The Complex of Yen Tu Monuments and Landscape
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How it came to be
The Yên Tử range spans Quảng Ninh, Bắc Ninh and Hải Phòng in northern Vietnam, and its highest peak rises to 1,068 metres. The World Heritage property groups 12 sites in forested mountains, lowlands and river valleys centred on the range. In the 13th and 14th centuries it was home to the Trần dynasty and the birthplace of Trúc Lâm, a Zen tradition of Vietnam's own.
Trần Nhân Tông, the third Trần emperor, was born in 1258 and reigned from 1278 to 1293. During his reign Kublai Khan's Yuan armies invaded Đại Việt, and forces under the commander-in-chief Trần Hưng Đạo drove them back in 1285 and again in 1288, ending with the Battle of Bạch Đằng that April.
After passing the throne to his son in 1293, Nhân Tông was ordained a monk in 1295. In 1299 he came to Yên Tử, vowed to follow ascetic practices, founded a monastery and taught disciples, and he died on the mountain in 1308. Its pagodas, temples and shrines remain places of pilgrimage, and the complex was inscribed in 2025.
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