Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen Monastery

Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen Monastery is a large Buddhist monastery in My Khanh Commune, Phong Dien District, Can Tho City, about 12 km from central Can Tho. Built between 2013 and 2014 and inaugurated in May 2014, it is the largest Zen monastery in the Mekong Delta. Designed in Ly-Tran dynasty architectural style, it covers about 38,000 sqm and serves as a center for Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen Buddhism and cultural tourism.

Visitors can expect a spacious, tranquil monastery complex set among gardens and ponds in a rural area near My Khanh Tourist Village. The complex includes a main hall (Chanh Dien), bell tower, drum tower, patriarch hall, arhat statues, courtyards, and landscaped grounds with bonsai and lotus ponds. Interiors feature wooden architecture, Buddha statues, and calligraphy. Visitors can walk through halls, courtyards and gardens, observe prayer activities, and photograph traditional Vietnamese Buddhist architecture.

Construction started on 16 July 2013 on land donated and supported by local authorities and Buddhist followers. The monastery was inaugurated on 17 May 2014. It was built to become the largest monastery of the Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen sect in the Mekong Delta and to revive Ly-Tran dynasty Buddhist architectural traditions in southern Vietnam.

An important center of Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen Buddhism, a Vietnamese Zen tradition founded by King Tran Nhan Tong. The monastery serves as a place of worship, meditation, Buddhist study and cultural preservation, and is a significant religious and cultural attraction for pilgrims and visitors in the Mekong Delta.