1.300.000 ₫
Title: Amitābha Buddha Statue from Khải Tường Pagoda
Location: Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History, Vietnam
Photography: Trần Hiếu Anh Nguyên
Date: June 2026
Dimensions: 52 × 72 cm
Format: Photographic print, framed with glass
Frame: Pinewood
Item Code: THAN-PORTRAIT-01
The photograph captures a close view of the Amitābha Buddha statue from Khải Tường Pagoda, now preserved at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History. Emerging gradually from the darkness, the Buddha’s face is revealed through subtle highlights across the forehead, eyes, and features, while much of the body almost disappears into the black background. The close-up composition brings attention to the wooden surface, the time-worn gilded finish, and the quiet presence of the statue.
Khải Tường was once an important pagoda in the Gia Định region and was associated with the birthplace of Emperor Minh Mạng in 1791. After ascending the throne, the emperor ordered the pagoda to be rebuilt, bestowed upon it the name Quốc Ân Khải Tường Tự, and sent a Buddha statue from Huế to be enshrined there. The statue was carved from jackfruit wood, lacquered and gilded, stands approximately 1.96 metres high, and depicts Amitābha Buddha seated in the lotus position.
The history of the statue later became closely intertwined with the upheavals of Saigon–Gia Định during the nineteenth century. Following the French occupation of Gia Định, the pagoda was used as a military post and was eventually dismantled. The statue was moved through several locations before being transferred in 1929 to the Musée Blanchard de la Brosse, the predecessor of today’s Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History, where it continues to be preserved.
Although Khải Tường Pagoda no longer exists, the statue remains as an important witness to the religious life, sculptural traditions, and urban history of Gia Định–Saigon. In this photograph, that history is distilled into a restrained composition: the Buddha’s face emerging from darkness, with traces of time still visible across its surface.
