11 May 2019

A Voyage to Vietnam: Bái Đính Temple

The last thing we saw in the Ninh Bình area was the Bái Đính Temple. This was a massive site: there's even shuttle buses within the site that would ferry visitors from the parking area to the entrance of the temple. And even within the temple the fields are vast and there is plenty of climbing involved.



Our visit began at the three-portal entry gate, which is massive. The electric shuttle bus drops off passengers here. From here, one enters the complex, and one can slowly make one's way inside.



The corridor is filled with statues of holy people: they all resemble Buddha, but given my ignorance on the whole topic I don't really know. I think these are statues of monks, and they are all in various different poses. Funnily enough, their knees are rather smooth, as this is the place where people typically touch them.



Somewhere in the middle of the temple complex, there is a large bell tower. It's an Asian bell tower, so it's not as tall, but the bell inside is massive and definitely huge.



There are several buildings and halls within the temple complex, and of course, as expected, inside these temple halls are large statues of Buddha, and other deities. They're quite shiny, and some of them have plenty of arms and fingers.



Finally, there's also this very tall tower at the edge of the temple complex. And yes, there's symbolism everywhere. There's the turtles that carry massive weights on their backs. And the doors all have elevated edges to make sure that negative energy don't flow through.

It took us about three hours to fully explore the area. It was definitely very big, and I must say, worth the time to explore fully. After this, we went back to our guest house, and after spending one night, we were back on the road and went somewhere else.