Ho Chi Minh City is a city crowded with an excessive population. The citizens of the city seems to attach remarkable importance to worshipping as Ho Chi Minh City’s soil is filled with worshipping sites. Actually, every street has at least one church or pagoda. Not many of those are so unique in term of historical significance and architectural style, yet all of them are imbued in charm and the complexity in the decoration. Jade Emperor Pagoda is one in the plethora of Buddha’s homes in Ho Chi Minh City.
The spot was built in 1909 by the Cantonese in honour of the supreme Taoist god (the Jade Emperor or King of Heaven). It is one of the 5 most popular shrines in Ho Chi Minh City and a prime representation of Mahayanist branch of Buddhism that is sweepingly practiced widely in Vietnam.
The pagoda showcases an unassuming exterior, with a small yet elaborate gate. All fall in line with the pagoda’s surroundings. Getting in through the gate, you step into a shaded courtyard which is rather clear and covered with the pungent smoke of incense. There is a couple of large incense bowls and a few guarding lion statues sitting at the front door.
There is a pool packed with tortoises in a corner within the pagoda’s precinct. The pool is so crowded that the tortoises tend to fight for dominance. The pool evidently explains the pagoda’s substitute name, Tortoise Pagoda.
The main building of the pagoda is the place primarily displaying a collection of Taoist, Confucian and Buddhist mythologies. The total in-house area of the pagoda occupies not so much, but that doesn’t stop it from being packed to the brink with intricate carvings and statues of Buddhist, Taoist and other phantasmal divinities and grotesque heroes. Some of them are large and made from hard papier-mache. The ambiance inside the pagoda is a little unsettling, as most of the statues look threatening and graved in the incense smoke that can be smelled in every corner of the pagoda.
One of the main featured statue is Jade Emperor, who presides over the main sanctuary. He is surrounded by Four Big Diamonds, his guardians. They are so named because they are believed to be as hard as diamonds.
The left-hand side room is presided over by Thanh Hoang, the Chief of Hell. You can learn about the belief about afterlife of a major part of the Vietnamese by taking a long look at other god figures that have right of judging human’s evil acts and good deeds. Additionally, the room display illustration of varied torments awaiting evil people in Ten Regions of Hell, dubbed the famous Hall of the Ten Hells.
Another impressive collection the pagoda possesses exhibits 12 ceramic figures of 12 women dressed in flashy colors and overrun with children. The 12 number represents 12 months in Chinese astrological calendar. Concurrently, the 12 figures exemplifies distinct human characteristics, both bad and good.
Kim Hoa Thanh Mau, the Chief of All Women; Quan Am, the Goddess of Mercy; and Dat Ma, the Indian founder fo Zen Buddhism are also on display in the pagoda.
The pagoda is popular among the local, partly due to the presence of the goddess of fertility, Kim Hua. Vietnamese people believe in the extension of a family and feel the need to pray for the proliferation. The pagoda is still in its active function and also a popular tourism spot so you should expect to find yourself multi-flanked by a host of visitors. With free entry, the pagoda is definitely worth a visit.