Chùa Bái Đính

Useful Information

photography — Chùa Bái Đính (Bai Dinh Temple), Ninh Bình, Vietnam. Public Domain.

Location:	Gia Sinh, Gia Viễn, Ninh Bình. From province capital Ninh Binh follow QL1a north 6km turn left on QL38B. Signposted. (20.2705617, 105.8671250)
Open:	All year daily 6-18. [2024]
Fee:	free, Electric Car VND 80,000, Tour Guide VND 300,000. Stupa: Adults VND 50,000. Parking: Car VND 40,000, Motorbike VND 15,000. [2024]
Classification:	Karst Cave Cave Church
Light:	Incandescent bring torch
Dimension:
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Address:	Chùa Bái Đính, Gia Sinh, Gia Viễn, Ninh Bình, Tel: +84-913-899-135.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1121	Bai Dinh Pagoda was built by the renowned Zen master of the Ly Dynasty Nguyen Minh Khong.
1997	declared a historical, cultural, and revolutionary relic of the country.
2003	Bai Dinh Pagoda massively expanded.
2010	expansion completed.

Description

Chùa Bái Đính (Bai Dinh Temple) is a huge Buddhist temple located west of the province capital Ninh Binh. There are many visitors, mostly locals which come here for religious purposes, so the site has an enormous parking lot, the temple grounds are vast as well, being 1.7 km long and 1.2 km wide. The park-like landscape has bridges, temples, sculptures, artificial lakes and small patches of forest. It is famous for the largest gold-plated bronze Buddha statue in Asia, the pagoda with the longest Arhat corridor in Asia, and the largest bronze statue of Maitreya in Southeast Asia. It is the largest pagoda and owns the most records in Vietnam. Most spectacular is a karst tower at the southern end with several caves. As common in far east countries, the caves were used to build cave temples inside.

The old temple was built in 1121 by the renowned Zen master of the Ly Dynasty Nguyen Minh Khong. It is hidden in many small caves on the hillside, and it is the place of worship for both Buddhist deities and mountain gods. From the surrounding plain, a long staircase with 300 steps leads up to the caves. Halfway up is a gate with three doors. Finally, the caves are reached. There are three caves, the cave to worship the Buddha, the temple to worship the mountain god, and the temple to worship Saint Nguyen. The first is called Light Cave, because it's actually a shelter, an overhanging cliff face, with a sort of altar for worshipping Buddha, and it is brightly lit by daylight. The Dark Cave is a through-cave, the cave passage is sometimes rather low, and the continuous high number of worshippers burning incense makes the air rather hard to breath.