If your looking for the Pho Minh pgoda near Nam Dinh City, then it s not hard to find. For lording over it is the elegant Pho Minh Tower, a 14-storey high pointer to history and mystery. Around the pagoda are fields heaven-sent for growing rice. Yet the Vietnamese constructors of the time managed to find the exact spot where the tower would reign supreme for centuries.
Nobody has the answer, yet, as to how they did it.
Divine inspiration, say the locals. It was built in the reign of the Ly but became later part of the complex of the Tran Dynasty s history in Tuc Mac Village, an easy 3 kilometres north of Nam Dinh. The Tran Kings fore-fathers were originally fishermen on the Chau river in the area of Nam Dinh. They went ashore and built a hamlet on the right bank called Tuc Mac Hamlet, now Tuc Mac in Loc Vuong commune and an established suburb of the city. He gave a great banquet to village notables, announced the promotion of Tuc Mac Village to Thien Truong District, gave the palace the name of Trung Quang and decided to build Trung Hoa Palace for succeeding kings when they paid their respects to the King Father.