Tran Quoc Pagoda

About this place

Hanoi's oldest Buddhist pagoda, said to have been founded in the sixth century on the bank of the Red River and moved in 1615 to a small islet in West Lake (Ho Tay) after the river threatened its first site. A short causeway leads to it from Thanh Nien Road, which runs between West Lake and Truc Bach Lake. Its best-known feature is the red, eleven-tiered tower, 15 metres high and built in 1998, with small Buddhist statues in its arched windows. In the courtyard grows a bodhi tree raised from a cutting of the original tree at Bodh Gaya in India, a gift from Indian president Rajendra Prasad on his visit in 1959. The pagoda closes at midday between its morning and afternoon sessions, opening roughly 7:30-11:30 and 13:30-16:30, and stays open all day on the first and fifteenth of each lunar month. Shoulders and knees must be covered; shorts are not allowed. The pagoda looks its best from outside at sunset, when the light falls across West Lake, and a visit pairs well with a walk along the lakeshore cafes.