Five famous places on Vietnam’s banknotes
Last update 08:00 | 14/12/2013
VietNamNet Bridge – Have you ever noticed the back of the Vietnamese banknotes and learned about the special places printed on them?Hoi An Bridge Pagoda on the VND20,000 banknoteHoi An - the World Cultural Heritage - with the iconic image of Pagoda Bridge has been known worldwide. The time of construction of the ancient bridge in Hoi An has not been clearly defined. In old documents of Vietnam, the name of the bridge was Nhat Ban Kieu or Japanese Bridge and that name was founding 1617, meaning that the bridge might be built before that year.
According to legend, in the ocean there was a sea monster called Mamazu by the Japanese. Its head was in Japan, in body was in India and its tail stretched through Hoi An. Every time the monster wriggled its body, earthquake occurred in Japan and Hoi An was not peaceful.
To control the Mamazu, Japanese people worshiped Monkey and the Dog deities on the two heads of the bridge. The Chinese also built a small temple adjacent to the bridge to worship Bac De Chan Vo for the purpose of controlling earthquakes.
The bridge is considered as a sword stabbing into the monster’s back, to hinder it from wriggling its tail to cause earthquakes. In 1653, a pagoda was built on the bridge and since then it has been called Chua Cau or Bridge Pagoda.
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