Huyen Khong Son Thuong Pagoda

About this audio guide

This guide to Huyen Khong Son Thuong, a forest pagoda in the hills west of Hue, follows a custom found nowhere else in the city: visitors ask a question and a monk hands back an original poem, drawn like a fortune. It traces the practice to the pagoda's founder, Gioi Duc, a monk who writes under the pen name Minh Duc Trieu Tam Anh, and to a New Year visit when a father and daughter each pulled a slip. Listen for how a forest temple built without gates or incense still makes room for its own private kind of fortune-telling.