The old temple is beside the O Lau stream

General persimmon at Quan Kho pagoda. Photo: Viet Ha

Search times in history books

In the books O Chau Near Continent by Duong Van An and Phu Bien, Le Quy Don, when talking about places in Quang Tri, I mentioned Cau Nhi village. This tells us that the village was formed in the late Tran and early Le dynasties between 1407 and 1427. At first, the village was named Cau Lam, the center of the village at that time in Dai Dong. later moved to the present land and renamed Cau Nhi.

According to the chiefs of Cau Nhi village, right after stabilizing their life and establishing a brand name, the villagers proceeded to establish a communal house, pagoda, shrine and their own cultural institutions. Along with that, Cau Nhi village pagoda was also born to meet the spiritual needs of the people. Quan Kho, or Quan Kho Pagoda, was the name since the temple was founded, the temple was built by Mr. Bui Duc Tai, the doctor who opened the door of Dang Trong, around the beginning of the 16th century.

So why is the pagoda called Quan Kho? Through the words of old Bui Quang Nhi, former Guildmaster of Cau Nhi village and reference to a number of different documents, we learned that at the time of the village's establishment, beside the harsh nature of the "O Chau evil" region, The people of this land still had to fight against the Ming army to invade. Under the command of generals: Pham Duyen, Nguyen Van Chanh and the local militia, practiced day and night, practiced martial arts, set up food warehouses to fight the enemy. In the Le dynasty, after defeating the enemy, Dr. Bui Duc Tai (1477-1518) from Cau Nhi village asked the court to remodel one of those warehouses to make a village pagoda. such.

Mr. Bui Quang Nhi added that in the past, the pagoda was managed by the village. The annual funding for the pagoda was extracted from the 5 sao of pagoda's three treasure fields. In the past, the pagoda was an ancient Vietnamese communal house consisting of 3 compartments, 2 wings, arranged along the vertical axis to facilitate the worship of Buddha. Later, the temple expanded the campus, built a system of three gates made of bricks and pieces of china and porcelain as we see today. In 1949, the pagoda was burnt by the French, leaving only the three-door gate, the villagers contributed to rebuild the temple and renovated in 1959, 1985, 1987 and 1989.

Guan Yu self today

Perhaps not many people know the name of Quan Kho pagoda but only used to call Cau Nhi Pagoda or Cau Nhi Buddhist Recitation. Today Quan Kho Pagoda is located in the Southeast direction, right in the land at the beginning of Cau Nhi village, next to the road passing through neighboring communes such as Hai Son, Hai Phong in Hai Lang district. In this area, the pagoda is located in an ancient spiritual complex with Cau Nhi communal house, Van Thanh temple and the church of some clan clans in the village.

If we have the opportunity to enter the temple, we will observe carefully that Quan Kho itself has the architecture of a village temple, and has the appearance of the Buddhist mindfulness of Buddhism. Because the Buddhist temple, the street only worships Shakyamuni Buddha in the main hall. However, the silhouette of the ancient village temple is still bold here, it is the form of "Money worshiping Buddha, after worshiping God". Because behind the main hall is the rear hall, there are quite a few articles of worshiping Thanh Hoang, the precepts, the pioneers, the pioneers of the village and the famous people of the village are worshiped. This is a special thing that not many temples in Quang Tri have. Perhaps because of that, since ancient times, the pagoda has been closely associated with the villagers of Cau Nhi ...

Thich Nu Thong Tinh, the abbot of the temple, allowed us to admire a wooden statue of Buddha Shakyamuni with a height of about 60 cm, light brown color and mild fragrance. According to the nun, this statue is carved with precious wood, dating back hundreds of years. Legend has it that in the past, the statue was worshiped in a small temple founded by Mrs. Thu non-Le dynasty, Pham's surname from Cau Nhi village. This pagoda was also in Cau Nhi village. Due to the destruction of the pagoda by the war, the village invited the statue to Quan Kho Pagoda.

There is a special thing is that at present Quan Kho Pagoda is keeping a bronze bell called Dai Hong chung, cast in 1946. On the body of the bell engraved with four Chinese characters: "General Quan Kho Tu". Sister Thong Tinh said that the bell was cast on the pattern of the old bell cast in Canh Thinh year (Mau Ngo 1798). Up to now, this bell has been lost due to the chaos of war. Although it is not an antiquity dating back to hundreds of years, with the land of Quang Tri constantly undergoing war fire, but the people here have kept it as carefully as possible, it is a treasure.

On the temple's premises, there are vestiges of four temples, two worshiping Ta Dong Chinh, one worshiping Hoang Boi, a loyal general who was conferred a marquis in the Mac dynasty; one temple worships Mr. Bui Duc Tai, the Ph.D. opened in Dang Trong, held the position of Chief of Staff of the Le Dynasty. The foundation of the temple to worship Dr. Bui Duc Tai has an area of nearly 10 m2. Next to the remaining stone footstones of the temple, there is a turtle-shaped pedestal of 80 cm long and 59 cm wide. On the tortoise's body is deeply concave, the end of the body is beveled. According to researchers on culture and history of Quang Tri, this is a turtle carrying stele, similar to existing stele at Binh Trung pagoda in Gio Chau commune, Gio Linh district, Quang Tri. By the way, we would like to say more about the ancient temple of Binh Trung. It used to be a temple of the Cham people, later on, Quan Thuong Thu of the Nguyen Dynasty, Mr. Tran Dinh An, a Ha Trung villager from the mandarin and intellectuals, he built Binh Trung Tu on the old temple.

After his death, the king built a temple to worship. Inside the temple there was a stone stele made of tortoise stone, on the stele to record his merits and behavior. For Cau Nhi pagoda, unfortunately, through the chaotic war, the stele about Dr. Bui Duc Tai was lost. He was a highly talented and generous learner, greatly helping the people to give to the country, and making the name of Quang Tri hometown.

Currently, Quan Kho pagoda is located in the national relic cluster of Cau Nhi village, the Ministry of Culture and Information recognized in Decision No. 08/2001 / QD- VHTT, dated February 13, 2001. Despite the attention of all levels, branches, localities as well as people in the region, Quan Kho ancient pagoda has been degraded. According to observations, we see that the main hall is leaking roof, leading to a system of rotten wooden boards, arms and spleen. The surrounding wall system that has been built for a long time has also been absorbed, with moss and green mold. If not repaired in time, a national historical and cultural monument will be seriously damaged.

Also known at the end of 2019, the abbot of the pagoda and the local authorities of Quang Tri proposed to rebuild the temple from socialized capital. I think this is a legitimate wish, but it is necessary to have a reasonable restoration plan, keeping the originals, especially the three-door gate and other unique architecture of the temple.The history of formation and development of Cau Nhi land contains many stories accompanying the history of the country. Quan Kho Pagoda was an important witness in the early migration and establishment of a Vietnamese village to expand the realm. The temple is also associated with celebrities who have been recognized by history books for their merit to the people of the country. We need to continue to pay attention to and preserve those core beauty of our national culture.

Nguyen Viet