Mysterious Seven Mountains: Tablets and Suppressing Steles at Bong Lai Pagoda

Bong Lai Pagoda (Vinh Te Commune, An Giang) still preserves a few artifacts and legends that have been passed down orally for many generations. Among them is the story of the tablet and the stele that suppressed evil spirits during the time when Buddha Master Tay An founded the religion.

Buddha's card tree

The worshiping facility, called Dinh Quan The, was built next to Bong Lai Pagoda. Near the altar of Ong The, on the left there is a painting and four verses of poetry recalling the story of Dao Lap digging up the stone stele. Inside is the place where the stone stele altar is placed. On the right there is also a painting describing the planting of the card tree and an illustrative poem. Below is a wooden card about 3 inches high and a piece of wood believed to be a flagpole placed solemnly in a glass cage.

Bong Lai Pagoda

Photo: Hoang Phuong

From the time of Dao Lap onwards, no one had heard of Buddha Thay's card tree. According to the elders, in the past, they had seen a wooden card tree planted near the flagpole, with a lotus bud carved on top. Children playing around often touched it without knowing what it was. In 1966, the pagoda was bombed and collapsed, and all the people evacuated. Someone secretly sawed the card tree and sold it to a Chinese antique collector in Chau Doc market. Whether intentionally or not, this man cut the card tree into two pieces and placed it on the altar. Some time later, he fell ill and passed away. His family was so scared that they donated the card tree to Chau Long pagoda in Chau Doc.

According to the story, in 1987, two people, Ms. Nguyen Thi Tron from Dinh My, Thoai Son and Thach Thi Be Tu from Cam Mountain, dreamed that someone came to tell them to support the people of Ba Bai hamlet to rebuild the pagoda and remember to bring the Buddha Thay's card tree back to the pagoda. In the dream, they saw the ruined pagoda and the shape of the card tree. Therefore, the two girls went to look for traces of the pagoda and it was exactly as in their dream.

At that time, the Board of Trustees of Bong Lai Pagoda, based on the story, had people dig up the flagpole and discovered a part of the card tree had been sawed off. After that, people heard the news and secretly came to carve it to boil water to drink to cure diseases. As for the part of the card that was sold, they went to Chau Long Pagoda to find it again, but it was not intact. This part of the card is still worshiped next to the tablet of the first Dao Lap and his staff.

Quan The Palace

Photo: Hoang Phuong

Not a magic card?

According to the explanation of researcher Truong Ngoc Tuong, the ancients believed that the wasteland in the South was governed by Ngung Mang Nuong (the goddess Ũma, the embodiment of feminine power in Hinduism). Therefore, when Vietnamese people came here to reclaim the land, they had to perform the "ta tho" (land leasing) or "mai tho" (land buying) ceremony. Also according to the ancient concept, the village officials had to represent the villagers, the landlord had to represent the tenant farmers to perform the ceremony and had to invite a shaman to perform the ceremony, offer gifts and plant 5 ta trees (or 5 stones) as the village or land boundary.

The story of Buddha Master Tay An ordering Deputy Manager Tran Van Thanh to plant 5 wooden tokens (moc bai) may have originated from the time Buddha Master led his disciples to reclaim land and establish fields in the That Son region and hold a land-sale ceremony. The five tokens include:

The first card: The Eastern Emperor Thanh Chi Cong Vuong Buddha was planted in Vinh Hanh village (Long Xuyen), the left front boundary of the land. The second card: The Northern Emperor Hac De Hoa Cong Vuong Buddha was planted in Thanh My Tay village (Chau Doc), the right front boundary of the land. The third card: The Western Emperor Bach De Lang Cong Vuong Buddha was planted in Ba Bai, on the bank of Vinh Te canal (Chau Doc), the left back boundary of the land. The fourth card: The Southern Emperor Xich De Buu Cong Vuong Buddha was planted in Giong Cat Tram forest, the right back boundary of the land. The fifth card: The Central Emperor Huynh De, Duong Cong Vuong Buddha was planted in Cam mountain, perhaps this place had a hermitage of Buddha Thay. Currently, on Cam mountain there is still the relic of Ong The cave.

Giang Nha Lang recorded the story of "forgetting" this card on Cam Mountain: "Because of the times, we temporarily disband/Brothers, don't linger here/I still have to take care of my work/Place four cards east, west, south, and north...".

Since then, people have believed that the 5 Buddha cards that Master Tay An ordered Deputy Manager Tran Van Thanh to plant at 5 locations were just cards in the land-buying ceremony, but had the color of Buu Son Ky Huong, not the cards to suppress evil spirits as rumored by the people.

"Mr. The" altar

Photo: Hoang Phuong

Altar of Hero Nguyen Trung Truc at Bong Lai Pagoda

Photo: Hoang Phuong

Relics of old flagpoles and cards

Photo: Hoang Phuong

And the stele

The ancient stone stele is still placed on the altar in the left worship room. The Chinese characters on the stone surface can still be seen on the right. At the entrance, believers hang a painting recalling the old story with four verses: "Mr. Dao Lap, Tu Sung Duc Vo/Followed Buddha Thay to clarify his name/When he arrived at Ton Hon, he took off his shirt/At Bong Lai Temple, the stone piece is still preserved".

Legend has it that in the past, Dao Lap traveled to Giang Thanh area, in the middle of Ton Hon field there was a giant banyan tree. It was rumored that the banyan tree was often haunted by ghosts and demons, so no one dared to go near it. When Dao Lap heard this, he led a number of disciples with machetes and hoes to cut down the banyan tree. After cutting it down, he burned the dry straw and dug up the ground to find a stone tablet. When he washed it, he saw the words "Hoang Thanh Can Long, ngu that nien trong thu coc dan". Dao Lap believed that this was a talisman of Mac Cuu's descendants to suppress evil spirits and because of the talisman, evil spirits were rampant. Now that he had dug it up, the evil spirits would disappear.

Another theory is that the stele is a Chinese talisman to suppress the dragon veins of the Mekong Delta. Around 1850, while visiting Thuy Dai Son with his disciples, Buddha Master Tay An discovered a hidden stone stele buried under an old tree, almost completely covered by silt. Through the writing on the stele, Buddha Master said that it was a type of "Cao Bien Tran Phu Bia" used to suppress spiritual energy.

Until now, the stories about the "Cao Bien town talisman stele" full of mysterious and illusory colors are still circulating. Some believers say that after digging up the stele, Mr. Dao Lap said that this was a Chinese curse stele, so he had it carried back, erased part of the words, and buried it next to Bong Lai pagoda so that the villagers could be at peace. But according to Mr. Truong Ngoc Tuong, this is also a land boundary stele planted by Mac Cuu's descendants. Based on the inscription on the stele, it is recorded as the year "Can Long ngu that nien", which is in 1792, the time when the Mac family in Ha Tien had declined, who was still cursed and who was cursed?! ( continued )

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/that-son-huyen-bi-the-bai-va-bia-tran-yem-o-chua-bong-lai-185251003192050776.htm