Perfume Pagoda

March 30, 2008

Perfume Pagoda; and all day trip

Cuong had invited me on the same day we met (Friday) to come with him and his extended family to visit the Perfume Pagoda, which is a Vietnamese site I had read about in the guidebooks. They picked me up on Sunday at 4:30 AM to start the adventure. We drove about 2 hours south and west from Hanoi toward the mountains. These mountains are unusually rounded shapes on a flat plain. The Vietnamese seem to think that they look like elephants.

Cuong was the only one in the group that spoke functional English. We had his frail mother and 90 year old grandmother of a sister-in-law, various aunts and uncles and two teenagers, Cuong’s niece and nephew. The Perfume Pagoda is not a Pagoda but a large number of sites, some with Pagodas separated by mountains and the rivers. A Buddhist Monk founded the first Pagoda’s over 500 years ago. Now, 4-5 million Vietnamese visit the pilgrimage site each year, most arriving during the 3 months after Tet. In fact foreign visitors are not recommended to visit at this time of the year (I realize now). I saw only 2 foreigners during the whole trip, and many times I was the only foreigner there. This was not a tourist trip but a religious pilgrimage I had joined!

We stopped at a small town where there are 1000’s of boats on the small river ready to ferry visitors up the river which is the only way to get there. After a breakfast of Pho and some other things I did not recognize, we all got in a boat and a young woman took us to the first site which was on the river. There was incense and a fire and the temple itself. At each site we would get a lot of different materials out. Food, drinks, rice flowers and some symbols of gold coins and other items the ancestors might need. The platter was carried by the middle aged men into the temple and left on the alters while prayers were said and other sites visited. This was repeated at other sites as well. After awhile they went back for the offerings and carried them back. Some were burned and others, like food were eaten as a connection to the ancestors and since the ancestors had already got the benefit from them.

After getting in the boat again the next ride was up the river 3 kilometers to a new site reached only by boat. We would now hike about an hour up a steep mountain. There were Pagoda’s all around but the final destination was a natural cave that you descend into. Some of the stalagmites apparently look like mounds of rice and mothers milk . We went as deep into the cave as we could to a Buddhist alter and then our gifts were made. There must have been 10,000 people in the cave and the noise, incense and the intensity of the crowd was nearly overwhelming.

Part 2 tomorrow. - I have just got back from the 18 hour trip and all though there is much more to say I will have to wait till another day. Will put up some pictures in AM