Liêu City, more than ten kilometers from the center of former Bạc Liêu and about three kilometers from the Bạc Liêu wind farm.
- Coordinates
- 9.2536, 105.7979
The pagoda is a monastic training ground and the communal house of the local Khmer community. Please remove shoes before ascending to the main hall, dress modestly with shoulders and knees covered, and do not climb onto the Naga balustrades or dragon statues for photos. When sitting inside the main hall, do not point your feet toward the Buddha statue. Women do not touch monks. The funerary stupa garden holds cremated remains, so please walk quietly and speak softly.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
Contribute photos, information or video for Xiem Can Pagoda
Góp ảnh, thông tin hoặc video cho Chùa Xiêm CánEveryone is welcome to enrich this page: a photo you took, a detail the page misses, a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
Thầy Ưng Khiêm mời cộng đồng cùng làm giàu trang này. Ảnh chụp tận nơi, một chi tiết lịch sử chưa được nhắc, một đoạn video ngắn: mọi đóng góp đều được đọc và trả lời.
No community contribution yet. You could be the first. Chưa có đóng góp nào từ cộng đồng. Bạn có thể là người đầu tiên.
?Quick Questions
Where is Xiêm Cán Pagoda located
The pagoda stands along the coastal road in Hiệp Thành Ward, Cà Mau Province, formerly Vĩnh Trạch Đông Commune, Bạc Liêu City, Bạc Liêu Province. It lies more than ten kilometers from the center of former Bạc Liêu, about two kilometers from the sea and roughly three kilometers from the coastal wind farm.
What does the name Xiêm Cán mean
Xiêm Cán comes from the Teochew dialect of Chinese settlers from Chaozhou and means bordering the water, referring to the coastal alluvial land where the pagoda stands. It has no connection to the country name Siam. The pagoda's full Khmer name is Komphirsakor Prêk Chru, shortened to Komphisako, meaning deep sea or deep river and pointing to the depth of Buddhist wisdom.
When was Xiêm Cán Pagoda built
Construction began in 1887, dated by Chốn Thiêng to May 7, through the efforts of Mr. Nên, Mrs. Ngét and thirty households, with the first abbot recorded as Dharma master Thạch Mau by Chốn Thiêng and as Most Venerable Thạch Nam by Wikipedia. The pagoda was ranked a provincial heritage site in 2001, and the present main hall was rebuilt between April 2018 and the Canh Tý Lunar New Year in 2020.
Which Buddhist tradition does Xiêm Cán Pagoda belong to
It belongs to Khmer Theravada Buddhism and serves as a major religious center for the Khmer community of the former Bạc Liêu area. It worships only Shakyamuni Buddha, follows the Pali canon and monastic code, and teaches Khmer script. Its architecture reflects Angkor temple towers rather than Thai temples.
How tall is the main hall of Xiêm Cán Pagoda
Sources give different measurements. The Buddhist Studies Review records 36.3 meters and calls it the tallest among Khmer pagodas in southern Vietnam, while Dân Việt records nearly 40 meters. The main hall measures 18 meters wide by 36 meters long, with eighteen steps leading up to its east-facing front.