Linh Quang Pagoda

Picture yourself leaving the centre of Cát Bà town and arriving at Áng Ván Temple. It is a temple to the Mother Goddess (đền Mẫu, a Vietnamese folk-religion shrine), set against the mountain and looking out over Cái Giá Bay. Fishermen come here to pray for calm weather and a quiet sea; in the old days, fishing boats would also stop at the temple to ask for fresh water. Directly behind that temple stands Linh Quang Pagoda.

Linh Quang Pagoda: a young pagoda behind Cát Bà's Mother Goddess temple

The pagoda was inaugurated in early 2018. The money to build it was raised by the Venerable Thích Tục Khang (Thượng tọa, a title for a senior Buddhist monk), who called on Buddhists from many places to contribute. It is a small pagoda of five bays, with a front hall, a rear hall and a Tam Bảo hall (the hall of the Three Jewels: the Buddha, his teaching and the monastic community), built of wood, brick, cement and fired roof tiles. Beside it, on the hillside, stands a statue of Quan Âm, the bodhisattva of compassion. Locals explain the name like this: “linh” means sacred, “quang” means light, meaning the radiance of the pagoda shines on all people. Are you curious how a small pagoda lives up to a name like that?

The answer lies in what happens inside. Lay Buddhists from the island and from elsewhere come here to worship and to study the Buddha's teaching. At the Buddha's Birthday celebration in 2023, when the abbess was the nun Thích Ngọc Trân, the pagoda handed out 130 gift packages to poor schoolchildren and struggling families in Cát Bà. The gifts were contributed by Buddhists and benefactors living as far away as Germany. On the evening of the first full moon of the lunar new year in 2025, Buddhists and island residents gathered at the pagoda for the Thượng Nguyên ceremony (the first-full-moon festival) to pray for a peaceful year, with the Venerable Thích Tục Khang leading the rite.

In front is a temple where seafarers pray for quiet waves. Behind it is a pagoda where islanders come to pray for peace. The heritage here may not lie in the age of the roof tiles, but in the habit of coming together to ask for peace, now with help from people on the other side of the world. Next time you are in Cát Bà, why not walk around behind Áng Ván Temple and see for yourself how that habit is being kept?

Enough to decide whether to go

What it is

A small Buddhist pagoda on Cát Bà Island

Inaugurated

Early 2018

Where

Behind Áng Ván Temple, on the edge of Cát Bà town; Hà Sen, Cát Hải special administrative zone (đặc khu), Hải Phòng

Worth seeing

The Tam Bảo (Three Jewels) hall; the Quan Âm statue on the hillside beside the pagoda

Tickets

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