Linh Phuoc Pagoda, Dalat, Vietnam

Serpentine dragons and pulsating fluorescent halos, frightening gods like angry superman, spiraling Gaudi-esque architecture and over the top mosaics, it’s hard not to smile when visiting the Linh Phuoc Pagoda in the small town of Trai Mat, 8 kms north of the DaLat, Vietnam. Although a functioning Buddhist temple with a monastery on site, most visitors are overwhelmed by the audacity and playfulness of the design.

scultures wind their way through the mosaic staircase
Sculptures crawl through the mosaic staircase

Funny, kitsch and impossible to photograph is the 49-meter-long winding glaze dragon covered in mosaics from 12,000 broken beer bottles. The main building is a seven-tiered-27-meter-tall-tower made from thousands of pieces of broken bowls. The winding staircases and columns are covered in colourful mosaics, reminiscent of Gaudi.

Fun
Architecture with a sense of humour.

Life sized sculptures climb the exterior of the bell tower building, or sit and wave from a ledge or play the flute. The same sculptures may be seen from another angle from the internal winding staircase.

fun
Gaudi -esque architecture

Built between 1949 and 1952, the religious site attracts many tourists who mostly arrive in buses. If you are staying in DaLat, the best way to get there is by the antique train, which leaves from Dalat station four times a day,  and rattles through the countryside to the village of Trai Mat. Cost VND 125,000 pp return journey.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Vietnamese superman or religious icon?

 

 

 

11 thoughts on “Linh Phuoc Pagoda, Dalat, Vietnam”

  3. Pingback: Fun (Boating) | What's (in) the picture?
  7. Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Fun! | stenoodie

  9. What an interesting place to visit, Francesca. A 49 meter dragon covered with a mosaic of shattered beer bottles? How could anyone not take a train or bus to see it? Thanks for taking us with you.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Now over to you.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.