| Perfume Pagoda |
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Perfume Pagoda Pilgrim- Trail For Wealth, Health And Happiness.
We watch them stand up again, take a few more steps, then repeat the process. "They're from the south," our Vietnamese guide says. "The majority of Vietnamese people are non-religious. Buddhists make 25% of the population, and these monks will make us late for our trail". But I am not in a hurry, understand that is why I am here. The monks are here to celebrate the annual Pagoda Festival, which starts in late January to mid-March of lunar year. This year, the official festival starts on February 19 and ends on April 28, when up to 1.3 million pilgrims are expected. The festival centres on the Perfume Pagoda - a complex of Buddhist temples and shrines, built from 5th century into the tree-clad limestone mountains 70km south-west of Hanoi. After a two-hour drive from Hanoi, we find ourselves at a humid riverside strip of supply shops. Many flog shots of rice wine from bottles crammed with cobras, scorpions and geckos. On the riverbank, stallholders sell small-denomination banknotes to be used as offerings at the various temples and altars or hire out conical hats to protect tourists from the sun. The experience is vividly South-East Asian and there are very few Westerners among the hundreds of thousands who come here each year. Getting here is definitely more than half the fun though. We reached Ben Duc wharf, with hundreds of long, shallow wooden boats clumped together, are waiting to take pilgrims upstream along tributary of Yen River. For some people, including famed poets from times gone by, the one-hour river trip is the best part of the experience. Four of us comfortably fit into one boat. A local woman sits up the back, armed with her wooden oars. We are part of a strung-out parade of boats moving slowly and quietly above shallows bulging with riverweed. We glide past rice paddies and flocks of domestic white ducks dabbling at the water's edge. Occasionally we come across lone fishermen using two long sticks attached to a battery to stun tiny fish with electricity. Slowly we edge nearer to the mountains and the blissful part of our trip is almost over as we approach another busy wharf. On the landward side of this place is lined with more stalls catering to Vietnamese tastes. Hanging from hooks outside basic eateries are large skinned dogs, jungle cats, wild pigs and various forest creatures we don't recognise. More tempting are bread rolls made into the shape of crabs and baked in on-site wood ovens. Pork sausages are a local delicacy, along with small turtles stored in bamboo baskets. Soon we move away from the riverbank and head inland, climbing past temples and stores selling everything from vibrant red-and-gold religious decorations to root vegetables, small local apricots and bowls of giant moving bugs. We could have walked for an hour or more up a hill bustling with sellers and pilgrims but because of the heat we opt for a cable car journey, which takes us high above the forest. From the top station it's a short stroll to the start of the descending rock staircase with its 120 well-worn and heavily cracked steps that lead steeply down towards the mossy cave entrance. We have reached the site centrepiece, Huong Tich cave, which has openning like dragon's mouth. It is as dark as dusk inside with incense fills the air. Excited pilgrims crowd around a large statue of Buddha made from green stone. Many come to get blessings from stalactites and stalagmites, which is hardly Buddhism. It is believed childless pilgrims can seek fertility by stroking rock formations - one for a boy, the other for a girl. Some attempt to be blessed with health by leaping to catch water dripping from a stalactite. Others rub formations that can supposedly bring silver, gold or happiness. All this walking and sightseeing has made us hungry, so when the staircase is clear of monks we slowly head back towards one of the larger restaurants. We decided to be vegeterian to avoid eating anyone's pet by mistake. Luckily, boiled rice and stir-fried water spinach is also very available. The way back home is, in turns, as fascinating and idyllic as our earlier experience. And as we slowly drift down the river, conical hats perched on our heads, we all admit that it has been the best day we've ever had in Vietnam, despite the cultural culinary challenges. |
A procession of burgundy-robed pilgrims and their followers kneel on the ancient steps leading down towards the holiest pagoda site of Vietnam, before touching their foreheads to the cold, damp stone.