The ancient one Pillar Pagoda in Hanoi

The one Pillar Pagoda with its fantastic story is the true Vietnamese symbol of love.

The one Pillar Pagoda from 1049. One Pillar Pagoda is along side with the Perfume Pagoda one of Vietnam's two most iconic temples. One Pillar Pagoda is located just next to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum in a pond full of lotus flower.

The One Pillar Pagoda was built by Emperor Ly Thai Tong who was childless. He dreamed that he met a peasant woman, who gave him a son seated on a lotus flower. Ly Thai Tong then meet and married a peasant girl and she gave him a son. The emperor built the temple in gratitude for this in year 1049. A monk named Thien Tue had urged him to build the temple. The name, One Pillar Pagoda, is because the pagoda rests on one pillar in a small pond and the purpose was to symbolize the lotus leaf, which the woman sat on.

The pagodas were in the then Tay Cam Garden in Bao Thach, Vinh Thuan district in the capital Thang Long (now known as Hanoi).

When the French withdrew from Hanoi in 1954 they destroyed the pagodas which were later rebuilt.