Vinh Nghiem Pagoda

Vinh Nghiem was the centre where the Truc Lam school founded at Yen Tu did its teaching and ordination - the monastery where the tradition was organised rather than the mountain where it began - and it holds the physical record of that: a collection of over three thousand carved wooden printing blocks, made between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries for the school's texts, which were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register for Asia and the Pacific in 2012. The pagoda itself is a walled complex of halls and courtyards. It was inscribed as part of the Yen Tu complex in 2025.

What you actually see

• The Truc Lam teaching centre - where the school ordained and taught.
• Over three thousand woodblocks - carved from the seventeenth century.
• On the Memory of the World register - inscribed in 2012.
• Part of the 2025 World Heritage listing - with Yen Tu and Con Son.

When to go

Year round; the festival falls in the second lunar month. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The woodblocks are stored and only a portion is displayed. It is a working monastery with the behaviour that implies. There is little English interpretation. The complex is quiet outside festival days.

Nearby

Bo Da pagoda is west; Yen Tu is east towards the coast.