Construction began on 5 August 1956, according to the plans drawn up by the architects Trần Văn Đường and Đỗ Bá Vinh, while the directing engineers were Dư Ngọc Ánh and Hồ Tố Thuận.

[1] A series of raids in response to Vietnamese Buddhists' protests for civil rights in the face of religious persecution from the government of the Roman Catholic President Ngô Đình Diệm.

Squads of Special Forces, led by Lê Quang Tung and combat police flattened the gates and smashed their way into the pagoda at around 00:20 on 21 August 1963, as Xá Lợi's brass gong was clanged as a warning signal of the attack.

The gong of the pagoda was drowned out by the burst of automatic weapons fire, the sound of exploding grenades, shattering glass and human screaming.

Nhu's men vandalized the main altar and managed to confiscate the intact charred heart of Thích Quảng Đức, the monk who had self-immolated in protest against the policies of the regime.

[5] The commander of the III Corps of the ARVN, General Tôn Thất Đính, soon announced military control over Saigon, canceling all commercial flights into the city and instituting press censorship.

Inside the fence is a popular Chinese-style statue of Quan Âm holding a vial of elixir in one hand and making the gesture of removing obstacles with the other.

[citation needed] The walls of the main hall play host to a sequence of large panels depicting fourteen scenes from the life of the Gautama Buddha, from his birth as Prince Siddhartha to his attainment of nirvana.

Arranged sequentially high on the two side walls, the images are reminiscent of the depictions of the life of Jesus or of the Stations of the Cross found in some Christian churches.