Vénh Nghiêm Pagoda (; literally Ever Solemn) is a pagoda in an area of at 339, Nam Kỳ Khá»Âi Nghéa street, Ward 7, District 3 Ho Chi Minh City. This is the first pagoda in Vietnam to be built in Vietnamese traditional architecture style but with concrete. The highest structure in this pagoda is the 7-story, tower. This pagoda houses and worship of one buddha and two bodhisattvas: Gautama Buddha, Manjusri, Samantabhadra. The Peace Bell was donated by a monk of Entsuji Temple in Fukushima, Japan. The seven-storey tower was built with the assistance of the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Association.
In 1964, two monks, ThÃÂch Tâm Giác and ThÃÂch Thanh Kiá»Âm, who had come to South Vietnam from North Vietnam to spread Buddhism, began the construction of Vénh Nghiêm Pagoda. The model and namesake of the pagoda was the 11th century Vénh Nghiêm Pagoda in ÃÂức La Village, TràYên Commune, Yên Dà ©ng District, Bắc Giang Province, which dates the reign of Lý Thái Tá» during the Lý dynasty. The village was once a major center of Buddhist teaching and the Trúc Lâm sect of Vietnamese Buddhism.