Thien Hau Temple, Chinese Buddhist temple in Cholon, Vietnam.
Thien Hau Temple is a Buddhist temple in Cholon, a historic Chinese quarter of Ho Chi Minh City, dedicated to Mazu. The walls and roofs display ceramic scenes with figures from 19th-century life, including actors, animals, and traders from different lands.
Cantonese merchants founded the temple in 1760 as a place of worship and prayer for safe crossings. Renovations took place in the early and late 1800s and again in the early 1900s, as the community grew and added new elements.
The temple bears the name Thiên Hậu, a Vietnamese rendering of Tianhou, a Chinese sea goddess honored by craftsmen and merchants. Worshippers light incense sticks before the shrines and place fruit or flowers, while the interior fills with the slow-burning spirals that hang from the ceiling.
The building opens daily in the morning and closes in the early evening, allowing visitors to view the ceramics and religious objects at a calm pace. Shoes should be removed at the entrance, and visitors move quietly through the rooms to respect those who come to pray.
A bronze bell from 1830 hangs in the courtyard and was once rung to call worshippers to prayer times. Spirals of dried sandalwood burn for weeks above the heads of visitors and fill the air with a resinous scent.
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