Vietnam · VN

Chùa Linh Sơn An Thọ (chùa Hố Dầu) núi Tà Cú

Linh Son An Tho Pagoda—known locally as Chua Ho Dau ("Oil-Pit Pagoda")—sits on the western flank of Ta Cu mountain in Ham Thuan Nam, the same sacred peak near Phan Thiet that draws pilgrims to Vietnam's largest reclining Buddha. Where the main summit temple bustles with tour buses and cable cars, Ho Dau is its quieter, more rural counterpart: a working village temple set against forested granite boulders and mountain streams. According to local accounts, the pagoda began around 1938–39 as a simple shrine in a rock cave beside the Ham Rong stream. During the war against the French the villagers hid its Buddha statues deep in the cave and the old temple was dismantled; it was rebuilt on the original foundation in 1986–87, with a reconstructed tam-quan gateway and folk-devotion landscape features added over the decades. The draw here is atmosphere rather than spectacle: a shaded courtyard of ancient trees and scattered boulders, a triple-gate entrance in classic curved-tile style, a main hall in the three-bay, two-wing layout, and a cluster of founder's stupas—set in the cooler, mist-veined hillside where Ta Cu's footpaths, herbal springs and the broader Linh Son Truong Tho heritage complex all lie within a short climb or ride.