Giac Lam Pagoda

Giac Lam was founded in 1744 and is the oldest pagoda in what is now Ho Chi Minh City, built in the southern style with a low tiled roof, ceramic ornament on the ridges, and a dark interior of ironwood columns hung with carved and gilded panels. The main hall holds well over a hundred wooden statues, many of them eighteenth and nineteenth century, and the walls carry parallel sentences carved in Chinese characters. A bodhi tree in the courtyard was given by a Sri Lankan monk in 1953, and a seven-storey stupa built later stands beside the halls. It is a working pagoda in a residential district.

What you actually see

• Founded in 1744 - the city's oldest pagoda.
• Over a hundred wooden statues - many eighteenth and nineteenth century.
• Ironwood columns and carved panels - the southern interior style.
• A bodhi tree given in 1953 - by a Sri Lankan monk.

When to go

Year round. An hour.

Honest expectations

It is out of the centre and needs a taxi. Interiors are dark and photography may be restricted. It is a working pagoda rather than a museum. The stupa is a modern addition.

Nearby

Tan Son Nhat airport is close; District 1 is south-east.