Kim Lien Pagoda – (Golden Lotus – Chua Kim Lien). On the Easten bank of West Lake (Quang An village, Tu Liem district, Hanoi). Originally, it was the Royal Palace of Dam Dam (Thuy Hoa) under the Ly dynasty (Xlth century). Vestiges: stone steles of Thai Hoa reign (1443 – 1455), rudimentary gross bricks called gach vo (XVth – XVIth centuries), stone steles of Duong Hod reign (early XVIIth century).
The pagoda was repaired under the Lords Trinh Giang and Trinh Sam. From that time remain statues Tam The: (three Buddhas, the past, the present and the future) and the statue of Trinh Sam (larger than life). Substantial repairs were made under Quang Trung (1792). The portico of three entries is equipped with beams and joists engraved with tigers, lotus and dragons. The art here reflects a mixture of Buddhist conceptions (statues, crosses) and of Confucian conceptions (three statues incarnating the sky, the land and man, crosses surrounded by Eight trigrammes). On the architectural plane, this pagoda has been among the first to adopt a composition according to the Chinese character Tam (three parallel lines). The small statues of Kim Cuong (80cm) have the beauty of statuary from Tay Phuong pagoda. The statues of A Di Da (Amitabha) and Quan Am with a thousand arms and eyes are typical of the Quang Trung era (XVIIIth century).
