Báo Thiên Tower
VGP - Báo Thiên Tower is one of the four famous sacred objects in the history of Việt Nam along with the Quy Điền bell, the Phổ Minh cauldron and the Buddha Di Lặc (Maitreya) statue. The tower clearly appears in a map of the Trung Đô citadel in the time of Hồng Đức (1490).
Báo
A brick
from the Báo Thiên tower, with the line “Lý
Gia đệ tam đế Long Thuỵ Thái Bình tứ niên tạo”
“In the summer of 1056, Sùng Khánh Báo Thiên Pagoda was constructed;
some 12,000 kilograms of bronze were used to cast the bell, and the king was in
charge of the work.”
“In the spring of 1057 the 12-storey Đại Thắng Tư Thiên Tower
was built.”
According to historians, the 80 meter high tower had a base
of stone and brick and each floor had four doors; the doors at the top of the
tower were made of bronze. Inside the tower there were several stone statues of
immortals, humans, and other creatures set on platforms. There were few tall
buildings in the capital at the time and the tower could be seen from many
kilometers outside the city. The famous Trần Dynasty poet, Phạm Sư Mạnh, recited
in front of the tower:
The tower watches the whole country;
It stands alone on the earth.
Because of its height and its upper storeys containing heavy
bronze it was inevitable that it would be damaged by rain and lightning storms.
Indeed, the Complete History of the Đại
In the early 15th century Ming troops invaded Đại
Việt and Lê Lợi took up arms in Lam Sơn-Thanh Hóa to protect the capital, Đông
Quan (Thăng Long-Hà Nội). He succeeded after nearly ten years of victories but
at a significant cultural cost. As it is
recorded in history:
“In the winter of 1426, because of the crushing defeat in Tốt Động west
of the capital, Wang Tong’s troops suffered a shortage of weapons; therefore,
they destroyed the Quy Điền bell and the Phổ Minh cauldron in order to
manufacture weapons and flame-throwers.”
The Complete History
of the Đại
In 1873, French troops attacked Hà Nội for the first time.
According to a book about Hà Nội, 1873-1888, by the French writer Andre Masson,
a few years later Bishop Puginnier “decided
to replace the small church that had been burned by a much larger church”
so “he looked for a good place near the
missionary (Nhà Chung), and he chose the area of Báo Thiên Pagoda.” With
the help of the provincial chief of Hà Nội, the bishop sought out the heir to
the pagoda and checked out the structure of the tower. He said that the tower
had to be torn down for safety reasons and eventually the land was delivered to
the priest. The church was begun in 1884 with money from the initial sale of
10,000 lottery tickets, donations from the public, and a second lottery. Three
years later the work was finished and on Christmas Eve of 1887 the new
