Giac Vien Buddhist Temple
Nineteenth-century wooden temple of one hundred fifty three jackfruit-wood statues and rare carved panels, now beside a theme park.
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About this audio guide
This guide to Giac Vien Buddhist Temple in Ho Chi Minh City traces it back to 1798, when a caretaker named Huong Dang was hired to guard timber floating in for a rebuild at nearby Giac Lam pagoda and built himself a guardhouse to sleep in. You'll hear how a small statue he placed inside that hut grew into a recognized shrine by 1805, then into a temple renamed by the monk Hai Tinh in 1850, one that became a center of Buddhism for the southern provinces. Listen for how the carved jackfruit-wood statues filling the main hall connect back to that original woodpile.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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