Bai Dinh Mountain boasts biggest pagoda

Gia Sinh Commune, Gia Vien District, Ninh Binh Province is now home to the largest pagoda in Vietnam, which is under construction.

Though the construction of Bai Dinh pagoda is not yet finished, it welcomes hundreds of visitors everyday. The pagoda is renown not only for its great size but for stories about the craftsmen building it.

For the past three years, the stone processing establishment of artisan Pham Ngoc Hoan has been busy. It has gathered the best stone craftsmen in Ninh Van’s stone craft village who are making 500 Arhant statues for Bai Dinh pagoda.

“The face of Arhant must look lively and this is the hardest job. Young craftsmen can’t carve the face because if they neglect it for just a moment, they can wreck this carefully-selected stone block,” said Dang Van Phong, an old craftsman.

Hundreds of stone carvers are working here in three shifts to finish the 500 Arhant statues on time. They have to work two months to carve a statue, Phong said. So far, around 200 statues have been moved to Bai Dinh pagoda. The remaining 300 statues will be completed in late 2008.

At the construction site, dozens of trucks, tipper trucks, bulldozers and hundreds of workers are working day and night.

Wood carving artisan Nguyen Van Linh is busying with pieces of rare wood. He said in the 500 year history of his Cat Dang lacquer craft village, this is the first time they have been involved in such a big project. According to Linh, 8,000cu.m of rare wood will be used to make horizontal lacquered boards and parallel sentences for the pagoda.

The best artisans of Cat Dang village are working on a 9x3.2m, 9-ton horizontal lacquered board, the biggest they have ever seen. “The largest board we made so far is the one in Cam Giang, Bac Ninh province, which was called the biggest of its kind in Vietnam but it is only 4.5x0.9m, just half this one,” Linh said.

He said 100 craftsmen from Cat Dang village have to work five months to make lacquered objects for this pagoda.

More than 500 craftsmen from Ninh Binh and Hue are working at the Bai Dinh construction site.

VietNamNet introduces photos about the construction site of Bai Dinh Pagoda.

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