That is a familiar folk saying, now it has become a folk song to remind each other of the opening day of the festival at Thay Pagoda on the 7th day of the 3rd lunar month every year. But why is there also the saying "Return to Lang festival"? Because on the same day at Lang Pagoda (Hanoi) - where Saint Tua, also known as Tu Dao Hanh, is worshiped - there is also a big festival. Since Thay at Thay Pagoda and Saint Tua Tu Dao Hanh at Lang Pagoda are only one person, that day there are two places to hold the big ceremony.

Tu Dao Hanh was revered by our people at that time as a great saint, a living Buddha. In the scriptures, he was ranked among the famous Zen masters of Buddhism in our country. Around his life were stories that were half-true, half-mysterious, and extremely mysterious, or extremely vivid legends imbued with the color of Tantric Buddhism with magical spells and magical incantations.

In addition to Lang Pagoda and Thay Pagoda, Ly Quoc Su Temple (Hanoi) and La Phu Pagoda (literally Trung Hung Tu - Ha Tay), and a number of other temples and pagodas also worshiped Tu Dao Hanh along with two other Zen masters, Khong Lo (Minh Khong) and Giac Hai, commonly known as Tam Thanh.

Tu Dao Hanh's family name was Tu, given name was Lo, and his given name was Dao Hanh. He lived during the reign of Ly Nhan Tong (1072-1127). According to legend, his father, Tu Vinh, became a Buddhist monk when he was young, had great magical powers, then returned to secular life and became a Buddhist monk in the capital, married a girl in An Lang village (now Lang village) named Tang Thi Loan. They had two children, a girl and a boy, and the family lived in a house built on the land south of An Lang village. Their second son was Tu Dao Hanh, and the house of the Tu Vinh family is now Lang Pagoda. Tu Dao Hanh had a very unusual temperament, but since childhood he made friends, played music, gambled, played flute and played shuttlecock, causing his father to scold him many times. Until Mr. Tu Vinh accidentally discovered his son sitting by the lamp, books scattered around, still holding a book and dozing off, then he realized that his precious son was very studious and only liked to study at night, and his heart stopped worrying. Not long after, Tu Dao Hanh took the Bach Lien exam and passed with the highest rank, but unfortunately, his family had an accident so he could not become an official. The thing is, Tu Vinh used magic to offend the house of Dien Thanh Hau. He met a magician named Dai Dien who was more skilled than him, so he used a spell to suppress him, killed him, and threw his body into the To Lich River. Tu Vinh's body floated to Tay Duong bridge in front of Dien Thanh Hau's house, then stopped and refused to float anymore. Hearing this, the magician Dai Dien quickly went to the place, pointed at Tu Vinh's body and said: "Cultivators must not hate for the rest of their lives, they should know that life is just a joke, only after death can they attain enlightenment!" As soon as he finished speaking, Tu Vinh's body floated away, stopped at Nhan Muc commune, and was picked up by the local people for burial. They believed it was sacred, so they built a temple and built a statue to worship it. Every year, they hold a memorial service on the 10th of January, with a solemn ceremony. When Mrs. Tang Thi Loan - Tu Dao Hanh's mother - passed away, she was buried by the people at Ba Lang Pagoda, Thuong An Commune (now Hoa Lang Pagoda, Cau Giay District - Hanoi), and was worshiped with Mr. Tu Vinh.

Tu Dao Hanh lost his father, so he was so sad that he did not want to do anything but nurture the will to avenge his father. One time, he held a stick and tried to kill the magician Dai Dien, but he knew that without magic he could not do anything to his enemy, so he had the idea of finding a teacher to study the Dharma, so he traveled a long way with his two friends Minh Khong and Giac Hai to India in Tay Thien to study magic to take revenge. After going to Tay Thien to study the Dharma, Tu Dao Hanh returned to hide in Thien Phuc Pagoda on Phat Tich Mountain, wholeheartedly reciting "Dai Bi Tam Da La Ni" 108,000 times, achieving perfect magic, and immediately sought Dai Dien to avenge his father. When he met Dai Dien, Tu Dao Hanh hit him with a stick, causing Dai Dien to fall ill and die. The old grudges were washed away, the hatred in his heart was gone, he traveled everywhere to ask for seals, met a high monk who opened his mind and taught him about the “true heart”, then returned to Thien Phuc pagoda to practice religion, practice more magic and began to use advanced magic to cure the people in the area, his reputation spread… At that time, King Ly Nhan Tong had no son, and he prayed for a child but could not get one. Rumor had it that at Thanh Hoa beach there was a boy who was only three years old and called himself Giac Hoang, knew everything, the king hurriedly went to meet him with the intention of adopting him, but his ministers dissuaded him. Although Tu Dao Hanh was at Thien Phuc pagoda, he still heard the news, and guessed that Giac Hoang was Dai Dien reincarnated to find a way to take revenge on him, so he used some charms and asked his sister to bring them to where Giac Hoang was living to suppress him. Three days later, Giac Hoang became seriously ill and told everyone: “Everywhere there are iron nets surrounding me. I want to be reincarnated as the king’s son but I have no way to go. Now I have to go to the underworld!”, then I died. King Ly Nhan Tong heard the news and became angry. He ordered the army to arrest Tu Dao Hanh and imprison him in the royal palace. The king’s younger brother, Sung Hien Hau (also the son of Ly Thanh Tong and Queen Mother Y Lan), thought that Tu Dao Hanh had eliminated Giac Hoang so he must have a powerful magic to give him a son so that he could later succeed to the throne. He stood up and asked the king to forgive Tu Dao Hanh and invited him to stay at home for a day. Grateful for Sung Hien Hau’s life-saving grace, Tu Dao Hanh agreed to help his benefactor have a precious son, telling the Marquis before parting: “When the lady is in labor, please let me know immediately!”.

A while later, the wife of the Marquis of Sung Hien was indeed pregnant, and when it was time to give birth, he quickly informed Tu Dao Hanh. Upon receiving the news, he bathed, changed his clothes, called his disciples and said: “My destiny has not yet ended, I must temporarily reincarnate as an emperor for a period of nearly a century (12 years). At that time, if you see my body decay, then it will be the time for me to enter Nirvana, so now you should not cry and regret!”. Having finished speaking, he went into the mountains and passed away, on the seventh day of the third lunar month. On the exact day and time of his passing, the wife of the Marquis of Sung Hien went into labor and gave birth to a son, named Duong Hoan. Strangely, the boy changed day by day, he was raised carelessly but grew quickly, without studying but already showed intelligence, the older he grew the more handsome he became, when he was three years old, Ly Nhan Tong took him to the palace to be raised and established him as Crown Prince. When King Nhan Tong passed away, the Crown Prince ascended to the throne, taking the title Than Tong. Ly Than Tong was the reincarnation of Tu Dao Hanh. At the age of 21, King Ly Than Tong suddenly contracted a strange disease, his body was covered with leaves, his mind was disturbed, he roared like a tiger, famous doctors from all over were summoned to the palace to treat the king but everyone was helpless. At that time, from Than Quang Tu, Ninh Binh province (Keo Pagoda now in Thai Binh province), Zen master Minh Khong (Khong Lo) traveled to the palace to cure the king with powerful magic, was given many salaries by the king and appointed as "Ly Trieu Quoc Su" (later people called him Ly Quoc Su). Zen master Minh Khong, in addition to his great merit in treating the king, also went to China to ask for bronze to cast the Four Great Instruments (including Quy Dien bell, Bao Thien tower, Quynh Lam Buddha and Pho Minh cauldron) for the country, and became the founder of bronze casting in Vietnam. Regarding King Ly Than Tong, just as the great saint Tu Dao Hanh had foretold to his disciples when he passed away, he would only be king temporarily for nearly a century. After recovering from a strange illness, the king lived for two more years before passing away in 1138, at the age of 23. When the king died, a sacred aura suddenly rose from Thien Phuc Pagoda on Sai Son Mountain, and everyone who saw it was terrified. The news reached King Ly Anh Tong (son of Ly Than Tong), and the king quickly sent a high-ranking mandarin to perform a ceremony, honoring Tu Dao Hanh as "Supreme Supreme Spirit". At that time, his body was still intact in the shrine, not destroyed, and still had a faint fragrance. Since then, through many dynasties, the country's ups and downs, Thien Phuc Pagoda has been famous for its sacredness with the name Thay Pagoda...

Here I would like to talk about Thay Pagoda, in Sai Son Commune, Quoc Oai District, Ha Tay Province, located 30 km from Hanoi. The pagoda was built on the southwest slope of Phat Tich mountain during the reign of King Ly Nhan Tong, with an area of about 2,500 m2, designed with 3 parallel rows of houses. On both sides of the main hall are two corridors and two bell towers. In the main hall, in addition to the statue of Buddha Shakyamuni and Bodhisattvas, there are also three statues of "transition of three lives" of Zen Master Tu Dao Hanh: the middle statue is the statue of him after becoming Buddha, wearing a lotus hat, hands clasped in front of his chest, wearing a golden robe, placed on a precious stone pedestal with delicate carvings of flowers and birds; the statue on the left is a statue of his whole body made of eucalyptus wood, with joints in his limbs so he can move, his image when he was still practicing in Huong Hai hermitage on Sai mountain, during this time he cured the sick and saved the suffering of the people and performed puppet shows for the people's entertainment. On the right is the statue of him when he was reincarnated as King Ly Than Tong, wearing a crown, wearing a dragon robe, sitting on a throne. In the pagoda, there are also worships of the Holy Father and Holy Mother, Tu Dao Hanh's parents. On both sides of the pagoda are long corridors worshiping 18 Arhats. In front of the pagoda, on the left side is Long Dau mountain range, with a large lake called Long Tri (or Long Chieu). In the middle of the lake is the beautiful eight-roofed Thuy Dinh house used for special water puppet shows. On both sides of the pagoda are two ancient three-span covered bridges, adding to the ancient beauty of the sacred temple, which is said to have been built by the mandarin Phung Khac Khoan himself in 1602. In addition, there is the scenic spot of Cac Co cave, where young men and women jostle each other for the festival, as the song goes: "Unmarried girls remember Cac Co cave; Unmarried men remember the Thay Pagoda Festival!", with Cao pagoda halfway up the mountain, Mot Mai pagoda, Thuong temple, Gio caves, Phat Tich cave and especially Thanh Hoa cave, where the great saint Tu Dao Hanh passed away to be reincarnated.

In 1997, Vietnam Post issued the stamp set "Vietnam's Scenic Landscape" consisting of 3 designs, including model (3-1) with a face value of 400 VND, featuring the image of "Thay Pagoda Landscape" designed by artist Tran The Vinh (see photo), and a postcard of this charming landscape, a beautiful stamp that stamp collectors on the theme of "culture and art" cannot miss. none.

Thay Pagoda is not only an ancient temple in the complex of unique architectural landscapes of Ha Tay province, but also a scenic spot ranked as a national historical relic. Every year, many domestic and foreign tourists come to enjoy the scenery of Thay Pagoda, also to listen to the various magical and mysterious legends about a saint, a king, a Zen master that must be said to be rare in Vietnamese history...