Vesak at West Lake (500th Post)

Dear friends of the blog,

I've been writing this blog since 2011. That's seven years! How time flies. After I returned from my study abroad in South Africa, I ended my blog, and didn't think to update it again for nearly two years. In 2013 I moved to Thailand, and a new life adventure began. And here we are, FIVE HUNDRED posts in! I can't believe it! So, thank you! Thank you to all of my friends and family who have supported me on my adventures around the world. Thank you for believing in me and for supporting me. I love you all so much! I usually try to time my "centennials" for huge events. This time, though, I'm sort of in a transitional period. I'm ending up my first full month living in Hanoi, and about to move to central Vietnam. Instead of some big, grand adventure, today, let me tell you about two beautiful historic temples that I visited this week in Hanoi's amazingly scenic West Lake neighborhood.

Quán Thánh Temple - ancient Taoist temple of the Dark Warrior

West Lake is a relatively quiet residential area, more of an upscale and less chaotic place than the Old Quarter. It's got lots of high-rise condo buildings, shopping malls, offices, and hotels. It's where the majority of the city's expat population lives. It's also the location of some of Hanoi's oldest and most beautiful temples.

It was late afternoon when we made our way to Quan Thanh Temple. This Taoist temple is located on the shores of West Lake (Tay Ho), the largest lake in Hanoi.

This small temple is dedicated to a Chinese deity called the "Dark Warrior". It's a popular temple for  martial artists. It was a quiet morning, the dark sky threatening rain. We removed our shoes and stepped into the dimly-lit temple. The air was thick with the smell of incense burning from thick coils hanging from the ceiling.

Leaving the temple, we realized that it was nearly 11:00 in the morning. Temples here in Hanoi tend to close for a long lunch break between 11 and 2 in the afternoon. Before heading on to the next site, Pinky and I stopped in at a tea shop for some milk oolong and air-conditioning to wait out  the lunch break.

Trấn Quốc Pagoda  - Hanoi's oldest Buddhist temple

Most temples in Hanoi tend to be Taoist. Tran Quoc Pagoda, however, is a Buddhist temple. It's the oldest Buddhist temple in Hanoi, and one of the oldest temples period in the city.

The pagoda sits on a small island out in Hoan Kiem Lake that you can reach by a short bridge. Overhead, Buddhist prayer flags flutter in the breeze. There are a few of the typical low-ceilinged, darkened-interiored, wooden temple halls, but the main "attraction" is the pagoda itself.

The temple's iconic pagoda towers over the island. Each level of the multi-faceted pagoda tower is set with a niche, from where a serene statue of the Buddha sits in a pose of quiet meditation.

We happened to visit on Vesak, one of the most important Buddhist holy days (known as Visakha Bucha Day in Thai). It's also known internationally as "Buddha Day". Visakha Bucha celebrates three important days in the life of the historic Gautama Buddha: his birth, his enlightenment, and his death. All three of these events are said to have occurred on the same calendar day. It's one of the holiest and most important days in Buddhism

While we were there, I saw a few Buddhist monks, in the simple brown robes of the Mahayana tradition, and even a few grey-robed nuns (a much less-common sight).