Temple Đô (Lý Bát Đế)
This Đô Temple was built in the year 1030 during the return of King Lý Thái Tông to celebrate the anniversary of the death of his father Lý Công Uẩn (Lý Thái Tổ). However, this building was completely destroyed during the colonial period. That is why in 1989 the Vietnamese government decided to restore it based on the still preserved historical documents. In front of its entrance gate is a water pavilion erected on a large pond in the shape of a half-moon, which once connected to the Tiêu Tương River that no longer exists today. This historic architectural complex is dedicated to the worship of the 8 kings of the Lý dynasty, which the famous historian Ngô Sĩ Liên described as a dynasty of clemency in the collection entitled « The Complete Historical Records of Đại Việt » (Ðại Việt Sử Ký toàn thư) (1697).
According to the popular saying, in the work « Florilegium of the Thiền Garden (Thiền Uyển Tập Anh) » there is a kệ (or gâtha) alluding to the 8 kings of the Lý dynasty, which is attributed either to the disciple of the patriarch monk Khuôn Việt, Đa Bảo, or to the monk Vạn Hạnh as follows:
The word Bát with the Lý family
Một bát nước công đức
Tùy duyên hóa thế gian
Sáng choang còn soi đuốc
Bóng mất trời lên cao.
A bowl of meritorious water
Flows with causality to transform the world
Brightly shining continues to light the torch
When the shadow disappears, the sun rises behind the mountains.
By implication, this Kệ (or stance) intends to evoke the 8 kings of the Lý dynasty, from the founder Lý Công Uẩn to the last king Lý Huệ Tông, through the word bát which means both bowl and eight in Vietnamese. As for Huệ Tông, his given name is Sảm. Being the combination of two words 日 nhật (sun) and 山 sơn (mountain) in Chinese Han characters, the word Sảm indeed means « the sun hides behind the mountains, » signifying the end or disappearance. This kê proves to be prophetic because Princess Lý Chiêu Hoàng (daughter of King Lý Huệ Tông) ceded the throne to her husband Trần Cảnh, who was none other than King Trần Thái Tông of the Trần dynasty. It can be said that the Lý dynasty had the kingdom by the will of God, but it was also by this will that they lost it.
Lý Bát Đế