One Pillar Pagoda

The One Pillar Pagoda is located inside Thang Long, the ancient capital of Vietnam, now is known as Hanoi. The One Pillar Pagoda is considered as an architectural gem unique to Vietnam.
According to the court document, the Emperor Ly Thai Tong was childless and one night he dreamt that he met bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara who sat on a lotus blossom and gave him a son. Ly Thai Tong then married with a peasant girl who had met before, and then he has a son with her. To expressed a great attitude to the goddess, in 1049, the emperor built the One Pillar Pagoda based on a suggestion of a monk who named Thien Tue. The One Pillar Pagoda was constructed by erecting a stone pillar in the middle of lotus pond which was alike the one he saw in his dream. The One pillar pagoda was built of wood and its architecture was designed to resemble a lotus blossom which is a Buddhist symbol of purity. During Ly dynasty, one pillar pagoda was a place for annual royal ceremony on the occasion of Vesak, the birthday of Gautama Buddha. In 1954, One Pillar Pagoda was burned by the French Union forces after the First Indochina war while withdrawing from Vietnam. It then was reconstructed based on the old one.

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