Thien Mu Pagoda

Hue's most beloved pagoda, its seven-storey Phuoc Duyen tower rising over a bend of the Perfume River since the 19th century on a site founded in 1601.

Thien Mu, the Pagoda of the Celestial Lady, was founded in 1601 by Lord Nguyen Hoang on Ha Khe hill and has been the spiritual symbol of Hue ever since. The octagonal Phuoc Duyen tower, 21 metres and seven storeys high, was added in 1844 and greets every boat coming upriver. Behind it, a pavilion shelters a great bell cast in 1710, whose sound is said to carry ten kilometres, and a stele on a marble tortoise records the pagoda's history. The main hall and the quiet courtyards beyond hold bonsai gardens, monks' quarters and the blue Austin car in which the monk Thich Quang Duc drove to Saigon in 1963 before his self-immolation, a photograph seen around the world. Dress modestly and keep voices low; this is an active monastery. The classic approach is by dragon boat from the city centre in late afternoon, when the light on the river is at its softest.