PAGODA DÂU (THANH DAO TU OR PHAP VU TU)

Considered one of the oldest in Vietnam, this pagoda has five names: Thanh Dao Tu, Phap Vu Tu, Chua Vua (King's Pagoda) and Chua Ba Dâu (Lady Dâu Pagoda). It has been restored several times. It preserves a bronze book which would relate the history of its foundation and the introduction of Buddhism in Vietnam, between the 1st and 2nd centuries. The setting is remarkable with a beautiful portico open to the river. In the courtyard, a venerable banyan. In the 17th century, the beauty of the place had already conquered King Lê Thanh Tông, who awarded it the title of "First picturesque site in the country of Annam".

The pagoda is famous for its mummies (only copies are shown; the originals are kept under cover). Two monks, Vu Khac Minh and Vu Khac Truong, who lived in the 17th century, are said to have managed, through a meditation technique, to maintain a pose of religious ecstasy after their death, without their bodies decomposing. The bodies eventually dried up. Layers of red and gold lacquer were then applied to the tissue-wrapped bodies.

According to Professor Nguyên Lan Cuong, director of the anthropology section of the Archaeological Institute of Hanoi, quoted by AFP (17 June 2001), "unlike the mummies of Egypt, Latin America, or other regions of the world, the mummy of Vuc Khac Minh, superior monk of the Dâu pagoda, has all its internal organs, brain, heart, liver, which makes it a unique example: x-ray examinations of the mummy show that all its bones and organs are still in place, as they were at the time of the monk's death, which makes its preservation for more than three centuries very mysterious". Recently, however, and without being able to determine the cause, the mummies have begun to deteriorate. They were restored in 2004 and archaeologists have yet to find any answers regarding the mummification technique used. The faithful evoke the tâm muôi, an inner fire that consumes the entrails of one who reaches spiritual ecstasy and no longer needs a carnal envelope.

There are currently five mummy statues in Vietnam, including those of the Dâu pagoda. The other two are the mummies of Tu Dâo Hanh, in the Tây pagoda (Quôc Oai district) and Chuyêt Chuyêt of the Phât Tich pagoda (Bac Ninh province). The last one is that of the monk Nhu Tri who has just been discovered in the Tiêu pagoda (Bac Ninh province).