Hanoi’s Một Cột (One Pillar) Pagoda has earned an honorable place in the Asia Book of Records as one of Asia’s most unique pieces of architecture, the Vietnam Records Book Center (Vietkings) reported. The information was officially released yesterday after the Asia Book of Records completed their work related to the recognition on October 10. The pagoda, located in Hoan Kiem District, was built under the reign of King Ly Thai Tong (1028 – 1054). According to the court records, the king was childless and dreamt that he met the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, who handed him a baby son while seated on a lotus flower. The king then married a peasant girl that he had met and they later had a son. The emperor constructed the temple in gratitude for this in 1049. It was named Dien Huu, which means long-lasting happiness and good luck. As shown in its name, the pagoda was built of wood on a single stone pillar, 1.2 meters in diameter and 4 meters tall. It was designed in the shape of a lotus blossom, a Buddhist symbol of purity, since a lotus blossoms in a muddy pond. The pagoda, with its extraordinary architecture and historical values, was classified as a national historic site in 1962. In May 2006, it was recorded in the Vietnamese Guinness Book as the pagoda with the most unique architecture in the country. Recently, Vietkings filed a dossier with the Asia Book of Records for an Asian recognition of the distinctive architecture of the pagoda.