Chùa Pháp Lâm

This guide to Chua Phap Lam in Da Nang follows the 1934 campaign by the An Nam Buddhist Study Association to build the city's grandest pagoda hall without a royal patron or colonial budget, funded instead coin by coin from shopkeepers and market families. You'll hear about the architect Dang Cao De's East Asian design, the dragon and phoenix carvings inside, and how the hall took its current name in 1970 when Vietnam's Buddhist associations merged. Look up at the roofline before you go in.