Duong Lam Village Day Trip – Road To Hanoi’s Oldest Village

May 29, 2019 GoAsiaDayTrip 0 Comments

In the last article, we have introduced to you a Hanoi handicraft village tour to discover lotus silk from Vietnam. In this article, we’ll learn about another special village in Hanoi – Duong Lam Ancient Village – known as the homeland of two Vietnam’s Kings to diverse your experience in your Hanoi One Day Tour or Hanoi Day Tour.

Duong Lam Ancient Village belong to Son Tay District in the west of Hanoi, about 40 km from Hanoi City center. Duong Lam is widely well-known as the homeland of two Vietnam’s Kings including King Ngo Quyen and King Phung Hung. Duong Lam Village can still preserve the authentic features of a typical village in the northern part of Vietnam characterized with banyan trees, wells and communal yards and more importantly  956 traditional houses with the oldest houses dating back to 17th century. In 2006, Duong Lam became the very first ancient village in Vietnam which was honored as the National Historical Relic.

This is the only ancient gate left to these days in Duong Lam. The village gate was built from the time of the later Le dynasty, with a different architectural style compared to the traditional village gate, like a house with two sloping roofs, a roof support column and a roof top in the “upper house” style (above home, below is the gate). Mong Phu Gate with banyan tree, water wharf, lotus pond creates a typical scenery of the old northern village.

Mong Phu Village’s temple is built nearly 380 years ago on a central land of the village, about 1800 m2 wide. The design of the temple was inspired by Vietnamese – Muong architecture, simulating the architecture of stilt houses with wooden floors. It consists of two palaces and harem. The big house is built by 48 wooden pillars. On each pillar, there is an engraving station with many dragon and phoenix-shaped patterns.

Inside the temple, there are lots of horizontal lacquered boards. The most prominent board is the horizontal picture “old dragon death” ie the old dragon teaches children and the horizontal diaphragm “brave all idea” by King Thanh Thai. It also preserves many special values of architecture and culture, attracting tourists.

Built from the time of King Tu Duc to worship and remember the merits of Giang Van Minh, the Detective. The church faces to the south, has the architecture in the shape of “two” Today, the memorial house becomes an attraction for tourists who like to learn about history and culture, and also a place to educate the patriotic tradition for the younger generation.

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There are 956 ancient houses in Duong Lam Village which were erected in 1649, 1703 and 1850. These houses were made of traditional materials such as laterite, wood from chinaberry trees, bamboo, terracotta, tile and built in 5 or 7 compartment architecture.

In the past, village wells were places where people fetched water daily. The old wells here are located in a high and airy place, near the villagers’ house, temple or in the center of the village.

One of the places we should never miss out in our Duong Lam Village day trip is to visit the temple of the two Viet’s kings.

Phung Hung Temple was established in many places but the temple in Duong Lam village is the largest temple with unique architecture including Ta – Huu Mac, Dai Bai and Hau Cung.

About 500m from Phung Hung Temple is Ngo Quyen Mausoleum. Ngo Quyen’s Mausoleum complex was built on Cam Hill, in front is a large rice field and puddle flows To Tich river. The complex consists of a worship place, a great palace, a harem, a stelae house. At the bottom, about 100m away from the temple is the King Ngo Quyen’s mausoleum built in the form of 4 high and wall-mounted roofs.

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It is said that you can visit Duong Lam at any time during the year. However, the most suitable times are in its festival time and harvest time.

Festival time in Duong Lam Village takes place in January according to lunar calendar. The traditional festival of Mong Phu Village happens from the 4th to the 10th, considered the most sacred ceremony of the year. The ceremony of God’s village is held at the oldest communal house with activities of procession, pig and chicken offering, etc. After that, the villagers will participate in folk games such as human flags, Chinese chess, fighting. Chicken, blindfolded duck creating such a festive and joyful atmosphere.

6 days later, the festival of Dong Sang Village will be organized, praying for national peace, with many interesting activities such as lion dance, water procession and sacrifice ceremony. The procession starts from the communal house to the bank of the Red River with dragons, unicorns, horses, flags lasting for nearly a day. Coming to Duong Lam during this time, you will enjoy the festive atmosphere and enjoy the special food that is only available in the festival.

When May and June come, it signals the time for harvesting rice when we see the whole rice fields turning into a golden yellow color. This time also welcomes a lot of visitors coming to Duong Lam Village. The roads in Duong Lam are full of paddy and dried straw, creating a peaceful and tranquil village scene.

Keep on reading the full article of Duong Lam Village day trip on GoAsiaDayTrip's blog.