Chùa Dâu, thirty miles northeast of Hanoi, in Bắc Ninh province, is the oldest monastery and pagoda in Vietnam. Built between 187-226 in what was then Luy Lâu, the ancient capital of the Chinese ruled Jiaozhi Commandery. Because of it prominent role in the sea trade between India and China, Luy Lâu was a cosmopolitan city and the area became a regional hub for the study and teaching of Mahayana Buddhism.
For Thich Nhat Hanh, Chùa Dâu was an important place because Master Tang Hoi, who died in 280, studied and taught there. In 2007, during his second trip home after his exile from Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh, explained:
The meditation that I share in the West has its roots in Vietnam of the third century. We had a very famous Zen master, Master Tang Hoi, whose father was a soldier from India and his mother a young Vietnamese woman. When his parents passed away, the child Tang Hoi went to a temple in northern Vietnam to become a monastic. He translated commentaries on the sutras in that temple in Vietnam, then went to China where he became the first Zen master teaching meditation in China — three hundred years before Bodhidharma. I wrote a book about Zen Master Tang Hoi, and I said that Vietnamese Buddhists should worship this Zen master as our first Zen master of Vietnam. (From the Mindfulness Bell, August 2007.)
Knowing the significance of this temple to Thay, the visit to the temple unfolded in a surprising way.
The temple seemed a little deserted and though there were statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, there were more statues of local deities, Chinese mandarins, and guardian spirits. Our local guide and our tour guide from Hanoi had a lot they wanted to say about the temple and the statues, but none of it mentioned Master Tang Hoi and the temple’s important in Vietnamese Zen history.
I was particularly intrigued by the large yellow-robbed wooden statue of a woman towering over the Buddha in the central altar. When I asked who she was, we received convoluted explanations from the guides that she was a locally important spirit. They key elements of their story were that there had been a young woman who became pregnant when a monk walked in front of her. Years later, when her daughter was a child, the monk tapped a tree and the girl merged with it. Centuries after that, the tree fell into the river and an enlightened Chinese mandarin commanded that the tree be pulled from the river and this goddess statue be made.
After some minutes, when we away from the guides, Sr. Dinh Nghiem provided a larger context for the temple and the statue story. Vietnamese Buddhism continues to coexist with many folk beliefs and practices involving local deities, mother goddesses, ancestral gods, shamans, and animal spirits. In some temples they play a much more prominent role than in others.
Temple Guardians 
Guardian spirits 
Next to main altar 
Main altar at Chùa Dâu Pagoda with yellow robed goddess in background
Chùa Bút Tháp, a temple complex located less than three miles from Chùa Dâu, had a very different energy. It was austere and peaceful. Built during the 13th century, Zen Master Huyen Quang, the Third Patriarch of the Bamboo Forest School, was one the temple’s early abbots. The temple is also well known because of the teachings of the abbot and Zen master Chuyết Chuyết (1590 – 1644), under whose leadership the temple was revitalized and many statues considered to be masterpieces of Vietnamese wood carving were installed.
Smile of the Dandelion 
Thank you!
As there were numerous chua (temples) along the way, I found it particularly difficult recalling names and places. Thanks, Mitchell, for reminding me of which temple was where and what significance it had to our lineage. 🙏