Hanoi has the place where Vietnam's heritage tree list began. In 2010 the first Vietnam Heritage Tree recognition went to nine muom, a wild mango, at Voi Phuc Temple, and only one is reported alive now. By West Lake, Tran Quoc Pagoda keeps a bodhi tree planted in 1959 by India's president, a cutting from Bodh Gaya. Many more recognised heritage trees stand in the villages around the city.
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Bacang Mango (Mangifera foetida) · 700 years · Kim Ma / Thuy Khue, Giang Vo ward, Ba Dinh
Vietnam's first heritage trees were nine at this temple, and within a few years eight of them were dead. On 1 October 2010 the Vietnam Association for Nature and Environment Protection, VACNE, gave its very first Vietnam Heritage Tree recognition to nine muom, a wild mango, at Voi Phuc Temple on Kim Ma street. Eight stood in the courtyard and one across the road. They ranged from 17 to 29 metres tall and from 2.92 to 5.20 metres round.
VACNE put them at about 700 years, the same age as the temple. A former site manager said nearly 1,000. Nobody gave a basis for either, so the safe statement is several centuries.
Then the trees began to go. By February 2014 a Vietnamese paper counted four alive, two felled in 2012 and three dead. By 2021 Tien Phong reported only one old muom left despite treatment, and a 2025 article said the same. The temple planted replacements and has been criticised for the losses. No source says which trunk survived, how big it is, or exactly where it stands, so the pin marks the temple rather than the tree. If you find it, tell us which one it is.
The temple is dedicated to Prince Linh Lang, and its name means the kneeling elephant. Caretakers keep visitors from picking the fruit or breaking branches. It opens daily from 08:00 to 20:00 by its map listing.
Bodhi Tree (Ficus religiosa) · ~70 years · Yen Phu, West Lake
This tree is a thank-you note between two countries. On 24 March 1959 Rajendra Prasad, the President of India, planted it at Tran Quoc Pagoda on the shore of West Lake, VnExpress reported. It was a cutting from the Great Bodhi Tree at Bodh Gaya in India, the tree under which the Buddha is said to have reached enlightenment, and it came as a return gift for a tree Ho Chi Minh had given India. Hanoi calls it the diplomacy tree.
By the standards of this map it is young, about 67 years old, and its age is one of the few here that comes from a recorded planting rather than an estimate. Nobody has published its girth or height. It earns the stop through its story and its setting, not its size.
One practical note. Bodhi cuttings are a tradition here, so the pagoda may hold more than one, and no source says exactly where in the grounds the 1959 tree stands. Look for a plaque, and if you can tell us which trunk it is, please do.
Entry is free. The pagoda opens daily from 08:00 to 16:00, and from 06:00 to 18:00 on the first and fifteenth days of each lunar month. A city bus stops at the gate on Thanh Nien road.