Hai Phong city

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Lac Vien – Ancient temple with unique architecture


Located in the land of the waves and winds and the imprints in the history of fighting against foreign invaders with victories on the Bach Dang River, experiencing many ups and downs of history, today, Lac Vien village hall (Lac Vien ward, Ngo Quyen district) is a place of worship for King Ngo Quyen and a place of cultural activities of local people.

History records that Lac Vien village hall was built 500 years ago on a military mound, which was one of the important places where King Ngo Quyen was used to destroy Nam Han troops on Bach Dang river. The village hall was built following the ancient architecture style as "tường hồi bít đốc, tay ngai". The outer part of the throne hand is two pillars by copper, cylindrical base to create the shape of the ball, the body of the pillar was covered with lines to create two sentences parallel. The head of the pillar is shaped like a lantern, the top of the pillar is shaped like a Dragon as a flower bud rising to bloom in the blue sky. On the top of the village hall roof, there is a decoration with complex of a round statue and two dragons flanking a moon. The top of the blades soaring, decorated with "con kìm"  (mean that a animals have curled tails, it goes on the wave then it rains, it may be designed in many different forms such as the shape of the dragon head, a dragon or a carp turn to dragon) and "con sô" on the sides of the roof. The mascots decorated on the roof of the temple are attached with pieces of ancient pottery, looking very sacred and fanciful.

Besides, Lac Vien village hall is also structured in the style of Dinh letter, including 5 fronts rooms and 3 harem rooms, including a forbidden palace room. The main hall is structured by wooden frame of 6 rafter sets and four rows of columns. The harem building is structured by two rafter sets, through the columns to connect with rafter sets of the outer space, all those are very impressive by the sculptor hands. The rafters are structured in a superimposed manner, with the carvings mainly sculpted with dragon phoenix, stylized flowers and leaves, clouds and sky. Among the rafter sets  in the fronts hall and the harem rooms were the system of top purlin and lower purlin, all be smoothed to shape the bamboo shoots. The roof diaphragm system is the round wooden trees which are solved by the way as upper three and under four. In particular, the entire column system is stand on the strong green stone feet. The foots of the four main pillars are artifacted of a taller cylindrical shape than the other pillars. The remaining foots form two levels that are the lower square level represents the earth and the upper circle represents the sky.

Experiencing many ups and downs of history, with a unique artistic architecture, Lac Vien temple has become Offering incense and worshiping place of locals and tourists. And Lac Vien village hall is a red address to help people more understand the valuable traditional cultural values ​​of the nation. The courtyard is rebuilt helping the temple to be more spacious and clean. A new feature in the architecture when visitors come to Lac Vien village hall is the bas-relief. This base-relief depicts the majestic battle of our nation on the Bach Dang River, that led by King Ngo Quyen in 938. The relief is carved on the occasion of the 1047th death anniversary of King Ngo Quyen.

Although Lac Vien is located in the center of the city, but the highlight of Lac Vien village hall includes, the gate is designed based on the architecture of the ancient village halls , a small fish pond, a big letter,..... and records the honous time of six village gods who were worshiped here.  Lac Vien symbolizes the ancient Vietnamese village with "banyan trees, wells, communal yards".

In 2009, Lac Vien village hall was recognized as a the national architectural and artistic relic by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Touris. It become one of the large temple where contains many great values about artistic architecture with many beautiful carvings and all are made in traditional materials of Hai Phong. According to Mr. Le Manh Toan - Vice Chairman of Lac Vien People's Committee, Head of the Management Board of Lac Vien National relics, “Lac Vien village hall where worship King Ngo Quyen and village gods, receipted many contributions about human resources, materials,... from the locals, tourists and benefactors. We also wish and hope that, in the next time, Lac Vien temple will continue to receive the attention, support of people to continue renovating the temple "solemn, spacious and beautiful and exist forever. "

Source: Hải Ngân/anhp.vn