One Pillar Pagoda

One Pillar Pagoda

Also known as the Lotus Throne, the One Pillar Pagoda is located southwest of Hanoi’s Ba Dinh Square and, along with the Perfume Temple, is considered one of Vietnam’s most iconic temples.

The One Pillar Pagoda is built on a single stone pillar with a diameter of 1.25 meters in the middle of Linh Chieu Pond, from which it gets its name. The temple itself is made of wood and resembles a blooming lotus flower, which in Buddhism symbolizes purity. Legend has it that Emperor Ly Thai Tong of the Ly Dynasty (1028–1054) was childless in his later years. One night, he dreamed of the Goddess of Mercy (Guanyin) sitting on a lotus leaf, holding a baby and standing on a lotus throne in a pond. Not long after, the emperor married a young and beautiful woman who later gave birth to a boy who looked exactly like the baby in the dream. In response, Emperor Ly Thai Tong ordered the construction of a temple modeled after the blooming lotus to worship the Goddess of Mercy for generations to come.

At the end of the First Indochina War in 1954, the French army destroyed the One Pillar Pagoda when they withdrew, leaving only the pillar. It was rebuilt on the original site in 1955, with an overall style identical to the original temple. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was also a replica of the One Pillar Pagoda in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), which became one of the popular sites for worshipping the Goddess of Mercy at that time.

One Pillar Pagoda

Must-visit reason: One of Vietnam’s most iconic temples

Continent where the attraction is located: Asia【Asia】

Country/Region where the attraction is located: Vietnam[Vietnam]

Province/State where the attraction is located: Hanoi [Hanoi]

City where the attraction is located: Hanoi [Hanoi]