Wat
Chùa Bốn Mặt
វត្តព្រះបួនព្រះភ័ក្រ្ត
Chùa Bốn Mặt (Chùa Prés Buône Prés Phék) is a Khmer Theravada Buddhist Wat in Thuận Hòa commune, Cần Thơ, Vietnam.[1]
History
By tradition, Khmer settlers clearing land in the early 16th century found a stone image with four faces turned to the four directions, and in 1537 they built a Wat to house it. It began as a small building of bamboo, earth, stone and wood and has been rebuilt three times.[1][2] In 2017 the province of Sóc Trăng listed it as a provincial relic.[3][1] In 2020 local Khmer residents digging nearby found an image of Vishnu several hundred years old, now kept in the Wat's sala.[2]
The grounds cover 6.5 ha (16 acres), with the main hall, the Mách Cha Ling pond and its tower, a sala, a crematorium, monks' quarters and stupas for the ashes of the dead. The main hall, of about 225 m² (2,420 sq ft), has a three-tiered roof crowned by a four-faced Maha Prum (Brahma) figure, and the four-faced stone image is still kept inside.[1][3]
Religious life
The Wat is a gathering place for the area's five-tone (ngũ âm) ensembles, traditional dance groups and its own club, and holds cultural activities each month on the full-moon day.[3] On October 27, 2025, commune leaders visited its ngo crew as it trained for the Ok Om Bok festival, met the rowers and monks, and gave the crew 20 million đồng.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 VietNamNet, Ngôi chùa miền Tây có 'bảo vật' gần 500 năm tuổi gắn với truyền thuyết lập làng (November 30, 2025)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Báo Cần Thơ (Khmer edition), វត្តព្រះបួនព្រះភ័ក្រ្តនិងតម្លៃប្រវត្តិសាស្រ្ត វប្បធម៌នៅតំបន់ដីកំពង់ធំ (January 23, 2026)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Phật học, Chùa Bốn Mặt: Phật giáo Khmer trong nhịp sống Sóc Trăng (undated)
- ↑ Báo Cần Thơ, Thăm hỏi, động viên và hỗ trợ các đội ghe Ngo xã Thuận Hòa (October 27, 2025)