Unique cuu pham lien hoa structure at Con Son pagoda

Cuu pham lien hoa house is a compound structure of a tower house and a nine-tier tower in the middle

After over two years, the reconstruction of a cuu pham lien hoa (nine holy grades of lotus) house on its old foundation at Con Son pagoda has finished, creating a spiritual highlight for the national pagoda land during the spring festival.

Impression

According to documentation, the cuu pham lien hoa house at Con Son pagoda dates from the Tran dynasty and was renovated in the Le dynasty but damaged by wars and natural disasters.

At the Con Son – Kiep Bac Spring Festival 2015, the organizing board commenced the reconstruction of the tower house. Work items included the tower house, an ancestral house, a rear house, right and left front corridors, and auxiliary works with a total investment of over VND75.8 billion taken from the Central budget and donations.

The cuu pham lien hoa house is a compound structure of the tower house and a nine-tier tower in the middle.

The tower house has three storeys and 12 roofs.

The 1st storey has five compartments, two lean-tos, and Makara (a mythological water monster in ancient sculptures at Hindu and Buddhist temples and shrines) finials.

The 2nd storey has one compartment, two lean-tos, and flanking dragon and kylin finials.

The 3rd storey has only one compartment, Makara and flanking dragon and kylin finials, and the sculpture of a tiger holding a tho (longevity) word in its mouth at the center of the roof top. The tiger wears a dharma wheel surrounded by lotus flowers and leaves. On the roof corners are Makara and flanking dragon and kylin sculptures.

The tower house has a rectangular foundation. However, the compartments on the 2nd and 3rd floors were built from the frame of four central principal pillars, thus remaining square. The structure makes the roof levels clearer and the house suppler and more refined thanks to the combination with curved roof corners.

Seen from above, the whole tower house looks like a blooming lotus flower with three different petal layers, creating a beautiful highlight for the tranquil scenery of the national pagoda land.

Spiritual highlight

The structure playing the central role is the rotational nine-tier lotus-shaped tower in the middle of the tower house.

Le Duy Manh, Deputy Head of the Management Unit of Con Son – Kiep Bac Relics, said the octagonal tower is 7.9m high with nine lotus- carved tiers.

There is a system of pillars from the foot to the top of the tower on its edges as handrails to rotate the tower. In particular, the pillars linking the tower support and a lotus calyx on the 1st tier are carved with dragon images.

The spindle is a large wood trunk from the foot to the top of the tower. The spindle foot is a metal rotary. From the main pillar in the heart of the tower, there are cross-arms bearing the tiers.

With the octagonal form representing eight directions, each side comprises sets of three statues of Amitabha Buddha, Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattvas, totaling 216 statues.

Placed on the top tier is a statue of shining Amitabha Buddha, which means using his boundless light to illuminate the world and his unlimited power to save and protect living beings and lead souls to Sukhavati. The nine lotus layers symbolize nine levels of the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha.

Amitabha Buddha's world is associated with past lives; therefore, the cuu pham lien hoa house is also known as cuu pham vang sinh (nine grades of rebirth in the Pure Land) one (according to Buddhist concept, living one day means dying one day, and the day you die in this life is also the day you are born in another life).

Cuu pham vang sinh is divided into three levels in the following descending order: thuong pham vang sinh (the superior level of rebirth in the Pure Land), trung pham vang sinh (the medium level of rebirth in the Pure Land), and ha pham vang sinh (the inferior level of rebirth in the Pure Land). Each level is also divided into three grades, superior, medium, and inferior.

To perfect a dharma system on the tower, the Management Unit of Con Son – Kiep Bac Relics called on monks, nuns, Buddhists, and people to donate over VND1 billion to cast 72 statues of Amitabha Buddha and 144 statues of bodhisattvas.

The finished cuu pham lien hoa house at Con Son pagoda has become a cultural and spiritual structure of particularly important significance in the province, completing the architectural landscape of the pagoda, and serving research, sightseeing, as well as belief of people across the country.

NGUYEN DA – DUY MANH