Thien Mu pagoda, and the car in the courtyard

Thien Mu pagoda is the oldest in Hue, 5 km upriver from the citadel, and it is free. The seven-storey tower is what people photograph; the blue Austin parked behind it is what they remember.

What is Thien Mu pagoda?

Thien Mu pagoda is a working Buddhist monastery founded in 1601 on a rise above the Perfume river, and the oldest pagoda in Hue. Its seven-storey octagonal tower, Phuoc Duyen, was added in 1844 and each storey holds a Buddha statue.

Behind the tower the complex opens into courtyards, a main hall, a bonsai garden and the monks' quarters, most of which visitors can walk through quietly.

The pagoda is 5 km upriver from the city and appears on almost every Hue itinerary, usually as a stop on a river boat.

What is the car behind the pagoda?

A pale blue Austin Westminster stands in a shed at the back of the complex. It carried the monk Thich Quang Duc to Saigon in June 1963, where he burned himself to death at a road junction in protest at the treatment of Buddhists by the southern government.

The photograph of that act travelled the world and changed the politics of the war. The car has been kept here ever since, with a copy of the photograph beside it.

The car is presented plainly, with no ceremony, which is what makes the shed the most affecting corner of the site — the war sites guide covers how the same period is told elsewhere.

What does Thien Mu cost to enter?

Thien Mu pagoda is free, like almost every working pagoda in Vietnam. There is no ticket booth and no charge for the tower, the halls or the gardens.

A donation box sits near the main altar and nobody watches whether you use it.

Free entry makes Thien Mu the cheapest hour in Hue, and a useful contrast with the Imperial City at 200,000 dong across the river.

How do you get there?

Three ways: by road, by bicycle or by boat. A Grab or taxi from the Hue hotels takes about fifteen minutes and costs 60,000 to 100,000 dong each way.

The dragon boats that run up the Perfume river stop here as their first call, usually on a half-day trip that continues to one or two royal tombs. The Hue things to do page covers what that boat trip is and is not.

Cycling takes half an hour on a flat riverside road and is pleasant early, before the heat.

What hour suits the pagoda?

Early morning or late afternoon. The complex opens onto the river and faces west, so the light is best at the end of the day and the heat is worst in the middle of it.

Monks chant in the main hall in the early morning and again at about four in the afternoon, which is worth timing for and worth standing quietly at the back for.

Coach groups arrive mid-morning with the river boats, and the site is small enough that thirty people change its character.

What should you wear at a working monastery?

Cover shoulders and knees. Thien Mu is an active monastery rather than a museum, the dress code is applied at the halls rather than at the gate, and a scarf in a bag solves it.

Shoes come off at the threshold of the main hall and stay on in the courtyards.

Photographing the buildings is fine and photographing monks at prayer is not, which the etiquette guide covers along with the rest.

Is Thien Mu worth the trip?

Thien Mu pagoda is worth an hour, and the hour is better if it includes the shed at the back. The tower is the postcard; the Austin is the history.

Pair it with a tomb rather than with the citadel, because both sit upriver and the boat covers them in one half day. The two days in Hue route puts them together.