Nhat Tru pagoda is located in Truong Yen commune, Hoa Lu district, Ninh Binh province. In the grounds of the ancient temple, there is a stone Buddhist scripture column with many unique cultural, spiritual and artistic values, the first artifact in Ninh Binh to be recognized as a national treasure.
The pagoda is located in the West, 100m from the temple of King Le Dai Hanh to the North. Nhat Tru pagoda was built during the Early Le dynasty. In 955, King Le Dai Hanh built a stone scripture column expressing his desire to pray for national peace and prosperity, a strong court, and to show the trust and miracle of Buddhism. The column has a height of 4.16m, consisting of 6 stone parts that are assembled together completely without using adhesives, showing the meticulous and scientific calculation of the artisans, and also proves the type of stone calligraphy appeared very early in our country. Not only unique in architectural art, Buddhist scriptures are also unique artifacts of great cultural and historical value. In the body of the column, all eight sides are smoothed, and about 2500 Chinese characters are carved. The content of the inscription on the column body is engraved with the Da La Ni Sutra, Thu Thang Nghiem and the mantras praising the sustainability of the Buddha's virtues, the vastness of the wisdom and talents of the Buddha Tathagata.
Nhat Tru Pagoda is also the place where festival activities imbued with national cultural identity are taken place. With outstanding values preserved over the past 1000 years, the pagoda has been ranked as a national historical and cultural relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information in 1998. Especially in December 2015, the stone pillar of Nhat Tru Pagoda was recognized as a National Treasure by the Prime Minister.