Why in Sai Gon is there another one pillar pagoda similar to the one in Hanoi?

It is said that, in 1049, King Ly Thai Tong dreamed of Avalokitesvara (Quan Am) sitting on a lotus flower. When he awoke, he decided to build a small pagoda on a stone pillar. The pagoda is cube-shaped and covered with a curved roof. Each of its sides is three meters long. Wooden rafters joined by mortise and tenon support the pagoda atop the pillar so that it looks like a large lotus flower in a square pond.



Many people consider this one-pillar pagoda the symbol of Hanoi because of its unique architecture. French soldiers and French-backed indigenous troops dynamited the One-Pillar Pagoda late on the night of 10 September 1954, only a month before the defeated French pulled out of Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh and the returning Viet Minh had the pagoda rebuilt according to its original design. The construction was completed in April 1955. Around this time, in keeping with the Geneva Accords, Viet Nam was partitioned into North and South. The Northerners and Southerners could not travel freely between the two regions. Buddhist monk Thich Tri Dung wanted Southerners to be able to see the beauty of the nation's One-Pillar Pagoda. He invited architect Nguyen Gia Duc to design a pagoda after the original in Hanoi.



On 8 April 1958, construction began on a one hectare lot on Nguyen Du Street in Sai Gon's Thu Duc District. Many difficulties during construction kept the pagoda from completion until 1977, when it was named the One-Pillar Pagoda under the Southern Sky. While the pagoda in Sai Gon shares the same architecture as the one in Hanoi, its beams and rafters are made from reinforced concrete instead of wood. A statue of Avalokitesvara, artistically sculptured out of jack wood, stands in the center of the pagoda, which contains statues of other Buddha’s as well as altars, balustrades, and relief’s. In spite of its modern construction, the One-Pi liar Pagoda under the Southern Sky has become an important attraction for local and foreign tourists visiting Ho Chi Minh City. The Window of the World Park in China also has a replica of Ha Noi's One-Pillar Pagoda, as does the Museum of Asia and the Pacific in Warsaw, Poland.