From Tự Phước Street in the Trại Mát area, you look up a pine-covered hill and see two five-story towers standing side by side, painted in bright tones against the dark green forest. Climbing several flights of steps brings you to the front facade, and from there inward the sanctuary stretches along the three-part sequence familiar to anyone who has visited Tây Ninh, comprising a front hall, a central nave, and a rear sanctuary, each bearing its own title.
This is Thánh thất Đa Phước (Đa Phước Temple), the parish center of Họ đạo Đà Lạt under the Tây Ninh Cao Đài Holy See (Hội Thánh Cao Đài Tòa Thánh Tây Ninh). Vietnamese press reports often call it the largest local Cao Đài temple in the country. More important to understand is that it is not an independent denomination, but a local parish temple built as a scaled model of the Mother See itself.
IA local temple of the Tây Ninh Holy See on the plateau
In Caodaism, a Tòa Thánh (Holy See) is the central sanctuary of an entire denomination, whereas a thánh thất is the sanctuary of a local parish (họ đạo). Đa Phước belongs to the second category. It operates under the Tây Ninh Cao Đài Holy See rather than as a separate branch, and it was constructed according to architectural models issued by the Holy See. The mother sanctuary has its own page at Tây Ninh Holy See.
Travel guides explain the name Đa Phước through the Đa Phước area and Tự Phước Street on which the temple stands. Practitioners and journalists also commonly call it Thánh thất Cao Đài Đà Lạt or Thánh thất Đà Lạt. The library has not yet located an internal parish document explaining the name separately.
According to Cao Đài doctrine, the Supreme Being (Đức Chí Tôn) is venerated not through a sculpted statue but through the Divine Eye (Thiên Nhãn). The religion teaches Three Teachings Returning to the Origin (Tam giáo quy nguyên), uniting Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism at their single root, and Five Branches Returning to One (Ngũ chi phục nhất), bringing together the five ways of cultivation (Humanity, Spirit, Saint, Immortal, and Buddha). The five steps leading up to the temple entrance, according to introductions to the site, evoke those five branches.
Adherents observe the Five Prohibitions (Ngũ Giới Cấm) (no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no overindulgence in alcohol and meat, and no false speech) together with the Four Great Rules (Tứ đại điều quy). Initiates observe a ten-day monthly vegetarian schedule, as recounted by dignitary Trần Văn Minh in Tiền Phong and Dân Việt. Next to the main temple stands Điện Thờ Phật Mẫu (the Temple of the Divine Mother), dedicated to Đức Phật Mẫu and the Nine Female Immortals (Cửu Vị Nữ Phật), the maternal principle in Cao Đài worship.
According to the municipal portal dalat.vn, Caodaism reached Đà Lạt in 1938, when Lễ Sanh Ngọc Ngọ Thanh (secular name Trần Văn Ngọ) was assigned by the Tây Ninh Holy See to propagate the faith in the highlands. The first local resident to convert was Nguyễn Văn Chất (1891 to 1972, also known as Chánh Cao), who was later ordained Lễ sanh Ngọc Cao Thanh and served as Head of the Đà Lạt Sub-Parish (Đầu Tộc đạo Đà Lạt). VietnamPlus records that the local unit was formerly titled Tộc đạo Đà Lạt under Lâm Đồng Prefectural See (Châu đạo Lâm Đồng) and Tuyên Đức Regional See (Trấn đạo Tuyên Đức), and is now Họ đạo Đà Lạt of Lâm Đồng Province.
According to Dân Việt, Họ đạo Đà Lạt comprises roughly four to five thousand adherents, 232 dignitaries, and 15 ceremonial teams. For a highland city, that is a substantial parish, which explains why its sanctuary was built on such a large scale.
First, the description as the largest temple. Press articles call this the largest Cao Đài temple (thánh thất) in Vietnam. That comparison applies among local parish temples (thánh thất) and does not mean it is larger than the Tây Ninh Holy See, which is the central sanctuary and the original prototype on which this temple is modeled.
Second, the shared name Đa Phước. In An Giang Province there is also a Đa Phước area known for its Cham Islam village and mosques. The two places merely share a name and have no religious or geographic connection.
Third, a neighbor of another faith. About 1.4 kilometers away along the same Trại Mát road stands Linh Phước Pagoda, a Buddhist temple. Visitors often combine both stops in a single trip, but they belong to two distinct religions.
Fourth, the four Chinese characters at the top of the page are a character rendering of the temple's name reconstructed by the library for readers familiar with Sinitic script, not copied from a plaque inside the building.
IIFrom the 1938 mission to the 2010 sanctuary
The history of this site unfolds in three layers, from the arrival of the religion in Đà Lạt, to the earliest worship structures, to the reconstruction following the Holy See's standard model. The library records only milestones belonging to propagation and construction.
- 1938Arrival of Caodaism in Đà LạtLễ Sanh Ngọc Ngọ Thanh was sent by the Tây Ninh Holy See to propagate the faith, and Nguyễn Văn Chất became the first local convert in Đà Lạt, according to dalat.vn. Several sources treat this year as the founding year of the temple.
- 1951Temporary Temple of the Divine MotherLocal adherents erected the first Điện Thờ Phật Mẫu using temporary materials, according to the Holy See's website caodai.com.vn.
- 1952Laying the temple foundationThe first brick of the parish temple was laid, according to Dân Việt, Tiền Phong, and Sài Gòn Tiếp Thị.
- 2005Reconstruction after the Holy See modelThe parish began rebuilding the temple after the model of the Tây Ninh Holy See. The Vietnam Records Institute and press reports call it Model No. 2, while Vietnamese Wikipedia identifies it structurally as Model No. 3.
- 2010Inauguration of the rebuilt templeVietnamPlus records July 30, 2010, Dân Việt records late July, and VinWonders records October 30, 2010.
- 8th lunar month, Tân Mão 2011Groundbreaking of the new Điện Thờ Phật MẫuOn the 20th day of the 8th lunar month of Tân Mão, the first brick was laid for a permanent Temple of the Divine Mother built according to Model No. 4 of the Holy See.
- July 15, 2014Inauguration of Điện Thờ Phật MẫuCorresponding to the 19th day of the 6th lunar month of Giáp Ngọ, with more than one thousand adherents attending, according to caodai.com.vn.
Published sources diverge on three points, and the library states all three plainly.
Year of initial construction. dalat.vn writes that the temple was built in 1938, VinWonders writes that construction began in 1938, and the record proposal by the Vietnam Records Institute also gives 1938. Meanwhile, Dân Việt, Tiền Phong, and Sài Gòn Tiếp Thị state that the first brick was laid in 1952. One way to reconcile the two dates is that 1938 marks the arrival of the mission and the formation of the parish, while 1952 marks the laying of the temple foundation on the present hill. Because no single source states that distinction explicitly, the library records both dates without guessing.
Architectural model number and compound area. The Vietnam Records Institute and press articles call the building a scaled Model No. 2 of the Tây Ninh Holy See, whereas Vietnamese Wikipedia notes that under the Holy See's standard structural classification (without the 7-step Cửu Trùng Đài and 12-step Bát Quái Đài platforms), it corresponds to Model No. 3. For the compound area, Dân Việt gives 2.4 hectares, while Wikipedia records a plot of 14,774 square meters set on a 10-hectare pine hill.
Inauguration date. VietnamPlus records July 30, 2010. VinWonders records October 30, 2010. The Vietnam Records Institute article contains both dates, one in its headline and the other in its body text. All sources agree on the year 2010.
IIIThe Three Palaces after the Holy See model
The temple stands in a compound of roughly 2.4 hectares (or 14,774 square meters according to Wikipedia) atop a pine hill, with a building footprint of about 1,627 square meters measuring 61 meters long by 22 meters wide according to VinWonders and the Vietnam Records Institute. Its layout follows the Tây Ninh Holy See model with three halls joined along a single axis, known collectively as the Three Palaces (Tam Đài), adapted to the scale of a local parish temple and the sloping hillside.
The front section features two five-story bell and drum towers about 18 meters high, housing the great bell Bạch Ngọc Chung and the drum Lôi Âm Cổ. Its front vestibule (Tịnh Tâm Điện) features four Long Hoa pillars sculpted with red dragons and lotus blossoms.
The central nave where adherents stand in liturgical ranks beneath a ceiling painted with clouds and stars. Inside the main hall stand two rows of six large columns whose bases are sculpted with red lotus petals while their shafts remain smooth without coiled dragons, in keeping with Holy See rules for local temples.
The rear sanctuary dedicated to Đức Chí Tôn alongside the Founders of the Three Teachings and Three Presiding Saints, featuring eight dragon columns arranged in an octagon and a five-tiered altar without a Celestial Globe.
The steps leading up to the temple facade, explained in introductions to the building as symbolizing the Five Branches of the Great Way (Ngũ Chi Đại Đạo).
A painted balance scale in Hiệp Thiên Đài, noted by Tiền Phong as an emblem of Heaven's impartial judgment.
A separate sanctuary within the compound built according to Model No. 4 of the Holy See, begun in 2011 and inaugurated in 2014.
What merits special attention is how an architectural model conceived for flat plains is set upon a highland slope. In Tây Ninh, the three palaces sit on level ground and rise only through internal floor steps. At Đa Phước, visitors climb a hillside slope before even reaching the front facade, so the liturgical progression of moving inward and upward through the Three Palaces gains an added layer of physical elevation from the terrain itself. Because the two five-story towers already stand atop a hillcrest, they appear far more prominent from the road below than a lowland temple of identical dimensions.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
First comes what Caodaism itself teaches about orientation. Denominational texts on the Tây Ninh Holy See explain that its main facade faces west while the Eight Trigrams Palace, where the Supreme Being is venerated, lies at the east, corresponding to the Chấn (Zhen) trigram in the Eight Trigrams, the trigram of the first movement of thunder. Local temples built after the Holy See's model preserve that exact internal sequence from front to back, with Hiệp Thiên Đài in front, Cửu Trùng Đài in the center, and Bát Quái Đài at the rear. That is a doctrinal orientation that precedes any geomantic reading.
The library has not found any regulation requiring every local temple to match the exact compass bearing of the Mother See, nor has it verified the exact compass bearing of Đa Phước's facade, so it does not assert a compass direction here. The lines below offer the library's reading of the lie of the land through traditional geomancy, not a teaching from denominational scriptures.
What sets this site apart from delta temples is the presence of real mountain terrain. Đà Lạt is a highland plateau where the temple foundation sits more than fifteen hundred meters above sea level, surrounded on all four sides by hills. In the Mekong Delta, classical manuals must read canals as dragon veins (long mạch) because there are no hills. Here the reverse holds true, as mountain ridges form the primary vein and a sanctuary placed on a hill slope with higher ground rising behind it embodies the classic mountain-backed posture (tựa sơn) prized in geomantic texts.
Second is the pine forest. Pine trees rise straight and stay evergreen year-round, belonging to the Wood (Mộc) element in form analysis. The two vertical five-story bell and drum towers also express the Wood form. Wood meeting Wood produces elemental harmony (tỷ hòa), where like meets like and the architectural mass blends into the landscape rather than clashing with it. A traditional eye would say this sanctuary rests quietly within the forest rather than standing against it.
Third is the cool qi of the plateau. Classical manuals distinguish warm-qi lands from cool-qi lands, noting that cool highland air favors quiet cultivation over commercial bustle. A sanctuary set on a cool pine hill far from the market center accords naturally with that stillness.
Finally, there is the Three-Palace progression on a slope. Read in classical terms, three linked halls along a rising axis form a pattern of advancing qi ascending by steps (tiến khí thăng cấp), where qi enters along a single axis and is lifted one tier at each threshold. In the lowlands, those steps exist only as interior floor levels. Here, visitors ascend outer steps and a hillside slope, so the doctrinal hierarchy coincides with the physical gradient of the land. Remember that the builders followed the Holy See's liturgical model rather than a geomantic manual. That convergence comes from the highland terrain itself rather than deliberate calculation.
VFestivals and parish observance
As a parish under the Tây Ninh Holy See, Họ đạo Đà Lạt follows the shared liturgical calendar of the Mother See. Daily practice consists of the four canonical prayer sessions (tứ thời) at the hours of Tý, Ngọ, Mẹo, and Dậu. According to dignitary Trần Văn Minh in Dân Việt and Tiền Phong, each lunar year the temple holds 24 regular liturgical assemblies and 9 special assemblies, while Điện Thờ Phật Mẫu observes its own principal festival.
| Lunar date | Observance | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 9th day of the 1st lunar month | Grand Festival of the Supreme Being (Vía Đức Chí Tôn) | The principal New Year festival of the religion, when parish adherents gather at the temple for solemn worship. |
| Full moon of the 1st lunar month | Upper Prime Festival (Lễ Thượng Nguơn) | The first of the three Prime (Tam Nguơn) observances of the liturgical year. |
| Full moon of the 7th lunar month | Middle Prime Festival (Lễ Trung Nguơn) | The mid-year Prime observance, associated with prayers for deliverance and filial piety. |
| Full moon of the 8th lunar month | Jasper Pond Palace Banquet (Hội Yến Diêu Trì Cung) | The grand offering to Đức Phật Mẫu and the Nine Female Immortals, centered at Điện Thờ Phật Mẫu. |
| Full moon of the 10th lunar month | Lower Prime Festival and Founding Anniversary | The final Prime observance of the year, also commemorating the 1926 inauguration of Caodaism. |
During major festivals, dignitaries wear ceremonial vestments according to rank and branch, while lay adherents wear white tunics (áo dài). Men stand on one side and women on the other, arrayed by rank inside Cửu Trùng Đài. The parish maintains fifteen ceremonial teams, and according to the Holy See's website, those teams prepared meals for volunteer workers throughout the construction of Điện Thờ Phật Mẫu, supporting more than ten thousand workdays of merit service (công quả).
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Đường Tự Phước, phường Xuân Trường - Đà Lạt (phường 11 thành phố Đà Lạt cũ), tỉnh Lâm Đồng
- Getting there
- The temple is at 330 Tự Phước Street, Xuân Trường - Đà Lạt Ward, Lâm Đồng Province, formerly Ward 11 of Đà Lạt City, in the Trại Mát area east of the city center. Linh Phước Pagoda lies about 1.4 kilometers away and can easily be visited on the same trip.
- Coordinates
- 11.9443, 108.5025
This is an active place of worship, and its rules are to be followed. Remove footwear before entering the sanctuary, and dress modestly. Men enter through the doors on one side and women through the other as directed on site. Do not converse or walk about while a prayer session is in progress, and stand in the area designated for guests rather than mixing into the liturgical ranks. Please ask the attendant on duty before taking photographs inside the main hall.
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?Quick Questions
Where is the Đà Lạt Cao Đài Temple located?
It is at 330 Tự Phước Street, Xuân Trường - Đà Lạt Ward, Lâm Đồng Province, formerly Ward 11 of Đà Lạt City, in the Trại Mát area. The temple stands atop a pine hill in a compound of roughly 2.4 hectares (or 14,774 square meters according to Wikipedia), about 1.4 kilometers from Linh Phước Pagoda.
When was Đa Phước Temple built?
Published sources differ. dalat.vn and VinWonders give 1938, the year the Tây Ninh Holy See sent a missionary to Đà Lạt. Dân Việt and Tiền Phong state that the first brick was laid in 1952. The current structure was rebuilt starting in 2005 and inaugurated in 2010, with sources recording either July 30 or October 30.
Which Cao Đài Holy See does Đa Phước Temple belong to?
It belongs to the Tây Ninh Cao Đài Holy See and serves as the sanctuary of Họ đạo Đà Lạt, formerly called Tộc đạo Đà Lạt. It is not an independent denomination, but a local parish temple built according to official Holy See models replicating the Tây Ninh Holy See.
Is Đa Phước Temple the largest Cao Đài temple in Vietnam?
Vietnamese press reports call it the largest Cao Đài temple (thánh thất) in Vietnam, meaning the largest among local parish temples. That phrase does not mean it is larger than the Tây Ninh Holy See, which is the central mother sanctuary on which this temple is modeled.
What does the Cao Đài Three-Palace (Tam Đài) architecture consist of?
It consists of three halls joined along a single axis, with Hiệp Thiên Đài in front overseeing religious law, Cửu Trùng Đài in the center where adherents worship by rank, and Bát Quái Đài at the rear venerating the Supreme Being. At Đa Phước, Hiệp Thiên Đài features two five-story bell and drum towers about 18 meters tall and four Long Hoa pillars sculpted with dragons and lotus flowers at Tịnh Tâm Điện.