One Pillar Pagoda, Hanoi
 One
Pillar Pagoda (Chua Mot Cot) was built by the Emperor Ly Thai Tong,
who ruled from 1028 to 1054. According to the annals, the hairless
emperor dreamed that he had met Quan The Am Bo Tat (Goddess of Mercy),
who, while seated on a lotus flower, handed him a male child. Ly
Thai Tong then married a young peasant girl he met by chance and
had a son and heir by her. To express his gratitude for this event,
he constructed the One Pillar Pagoda in 1049. The One Pillar Pagoda,
built of wood on a single stone pillar 1.25m indiameter, is designed
to resemble a lotus blossom, symbol of purity, risingout of a sea
of sorrow. One of the last acts of the French before quitting Hanoi
in 1954 was to destroy the One Pillar Pagoda; the structure was
built by the new government.
|
