Hàng Đường
10/08/2010
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14:03:00
VGP - In the early days, shops in Hàng Đường Street sold dried, sweetened fruits or vegetables called mứt (jam). Another specialty of the street was ô mai, sweetened or salted whole fruit and a few shops here still sell these delicacies.
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Hàng
Đường Street is famous for dried, sweetened or salted whole fruits |
At No. 36 Hàng
Đường, gaily-painted dharma warriors guard the gate of the Cầu Đông Pagoda.
Inside, women chant to the rhythm of a gong, kneeling on mats at the altar in honor
of Ngô Văn Long, a general in the reign of Hùng Duệ Vương, the eighteenth (pre-historic)
Hùng king! This is a richly carved gilt temple, as is the adjoining Buddhist
pagoda, thick pagoda, thick gilt columns and intricate gilt carvings over the
altars and doors. Ranks of carved arhat statues stand to the left and right of
the altar. An open-work, nine-dragon throne to Buddhist as a baby occupies the
central altar space, behind which sits a huge placid Buddha having reached
Nirvana, the topmost rank of statues representing the Buddha’s of Past, Present
and Future.
A stele of
1624 tells of the rebuilding and expansion by a married monk patron named Nguyễn
Văn Hiệp and describes the temple as being located on a beautiful site, “the Nhị
Hà River flowing in front and the Long Biên (Imperial) Citadel and mountains
behind.” A stele of 1711 announces that Cầu Đông was declared a Specially
Privileged Pagoda. So it has been considered distinguished for nearly three
hundred years.
The temple
on the left holds four statues, the largest, said to represent Trần Thủ Độ
(1194-1254), next to his wife – so this pagoda is very old. Trần Thủ Độ was a
powerful political figure, who forced the young daughter of the last Lý Emperor
to marry his nephew, Trần Cảnh. He then forced the princess to hand over the
throne to his young nephew, thus establishing the Trần Dynasty in 1225.
By Carol Howland