Truc Lam Zen Monastery, Da Lat: Hours, Dress Code, Cable Car

Truc Lam Zen Monastery (Thiền viện Trúc Lâm, also called Truc Lam Phuong Hoang after the hill it stands on) is a working Buddhist monastery on Phoenix Hill above Tuyen Lam Lake, about 6 km by road south of central Da Lat. Entry is free. Visitors can walk the outer area, with the main hall, the bell tower, the gardens and a small pond, but the monks’ and nuns’ quarters are closed to the public. Most people arrive on the Da Lat cable car from Robin Hill: a 2,267 m ride of about 12 minutes, at 150,000 VND return for an adult.

Is Truc Lam Zen Monastery free, and when is it open?

Yes, there is no ticket for the monastery itself. The only things you pay for are getting there: the cable car, a taxi or motorbike parking.

Opening hours are less clear. The monastery has no website and publishes no timetable, and the provincial tourism portal has no page on it. Travel guides disagree: some say 5 am to 9 pm, others 5 am to 6 pm, 7 am to 5 pm or 7 am to 5:30 pm. The window from 7 am to 5 pm falls inside every one of those ranges, so plan your visit for then. If you are coming by cable car, the timetable that matters is the cable car’s: it takes passengers from 7:30 am to 4:45 pm, according to the operator.

What should I wear to Truc Lam Monastery?

Cover your shoulders and knees. Travel guides agree on modest clothes and say to leave shorts, short skirts and sleeveless tops for another day. In visitors’ videos, a loudspeaker message and signs near the main hall ask visitors to check that their clothing is modest and respectful.

At the main hall, take your shoes off. Visitors’ videos show signs asking people to leave their shoes outside before stepping in. Travel guides say photos and filming are not allowed in some areas, and one visitor’s video shows a no-filming sign at the main hall, so take your pictures from the courtyard.

Which parts of the monastery can visitors enter?

Only the outer area. The monastery is divided into four zones: the outer area (ngoại viện) that receives visitors, the abbot’s hermitage, the monks’ inner area and the nuns’ inner area. Thanh Nien and the Buddhist newspaper Giac Ngo both say the inner areas are closed to visitors, so that those training there can practise in silence. In visitors’ videos, guides and vloggers stop at the gates to the inner areas, where signs ask people not to go further; the one in the photo below is in Vietnamese and English.

There is still plenty to see. According to Giac Ngo, the main hall covers about 192 m² and holds a Shakyamuni Buddha statue about 2 m tall, with the bodhisattvas Manjushri and Samantabhadra on either side. Around it you will find the bell tower, a relic stupa and the Tinh Tam pond, a small pond with fish inside the grounds. What vloggers talk about most, though, is the gardens: 31 of the 43 YouTube channels we checked mention the flowers, mostly hydrangeas, roses and everlasting flowers in beds across the outer area.

Who founded Truc Lam Zen Monastery, and when?

The Most Venerable Thich Thanh Tu founded it. He is the monk who revived the Truc Lam school of Zen, which King Tran Nhan Tong (1258–1308) started at the end of the 13th century. According to Thanh Nien and Giac Ngo, in 1987, while he was resting in Da Lat, he dreamt that he was holding on to the neck of a phoenix as it flew up into the sky. He then went looking for a quiet place in the area for monks and nuns to practise, and the architect Tran Duc Loc suggested the summit known as Phung Hoang, Phoenix Hill.

Building started in 1993 and the monastery was inaugurated in 1994. Sources give different days for the inauguration, apparently because some use the lunar calendar, so we give only the years. Thanh Nien says the first sketch involved the architect Ngo Viet Thu, who designed the Independence Palace in Saigon, and that the curved roofs are the work of Vu Xuan Hung. The site covers about 24 ha, but only about 2 ha of it is built on; the rest is pine forest and gardens.

Searching for “Southern Truc Lam Zen Monastery”? That is a different place. Truc Lam Phuong Nam, the “southern” Truc Lam, is in Can Tho in the Mekong Delta and opened in 2014, according to Tuoi Tre. Several monasteries in Vietnam carry the Truc Lam name; this guide is about the one in Da Lat.

How much is the Da Lat cable car to Truc Lam?

An adult return ticket is 150,000 VND and a child’s return is 120,000 VND. The operator, Lam Dong Tourism JSC (Dalattourist), lists these two prices on its website, and VOV reported the same return fares, plus 120,000 VND for an adult one-way ticket. Many travel sites still quote 80,000 or 100,000 VND. Those are older prices, so budget for the higher ones.

The line starts at the Robin Hill station at the end of Dong Da street, off 3 Thang 4 street, about 3.4 km by road from Da Lat Market. It runs 2,267 m over the pine forest to a station beside the monastery and was built by the Austrian company Doppelmayr. The ride takes about 12 minutes each way. In visitors’ videos the cabins hold up to four people, and the views most people film are the pines below and Tuyen Lam Lake opening up ahead. The same videos show a ticket hall, souvenir and snack stalls and parking at the Robin Hill station.

Watch the clock around midday. Travel guides say the cable car pauses from about 11:30 am to 1 pm, at least on weekdays. It can also stop in heavy rain or strong wind. If you buy a return ticket in the morning, ask at the counter when the last car back leaves before lunch, or buy one way and come back by taxi.

How to get to Truc Lam Zen Monastery by road

From Da Lat Market it is about 6 km by road, 15–20 minutes by car, and about 7 km from Xuan Huong Lake. The road leaves town towards the Prenn pass and turns off on the Truc Lam Yen Tu road towards Tuyen Lam Lake, ending at the car park below the monastery. By road, the monastery is about 5 km from the Robin Hill station, more than twice the length of the cable car line.

Datanla Falls is only about 2.6 km away by road. It is easy to fit both into one morning by taxi or Grab; for other ideas nearby, see our list of Da Lat attractions.

Can you walk down to Tuyen Lam Lake and take a boat?

Yes, there is a way down, but check the boats on the day. Vietravel says you can walk down the steps from the monastery to the boat landing, and vloggers film the stone steps through the pines down to the shore of Tuyen Lam Lake. Thanh Nien describes the ceremonial approach to the monastery running the same way, from the boat landing up through three gates to the courtyard of the main hall.

Boats are charged per boat, not per person. Vietravel puts a boat trip on the lake at about 400,000 VND for 1–2 people up to 800,000 VND for 9–11, and a price board filmed at the landing below the monastery in June 2026 starts and ends at the same figures. Vietravel adds that the price depends on the boat and the route. Videos disagree on whether this landing is running, though. Some vloggers between 2023 and 2026 found it deserted or said it had stopped, while two in mid-2026 walked down, and one of them filmed the price board. If a boat ride matters to you, ask before you walk down, and agree the total price before you board.

When is the best time to visit?

Go in the morning. In visitors’ videos the mornings are cool and often quieter, and on some days the place is nearly empty. Vietravel suggests the first cable cars, from 7:30 am, when mist still hangs over the pine forest. Going early also keeps you clear of the cable car’s lunch break. Crowds are hard to predict: some vloggers found a crowded ticket hall at Robin Hill and a full main hall, while others had the place nearly to themselves. A plan Vietravel suggests: ride the cable car down to the monastery in the morning, walk the gardens, then go down to the lake or take a taxi back.

If you would rather not sort out the transport, our Da Lat city day tour picks you up at your hotel at 8:30 am. After the Bao Dai Summer Palace, it offers the cable car down to Tuyen Lam Lake and Truc Lam Zen Monastery as an option, then continues to Datanla Falls, with the Valley of Love, Van Hanh Pagoda and Da Lat Cathedral in the afternoon.

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Sources: Thanh Nien on the monastery’s origin, layout and closed inner areas (March 2026); Giac Ngo, newspaper of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (March 2026); phatgiao.org.vn, portal of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha; Dalattourist, the cable car operator (prices and hours); VOV on the cable car and its fares (August 2024); Tuoi Tre on Truc Lam Phuong Nam in Can Tho (2024); ride time, midday break and lake boat prices from Vietravel on the monastery and on Tuyen Lam Lake; dress code and opening hours from travel guides including vexere and namthientravel; distances measured on OpenStreetMap; visitor observations from 43 YouTube channels (2017–2026), used only where three or more channels agree, except the boat price board, which is used only where it matches Vietravel. Banner photo: Nguyên Đoàn / Pexels, cropped.