Phat Diem och Hoa Lu

Efter tre veckor av intensiva diskussioner och presentationer kring och om årets fråga "What is Equality?, på Vietnam University of Fine Arts, Ha Noi, var det dags för en heldagsutflykt till Phat Diem och Hoa Lu tillsammans med deltagarna.

Tre timmar i buss. Söderut längs A1.

Om Phat Diem:

Phat Diem Cathedral is 130 kilometers South of Hanoi. A priest named Tran Luc built it between 1875 and 1899.


The Phat Diem Cathedral site encloses many Chapels built in oriental style. A lake leads to a kind of atrium called Phuong Dinh
and to the Catherdral itself. The Catedral is surrounded by four Chapels, three artificial grottos and a stone Shrine.


On a tiny islet in the middle of the retangular lake recigns a tall white statue of Christ the King. 

Phuong Dinh is an imposing stone structure 24 metres long, 17 metres wide and 25 metres high. Stone low relief are to be seen
inside as well as outside. On it its top are hanging a big drum and a big bell weighing about two tons. It was cast a hundred
years ago.
The Cathedral is 74 metres long and 21 metres wide. It has four roofs resting on six ranks of wood pillars. The two middle ranks have 16 pillars each eleven metres high, 2.35m in circumference. Each of them is the trunk of a single tree. The high altar was cut in a single block of stone (3 metres long, 90 centimetres large and 80 centimetres high) and carved on its three sides. The back of the high altar is made of chiselled wocdworks lacquered and gilt.
On both sides of the Cathedral four Chapels mount the guard of honour. Each one has a
different style. At the far end rise three stone grottos, the most beautiful of them is that of
 Our Lady of Lourdes. Finally, on the North-West corner of the site rises the jewel of the
whole complex: it is popularly called the Stone Chapel because all its carts are made of
stone: walls, columns, beams, windows and towers.


Phat Diem Cathedral through the ups and downs of a hundred years of its existence has
 always been welcoming worshippers and visitors from the world all over.


På vägen hem stannade vi en den gamla huvudstaden Hoa Lu (Vietnams huvudstad mellan 968-980). Ett tempelområde omgivet av kalkstensberg.

Vacker dag!

Christofer

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