Quan The Am Pagoda

A pagoda of more than 100 years in Phu Nhuan, the last where Most Venerable Thich Quang Duc served as abbot

This pagoda's first name was French: "Pagode des Matelots", the Sailors' Pagoda, which local people mispronounced as "chua Mach Lo". It was founded around 1920, built by French and Vietnamese naval officers and sailors, reportedly in gratitude to the Bodhisattva Quan Am for protecting them through an accident at sea. At the time the pagoda was very small, with wooden walls and a tiled roof, standing on marshy land beside a dirt track that is now Thich Quang Duc Street, and it has since undergone several restorations. Quan The Am Pagoda was the last pagoda where Most Venerable Thich Quang Duc served as abbot, until 11 June 1963. In his memory, the pagoda built the Bodhisattva Quang Duc Memorial Room, displaying personal items he used during his lifetime along with a biographical stele; above the monks' quarters stands the "Lua Tu Bi" (Fire of Compassion) stupa, which houses a bronze statue of Bodhisattva Quang Duc. A memorial ceremony for him is still held at the pagoda every year. From 1963 until April 1975, the pagoda served as an inner-city revolutionary base. Venerable Thich Thong Buu, the succeeding abbot, continued to shelter and protect revolutionary cadres. Beneath the Patriarchs' Hall is a secret cellar of about 40 m²: in 1966 it was the "Pho Da Son" printing house, which openly printed and published An Lac magazine; around 1971 – 1972 the cellar became a place for secretly printing documents and leaflets for pupils and students. Today the cellar is a resting place for lay Buddhists. In 2015, the pagoda was classified as a City-level Historical Relic. The grounds also feature an eleven-faced Quan The Am statue set within a Pho Da mountain, a quiet corner to pause before leaving the pagoda.

English text: machine translation from the Localis platform — proper names kept in Vietnamese.