Banyan of the Yem Thuy Dao stele shrine, Cam Pho
Cam Pho, Hoi An old town
Approximate location.
There is a shrine inside this banyan, and the tree has been trying to swallow it. A small brick shrine sits in the trunk, and in it stands a sandstone stele carved with a charm against water. The inscription invokes Bac De, the Emperor of the North, and closes with the words yem thuy dao. Some people in Hoi An connect it with the old town's Japanese Bridge. Nobody knows who planted the tree or when. The stele was only exposed when the roots were trimmed around 1991, and according to the Hoi An Heritage Centre those roots still threaten the shrine. The centre puts the tree at about 15 metres tall, branching 4 metres up. It gives the trunk as 3.6 metres at chest height and 6.1 metres at the ground including the creeping roots, though like the figure for the Da Ken banyan nearby, a 3.6 metre diameter would be implausible, so it is probably a circumference. The shrine itself is a registered relic, and the tree stands on the public pavement of Phan Chau Trinh street, about 40 metres north of the Cam Pho communal house in the old town, free to see at any time. Its age is undocumented. If you know anything about when it was planted, or who set the stele here, tell us.
From people who stood here
No notes yet
Did you visit the tree? Leave a note for the next visitor.
Getting there
Phan Chau Trinh street, about 40 m north of Cam Pho communal house, Hoi An
You can recognise it by the small brick shrine set into its trunk, holding a sandstone stele. It stands on the Phan Chau Trinh pavement, about 40 metres north of the Cam Pho communal house.
Free: beside the Phan Chau Trinh pavement; the shrine inside the tree is a registered relic (not entered).
In Hoi An old town, walkable.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.