Construction began in 1938, and the temple opened two years later in 1940, on a small hill at 120 Nguyễn Văn Trỗi Street in Da Lat's second ward — roughly 700 meters northwest of the city center. The land was chosen for its elevation: from the hilltop, the temple overlooks its neighborhood with quiet authority. Funding came from the community at large, but two lay Buddhists, Võ Đình Dung and Nguyễn Văn Tiến, made the largest individual contributions. Their names are part of the temple's founding story. This model of community-funded religious construction — neither sponsored by the colonial government nor by a wealthy patron alone — reflects the grassroots character of Vietnamese Buddhist practice in the mid-twentieth century.

Walk through the entrance gates and the temple's symbolic vocabulary announces itself immediately. Rows of pine trees line the approach — highland trees, native to this elevation, which give the grounds a cool, cathedral-like quality. At the front of the courtyard stands a statue of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, seated on a lotus. To the left, an octagonal three-story stupa rises 4 meters. To the right, a pond holds clear water, goldfish, and flowers. The entrance to the main hall requires climbing twelve steps, and two dragon statues flank the staircase — traditional guardians of the dharma, the teachings of the Buddha. At the hall's corners, additional dragon figures stare upward toward the roof's ridgeline. The whole composition is classical in its references and serene in its execution.

In the center of the main hall, a bronze statue of Gautama Buddha sits on a lotus in the traditional meditation posture. The statue weighs 1,250 kilograms and was cast in 1952 — twelve years after the temple opened. Its inauguration was conducted by Thích Tịnh Khiết, the Buddhist Patriarch of Vietnam, a figure of national religious authority. The presence of the Patriarch at the ceremony underlines how seriously the broader Buddhist community regarded this temple, even in its relative youth. The hall itself is simple in layout, and that simplicity seems deliberate: the bronze figure at the center benefits from the space around it, from the light that falls on it without competition from elaborate decoration.

Around twenty monks and approximately six novices currently reside at Linh Sơn, making it a functioning monastic community as well as a pilgrimage destination. The monks tend a variety of tea and coffee plants on the temple grounds — appropriate for Da Lat, a region whose highland agriculture produces both crops. The temple draws visitors throughout the year, though it is particularly popular in the spring, when the climate softens and the plantings around the courtyard are in full growth. The office of the Lâm Đồng Province Buddhist Association is also housed here, bringing an administrative dimension to the spiritual one. In a city that draws visitors partly because of its French colonial architecture and its cool air, Linh Sơn offers something different: continuity with Vietnamese Buddhist practice that predates the tourism industry and will outlast it.