There is a very famous pagoda in Gia Thanh – Gia Vien – Ninh Binh province (considered to be the 3 most beautiful pagodas in Vietnam) that is Dich Long pagoda. It’s legendary that the cave was found out in 1739 with many stalitiles and stalimites especially buddha-like one and it is worshipped since.
In 1740, the grotto was dedicated to Buddhism.
The pagoda is the grotto, as large as a house with 10 compartments, there are statutes like arhant, guardian spirit… or the stone tables or the stone door inscribed with 6 characters “Nham Son Dong, Co Am Tu” (co Am pagoda, Nham Son grotto) visitors and pilgrims have to climb up to 105 stone-steps to the pagoda. This is naturally made pagoda. In the pagoda, there is a big bell, 1m high and 1 tori in weight due to high location, abound in stalactites and stalac, when the wind blows in, there echoes with sounds like flutes, the grotto itself is a colosal flute made of stone by nature, echoeing for ages now – so is grotto named, when we strike lightly against the stalic, there are sounds like from the drums, and the bell. That’s the musical band given by nature.
Interesting is it that, once we are here, not only we come to pray for goodness, but we, are lost among imaginative elephants, water jars, crouching tigers, dancing pea -cocks, overwhelming dragons each stone wall is a picture of art, carved by nature, even we can find a well here with very clean water, a way up to the heav- ens and away down to the hell.
The whole grotto is a nice scope, a good combination of yin and yang of light and darkness, of music of poem, of the fairyland and worldly life.
Dich Long pagoda is a destination to come.