When I went back Hochiminh city from Ba Den Mountain, I dropped by Cao Da Cathedral or Tòa thánh Tây Ninh by Vietnamese. Let’s see which place is.
Near Tay Ninh town, in Long Hoa village, this temple is considered the greatest of all Vietnam’s Cao Dai temples. Founded in 1926, the Cao Dai Cathedral (Tòa Thánh Tây Ninh) complex functions as a Holy See for the Cao Dai religion (Caodaisim), Vietnam’s third most popular belief system after Buddhism and Catholicism. Visitors are welcome at prayer sessions in the Great Temple.
Cao Dai Cathedral is also known by the familiar name of the Holy Temple by local people. It is located on Pham Ho Phap street, Hoa Thanh town, Tay Ninh province.
One of the unique features of the architecture of Cao Dai Cathedral is the combination of many religious civilizations ‘s styles over the world. Therefore, traveling to Cao Dai Cathedral will be a trip that brings us many cultural and architectural experiences.
The specificity of this one reminds travelers of the circle of Heaven and the Square of Earth which are theories about the universe in Confucianism. We are impressive to two towering bell towers and drums that has similarities with the bell tower system in Catholic churches. In the middle, the Cathedral is designed with Maitreya Buddha statue occupying the roof.
The eight trigrams Tower (Bát Quái Đài) has a similar shape of Bagua chart (Bát Quái Đồ) of Tajima (Đạo Tiên). On the roof of this one has 3 Buddha statues. Inside, it was built with Nine Dai Guzhong (Cửu Trùng Đài) with 9 levels from low to high.
Its characteristic architecture: Eastern – Western philosophical perspective.
Cao Dai Cathedral is one of the religious works with a very unique architecture, unlike any others today. If other large projects are often designed by architects and built according to drawings. However, Tay Ninh Holy See was built completed based on the effort and hands of all workers and local people.
Total construction area is up to 12 km2, Cao Dai Cathedral is designed with a surrounding fence system, ensuring the majesty of the religious tourist destination. In addition, this project also has many small modern projects inside including: Holy See, Buddhist Temple, and Buu Thap.
The length about 100m, 12 doors, the largest door is called Chanh Mon door.
There are 2 towers with 36m height which is a prominent symbol outside the Holy See. Besides, one of the special features of this project is to use the bamboo – reinforced cement for construction.
Stepping inside, travelers will be surprised by an extremely unique architectural work. We will comfortable see and admire the extremely delicate carvings, showing the talent of people who built this well-known project. Nevertheless, we are not allowed to take photos thus I can not show you.
Two rows of columns inside the building: This is the most notable point in this Cathedral . These details are carved by dragon shapes with using variety of brilliant colors.
The foundation is designed with 9 levels: This detail is also known as “nine fairy levels”. Each of these represents a grade.
A large sphere was placed in the middle: visitors can see the spiritual structure, the detail symbolizes the vast universe and is also to creature the unique beauty of Cao Dai Cathedral.
Nowadays, Cao Dai Cathedral has become one of the attractive tourist destinations for travelers because of its unique and impressive architectural style. Besides, this place is also nearby many other attractions and unique delicious restaurants, matching to the tourists needs.
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