Van Ban bell, the sound of a thousand years from the deep ocean

The miraculous return in the heart of the ocean

In the summer of 1958, while pulling a net in the Do Son sea (Hai Phong), fishermen suddenly discovered a very heavy object caught in their net. After digging down to check, they realized that it was a large bronze bell and had to mobilize many people to join hands to salvage it. Immediately after being brought ashore, the bell attracted the attention of the researchers. Archaeologists and local officials quickly identified this as the bell of Van Ban Pagoda - an ancient temple associated with the famous Tuong Long Tower, built by King Ly Thanh Tong in 1058.

This discovery is more grounded when before, the excavation of Tuong Long tower foundation by the Institute of Archeology in collaboration with the Hai Phong Museum found the two floating bricks with two rows of Chinese characters "Ly Gia, the Third Emperor of the Four Pacific Dragon" (manufactured in the fourth year of the Long Thuy Thai Binh year of the third King of the Ly Dynasty). These bricks are also decorated with dragon, phoenix, lotus patterns - the typical symbols of Buddhist art.

Witness the historical ups and downs

History has recorded the painful periods of the nation. According to legend, at the end of the 15th century, when the Ming army invaded Dai Viet, they implemented a policy of destroying cultural heritages in Vietnam. Many works of historical and cultural value of the nation were destroyed, including the Van Ban pagoda.

The bell of Van Ban pagoda has also disappeared. This tragedy has gone into the folk songs, the proverb of the people of Do Son through the saying: "The traditional reason has been a few generations/pagoda tu, tower, bell falling to serve". That sentence was a reminder of the devastated Van Ban pagoda, the Tuong Long tower was drowned and the temple bell fell into a water gap named No Hau, lying next to the temple.

Not only suffering from destruction from foreign encroachment and experiencing historical changes, under the Nguyen Dynasty, Van Ban Pagoda and Tuong Long Tower continued to face many challenges. The book "Dai Nam nhat Thong Chi" recorded: "In the 3rd year of Gia Long (1804) he broke the tower to build bricks to build Hai Duong town". During the reign of King Thanh Thai, the great pharaonic god Cao Khai once again continued to destroy the remains of Van Ban pagoda and Tuong Long tower.

After the spectacular "return" from the sea floor in 1958, Van Ban bell was taken to the Vietnam History Museum (now the National History Museum). Since 1963, scientists have started to study the bells, focusing on issues such as dating, ancient Nom script, and valuable historical information related to the virtue of radiation, merit land and contemporary Buddhist situation.

Sculpture masterpiece bearing the mark of the Ly - Tran Dynasty

Van Ban bell is not only a historical witness but also a masterpiece of art, typical of the level of bronze casting and Buddhist art of the Ly - Tran Dynasty. The bell is round, 1.27m high, 0.8m wide and weighs about 300kg. The bell mouth is designed to be wide and elaborately decorated with 52 double lotus petals, large and small intertwined harmoniously.

The bell tower is divided into 8 open halls, separated by flowing banks running cross- and vertically. In particular, the 2 boxes above are engraved with 2 Chinese characters, containing a lot of valuable information. On the bell body there are also six round nests, each nests are shaped like a blooming lotus flower with many wings around, a characteristic of the ancient bell decoration art.

The top of the bell is attached to the "Bodhi" straps - a familiar image with two dragons fighting together, in the middle of the strap casting an elegant lotus bud. The dragon image on the bell straps are characterized by the art of the Tran dynasty: the dragon's head is high, the stout body, the scales and the fins, the dragon's leg has 4 nails firmly clinging to the top of the bell.

The content of the two literary articles, including a total of 250 Chinese characters written in the onion (a 16 -column box, a 10 -column box), tells the merit of the monk who practices the heart and mind in the direction of the mind and the laity in the exploration of the forest paint, expanding the land to build Van Ban Pagoda. The people who have provided land for the temple were recorded were the guardians, Nguyen Van, and his wife, Chu Thi Trai and his brother -in -law Chu Lam. Bai Minh also said that the bell was held by an officer to the temple.

Determining the age of the Van Ban bell is an elaborate research process. Initially, some scientists thought that the bell belonged to the Ly Dynasty. However, deeper studies, especially the comparison of decorative patterns and dragon images on the bell with artifacts that have been identified as dating from the Tran Dynasty, have led to new conclusions.

In 1980, researcher Nguyen Dinh Chien published research results comparing Van Ban bell with Binh Lam pagoda bell (Vi Xuyen, Ha Giang). The similarities in the structure of the dragon on the beams, the 6 lotus-shaped bell towers and the size ratio show that these 2 bells have the same technical and aesthetic standards.

An important turning point in 1996, when Assoc. Ngo Duc Tho thoroughly researched the minh on the bell. He discovered the word "Nam" (南 - Phuong Nam) was engraved into the word "Binh" (丙). Assoc. Ngo Duc Tho explained that many Tran dynasties when noted about the land have changed the word "Nam" in the word "Binh" because the word "Nam" is on the list of 10 words of King Tran Anh Tong.

In addition, the title " Ta Bo Bo Bo" engraved on the photo is an important proof. History books during the Ly Dynasty do not record this position. It was only during the Tran Dynasty that the book "Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu" recorded in Quan Chuc Chi section: "In the first year of Trung Hung (1285) he was appointed as a Bo Bo Bo Bo".

From convincing evidence of history, decorative patterns and manufacturing techniques, scientists have come to the conclusion: Van Ban bell was cast under the Tran Dynasty (13th - 14th centuries).

Van Ban bell is a unique artifact, carrying huge historical, cultural and artistic values. Although it was cast during the Tran Dynasty, it is still associated with the story of Van Ban Pagoda and Tuong Long Tower built during the Ly Dynasty on Do Son land, Hai Phong.

The bell provides valuable documents for researchers on bell casting techniques under the Tran Dynasty, contemporary art style, and especially, the bell art is an invaluable source of historical documents, contributing to the study of national history, especially the history of Buddhism during the Tran Dynasty.