Guán Ân Shrine at Thay Pagoda

Up the hill from Tu Dao Hanh's meditation cave (see Thay Pagoda) is a large shrine with an exquisite statue of Guán Ân, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

Thay Pagoda

Thay Pagoda was founded in the 11th century by ascetic Zen monk Tu Dao Hanh, who was also the founder of water-puppetry in Vietnam. A ten-minute climb up the mountain behind the pagoda brings you to the cave (Dong Thanh Hoa) where Tu Dao Hanh meditated.  

The entrance to the cave is guarded, of course, by a fierce dragon,

protected by a tiny porcelain Quán Âm (Guan Yin),

and lined with four Plumeria trees that, I am told, were planted in the 15th century. The latter were probably my favorites.

Main Hall at Tay Phuong

A lot of the objects in here are several hundred years old.  Some are not.  Notice, for example, the box of Choco-Pies on the altar next to the fruit. I guess it's like Ed Brown says, "No sugar, no enlightenment".  This place was enchanting. [NOTE: There is an audio track to this clip, but you have to turn up the volume to hear it].

17th Parallel

The 17th parallel was recognized by the Geneva Conference in 1954 as the provisional dividing line between North and South Vietnam.   The division, which became irrelevant in 1976 following the unification of Vietnam, is marked by this monument as one crosses the Ben Hai river into Quang Tri province. [NOTE: The celestial beams that appear to be streaming from the heavens are reflections from the back window of the van].

Ngoc Linh Timber

This was the fourth logging truck we passed on the road coming out of the Ngoc Linh Nature Reserve. It took me a while to get the camera out of my pack, and the truck was going so slow up the hill and we were going so fast that I was only able to get a small section of the load.  The size of the logs, however, is apparent. [NOTE: Logging is officially prohibited in the Ngoc Linh Reserve].  

Kontum

A view across the Dakbla River from the city of Kontum.  The cloud-covered mountains in the background contain the Ngoc Linh Nature Reserve.  We will head up there tomorrow to get the final permissions for selected forest guards to attend the rattan inventory workshop next week.

Song Thanh N.R.

A shot from the second floor of the offices of the Song Thanh Nature Reserve in Quang Nam province, Vietnam. I will give a training workshop here next week on the identification and inventory of local rattans (see An Unusual Rattan and Weaving a Trivet) for representatives of six nature reserves in the Central Truong Son Mountains. The basic objective of the workshop is to help reserve staff start collecting the baseline data needed to develop management plans for the sustainable exploitation of wild rattan. [NOTE: Vietnam is the third largest producer of rattan in the world; a large percentage of this material comes from the Truong Son Mountains]. 

Gongs and Poets

While the driver was asking directions in Nam Phuoc, I got out and browsed through the shop of a local foundry. Lots of really beautiful gongs, bells, and other cast metal items. I especially liked the little statue of Nguyen Trai (shown below), the famed Vietnamese poet and general who helped Emperor Le Loi defeat the Chinese Ming dynasty in the 13th century.

 

Bao Quoc Pagoda

Detail of the original bell at the Bao Quoc Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam.  The pagoda was founded in 1670 by Giac Phong, a Buddhist monk from China.

Harvesting Licuala

 

I bumped into these young ladies as they were coming out of the forest outside of A. Luoi in Central Vietnam. Their beautiful rattan baskets are full of Licuala palm leaves that are used to weave those traditional Vietnamese conical hats. The hats are known locally as non la; so is this palm. [NOTE: They said, i.e. they told Dr. Ban, that they had walked about an hour into the forest to collect the leaves].