Wat
Chùa Chantarangsay
Chùa Chantarangsay (Chùa Candaransi) is a Khmer Theravada Buddhist Wat on the Nhiêu Lộc canal in Xuân Hòa ward, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.[1][2] Its name means "moonlight" in Khmer.[1][2]
History
In 1946, Venerable Lâm Em was looking for land to build the first Khmer Wat in Saigon and Gia Định. He stopped at a muddy bank of the Nhiêu Lộc canal.[1] There he and a group of Khmer Buddhists living in Saigon founded the Wat that year, at first as a simple building on the mudbank.[2] As of 2022, the Wat had been restored seven times.[2] When Chùa Pothiwong held its consecration ceremony on February 21, 2018, it officially became the second Khmer Wat in the city.[2]
As of 2022, the abbot was Hòa thượng (Most Venerable) Danh Lung, a member of the Executive Council of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha and deputy head of its Office 2.[2]
Architecture
The Wat covers about 4,500 m² (48,000 sq ft).[1] Two lion statues, each 2 m (6.6 ft) tall, stand before the concrete gate, which is carved and painted yellow; figures of kây-no (celestial beings who stand for beauty and strength) crown its pillars. Beyond the gate stands the two-story main hall, its walls and ceiling covered in paintings of the Buddha and Buddhist teaching.[2] The hall faces due east, the direction of the sunrise and of the Buddha's enlightenment on the full moon of Vesak. It stands on a raised base, higher than the other buildings, that represents Mount Meru, the sacred mountain of Hindu cosmology. A carved relief inside tells the story of the five Buddhas of the present age: four have already appeared, and the fifth, Maitreya, is yet to come. Three spires in the Khmer style of southern Vietnam rise from its roof.[1]
To the left of the main hall is the two-story sala, the monks' hall, with a ceremonial hall on the ground floor and a preaching hall above. It holds an altar to the Buddha and to the Wat's late abbots.[2]
Community
The Wat is a center of religious and cultural life for the Khmer community of Ho Chi Minh City.[1] As of 2022, many Khmer residents lived near it along the Nhiêu Lộc and Thị Nghè canals, and the Wat held traditional Khmer cultural and religious events each year, along with classes in written Khmer and in Buddhist ethics.[2]