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Going to the pagoda, making offerings to the Buddha at the Tam Bảo (Three Jewels) altar

Also called: Văn khấn ban Tam Bảo, Văn khấn đi chùa, Đi lễ chùa đầu năm

  • Pagodas, communal houses, temples and shrines

Culture and belief A record of custom.

Prayer text for Going to the pagoda, making offerings to the Buddha at the Tam Bảo (Three Jewels) altar6 texts, kept in Vietnamese, with an English summary.

By custom, people going to the pagoda prepare vegetarian offerings, make offerings at the Đức Ông (the Venerable) altar first, then go up to the main hall to make offerings to the Buddha, and afterward to the other altars. The prayer text at the Tam Bảo altar includes a repentance text (Văn khấn lễ Phật) and a prayer for peace and good fortune, with a sớ (petition) offered.

At a glance

When it is held
On the fifteenth day and the first day of the lunar month, on Tết holidays, at the beginning of the year, and when there is an important matter
For whom
Tam Bảo (Three Jewels) at the main hall: Đức Phật Thích Ca (Shakyamuni Buddha), Đức Phật A Di Đà (Amitabha Buddha), Đức Phật Dược Sư (Medicine Buddha), Buddhas of the ten directions, Quán Thế Âm Bồ Tát (Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva), chư Hiền Thánh Tăng (the noble and holy sangha), Hộ pháp (Dharma protectors)
Where
Pagoda

Each family and each region may do it differently.

The offering tray

A large seated Buddha with an illuminated halo; in front, a row of glass cases with small Buddha statues, a Guanyin statue, candles, lotus flowers and gift baskets.
The Buddha altar in the main hall of Quang Minh nunnery, 2022.Photo: Phương Huy, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Five red apples on a floral porcelain plate with a few small banknotes tucked in.
A dish of apples with small banknotes left by worshippers at the One Pillar Pagoda, Hà Nội, 2014.Photo: Daderot, Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)
When
On the fifteenth day and the first day of the lunar month, on Tết holidays, and when there is an important matter
OfferingVegetarian or notNotes
Xôi (steamed sticky rice) and cakes
Incense, fresh flowers, ripe fruit, oản phẩm (rice-flour offerings), xôi chè (steamed sticky rice and sweet soup)VegetarianRequired. Vegetarian offerings; only vegetarian and pure offerings are placed at the main hall
Flowers
Lotus flowers, huệ flowers (tuberose), mẫu đơn flowers (peony), ngâu flowers (Aglaia)Do not use mixed flowers or wild flowers
Meat and savoury dishes
Savory offerings (chicken, giò, chả)Meat or fishOptional. Only placed at the altar of the Thánh, the Mẫu, or the Đức Ông altar if the pagoda has one; not placed at the Buddha hall
Votive paper
Vàng mã (votive paper), tiền âm phủ (hell money)Optional. Not offered at the Buddha and Bodhisattva altars; if there is any, it is placed at the altar of the Thần linh, the Thánh Mẫu, or the Đức Ông altar
Objects
Donation moneyPut into the merit box, not placed on the main altar of the main hall

Steps of the rite

  1. Lighting incensePlace the offerings, light incense, and make offerings at the Đức Ông altar first
  2. Lighting incensePlace the offerings on the main altar of the main hall, light the lamps and incense, strike three rounds of the bell, then make offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
  3. Lighting incenseLight incense at the other altars of the Bái Đường (worship hall), three or five offerings at each altar; if the pagoda has a Mẫu điện or Tứ Phủ, go there to place offerings
  4. Lighting incenseMake offerings at the Tổ (patriarch) shrine (nhà Hậu)
  5. Clearing the offeringsMake a farewell offering, lower the offerings, greet the monks, and donate according to one's heart
  6. Clearing the offeringsWhen lowering the offerings: wait about one incense stick's time, bow three times before each altar, burn the sớ, then lower the offerings from the outer altars to the main altar

Good to know

  • Safety (fire, burning votive paper)Many pagodas do not allow incense inside for safety; visitors burn it at the large censer in front of the pagoda

What is avoided

  • OfferingsDo not prepare savory offerings (tam sinh feast, meat, chicken, giò, chả) to offer to the Buddha
  • OfferingsDo not place real money, hell money, or votive paper on the Buddha and Bodhisattva altars
  • OfferingsOn the full moon of the seventh lunar month, do not prepare hình nhân thế mạng (substitute effigies)
  • ConductBefore the day of offering to the Buddha, one should keep pure: eat vegetarian food, keep the precepts, do good deeds

The custom

Phan Kế Bính (1915) describes village pagodas of the early 20th century: the central bay is for the Buddha and a side bay for Đức Ông (also called Đức Chúa, that is the Earth God); each year at the Đoan dương festival and at New Year villagers brought oản rice cakes and bananas to offer to the Buddha; on full-moon and first days the pagoda offered oản, then gave each lay sister a share of oản and a banana, called lộc Phật (the Buddha's blessing).

Where the sources differ

  • On savory offerings at the outer altars of the main hall: one guide writes that savory offerings are accepted if offered only at the altars of the Thánh, the Mẫu, and the Đức Ông; another advises not to use savory food when going to the pagoda, and if one wants to use it, to buy vegetarian food shaped like chicken, giò, and the offerings to the Thành Hoàng and Thư điền also use vegetarian food.
  • Within one Buddhist guidance article: one passage says simple savoury offerings are usually placed at the Đức Ông altar, a later passage says no savoury offerings at all in the pagoda, not even at the Đức Ông altar

Communities and regions

More about Going to the pagoda, making offerings to the Buddha at the Tam Bảo (Three Jewels) altar

Sources

  • Văn khấn tại chùa (vankhan.vn)
  • Bài khấn đi lễ chùa (hoatieu.vn)
  • Văn khấn khi đi lễ chùa đầu năm chuẩn nhất (phatgiao.org.vn)
  • Việt Nam phong tục, Thiên II, mục VI. Chùa chiền, Phan Kế Bính 1915 (vi.wikisource.org)

Part of the open datasets Types of Vietnamese offering rites and Vietnamese offering procedures, licensed CC BY 4.0.

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