Dich Long (means the whistle) is a landscape of Ninh Binh. King Minh Mang had gifted to this cave five words “The third most beautiful cave” of the Viet country, it ranks the third after Huong Tich cave, and Bich Dong cave.
The most impressive thing is the complex of pagoda and cave of Dich Long, which is under a high mountain with the Day River in front. From the distance, visitors would feel the wild and mystery of this land.
Wandering around the pagoda of Dich Long, I thought I was in the mysterious land of the Buddha. Firstly, there is an ancient tower garden with the green of trees and fragrant smell of flowers; next is the Ha pagoda, which is next to the impressive forecourt leaning on the mountain foot like the dragon guarding that pagoda.
Stepping on the moss covered stone cases, looking down the curling roofs like waves, there are five-room-mutual house, which is called Stone house with the patterns and pillars made from stone.
The house has 16 stone pillars, which is made from original round marble of 4m high and carved with dragon around the cloud. All these 16 pillars are placed on the stones of 0.6m high. Those sophisticated carving shows the skillfulness and talent of the craft men of ancient Hoa Lu imperial city.
From Ha Pagoda to Duc Ong temple, visitors could cross 105 steps more to come to the entrance of the cave. There are two colossal statues of Ho Phap guarding the cave, and there is altar of marble to worship Buddha. The ceiling of the cave is hanged a bell of nearly one-ton weight made since Nguyen dynasty.
Under the construction of the vestige manager, we came along the bright cave and dark cave. Coming in the bright cave, many visitors would have chance to witness the statues of Buddha, kneeling elephant, guarding horse, etc made from stalactites. In the “heaven gate” of 50m long, we could hear the wind whistling like the sound of whistle.
The dark cave is longer and wider than the bright cave, and it is separated into three parts. There are many shapes of stalactites and especially their colors are changed according to the light, which created the feeling of untrue. When we tap on the cave cliff, we could hear the sound of pleasant bell and flocks.
In those bright and dark pictures, I tried to close my eyes and listen to the sound of wind, the sound of the bat and all the tiredness just gone which left the pure mind.
Leaving Dich Long, the visitors were regret and tenterhooks. We regretted for not discovering the entire road underneath the cave, which is said to be the way to “hell” and the way to “heaven”. We also were on tenterhooks because we wondered why such a great landscape like Dich Long has not been invested to match its potential.
