Chùa Thầy

This guide to Chùa Thầy near Hanoi begins with a monk who walked into a cave in the limestone hills of Sai Son and never came out: Tu Dao Hanh, a wandering ascetic born near the end of the eleventh century, said to cure the sick and settle here at what became the Pagoda of Celestial Bliss. It follows the water-puppet tradition he is credited with starting on the pond in front of the temple, and the belief that refused to let his story end at that cave. Cross the arched Sun and Moon bridges, built in 1602, on the way toward that cave.