Tam Giao (Three Religions) Temple - Nhi Thanh Grotto, One of the Eight Beauty Spots in Lang Son

Tam Giao (i.e. Three traditional religions, includingwas engraved. This arrangement was affected by
Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism) Temple, alsothe thought of Confucianism "the green dragon on
known as Tam Giao Pagoda together with Nhi Thanhthe left and the white tiger on the right", which is
Grotto is one of the eight beauty spots in Lang Son.correlative to the constellations at the east and west.
According to the documents left, this temple wasAt the opposite of the grotto, Ngo Thi Si let people
established by Ngo Thi Si - the commandercarve his statue onto the stone; this statue later is
administering Lang Son in order to worship all threehighly evaluated as one of the works containing
special ones: Khong Tu (Confucius) of Taoism, Phatprecious value in fine arts at that time. In side this
Thich Ca (Sakyamuni) of Buddhism, and Lao Turelic area, there are 20 epitaphs that have been
(Lao-tzu) of Confucianism.carved directly on the stone left; those epitaphs
In May 1779, Ngo Thi Si hired masons to embellishrecorded many valuable materials and were also the
the grotto area. The left grotto is high and hasautograph books of the contemporary famous
better ground position; hence, Tam Giao Temple wasscholars.
built on this ground. The grotto Nhi Thanh under theAnnually, on the 15th to 17th days of the first Lunar
pagoda is a natural rocky cave with the length ofmonth, the residents living around this region are
more than 500 meters from the front gate to theeager to go on a pilgrimage to this temple to
back gate and a great deal of spectacular naturalcommemorate Ngo Thi Si, a cultural famous person
scenery. To the left of the grotto, a dragon waswho had merits in establishing and developing Lang
carved; above to right side of the grotto, a tigerSon Township.