HAO NAM TEMPLE 

Hao Nam Temple is also known as Nha Ba Temple located in the complex of Hao Nam communal house-temple located at Lane 29, Vu Thanh Street, O Cho Dua Ward, Dong Da District, Hanoi.

The temple worships the Princess Ngoc Thuy Tinh – the legend has it that this was the name that King Le Thanh Tong gave to the nun that the King met at Ngoc Ho Pagoda (Ba Ngo Pagoda), Van Mieu ward to accompany the King to draw painting and compose poems.

Ngoc Thuy Tinh Princess who was an angle with the name of Ngoc Thuy Tinh. Besides being worshipped at Hao Nam temple, in Dong Da district, she is also worshiped at Thinh Quang communal house and Hoang Cau communal house. She descended on earth at Huong Tich Pagoda on February 21 of the year of the Pig, then traveled everywhere and visited many places. Once time she stopped by Thang Long, met with King Le Thanh Tong and accompanied the King to draw paintings and compose poems. After she returned to heaven, King Le Thanh Tong issued the royal decision allowing 32 villages to worship her including Hao Nam, Thinh Quang, Hoang Cau etc. and some other places in the ancient Thang Long capital.

In the early days of the August revolution, Hao Nam communal house- temple was one of the revolutionary bases of Viet Minh. It was in the banyan tree of Hao Nam village, Comrade Nguyen Van Tran, former Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, returned to join the meeting and called Hao Nam people to take the road to seize power in August 1945. In December 1946, Hao Nam's self-defense and ambulance teams participated in the battle with the National Guard soldiers of the 523 Battalion to protect the Capital. At the relic, there is still a secret bunker which was the shelter for comrades leading the operations of the Party.

At present, no written documents have been recorded on the date of construction of the relic, according to the villagers, around 1941-1942, the Hao Nam communal house and temple were repaired and renovated. The current architecture is the result of a major restoration in 1986-1988.

The relic is located on high, bright ground in the village’s residential area. Elderly people in the village recounted that: previously, the road to the communal house gate had a large pond (also known as Lao (elderly) pond – it means the pond of the elderly) The campus of the communal house - temple is spacious with the lake in front and the rows of green trees. In the context of the current urbanization speed, Hao Nam communal house - temple is a cultural and spiritual tourist attraction which is attractive by a system of valuable trees and lakes that both enhance the inherent beauty of the relic as well as to balance the ecosystem in the inner city area that few places can keep. The surface of the lake is clear, blue, flat, reflecting the trees, surrounded with stone embankments. The entrance and exit is made of green stone steps, the railing carved with dragon patterns that skillfully affects the feelings of tourists when first visiting the relic.

In front of the temple yard, there is a screen with the outside decorated with rolled letters, dragon, lotus, tiger; the inside decorated with two dragons facing the firing sun, cranes holding flowers, people on fishing. The two sides are built with two pillars, the top of the pillar are the heads of two young lions facing together and their bodies carved with parallel sentences in Chinese language.

The temple was built in the West right next to Hao Nam communal house. The architectural structure of the temple is in form of "Dinh" letter shap including the Front Hall and the harem.

The Front Hall is a building with 3 compartments with brick walls, gables, titled roof. The front of the compartments open the table of “Thượng song hạ bản” (Bars on top and wooden flank at bottom) . The frame follows the structure of “Kèo cầu quá giang trốn cột” (Beams crossing columns). Above the middle compartment, there is a horizontal lacquered boards with 3 letters of “Đạo đại quang” which was created in the year of Thanh Thai At Mui, the two side compartments have two paintings of “Than Thien” and “Phoi dia” which means par with heaven and earth and the parallel sentences below:

Ôn dụ khoan nhu thiên hạ Thánh

Thông minh chính trực nữ trung thân.

Two ends of the Front Hall built two pillars, the top of the pillar was covered with four phoenixes with their tails bunched together, their heads turned in four directions to form a stylized cape-jasmine fruit. On the mezzanine wall from gable to the pillar, there are two tiger patterns.

The Harem consists of 2 longitudinal houses with titled roof, structural frame in the form of “Chồng rường giá chiêng, hạ cốn” (gong-hanger style and overlapping trusses above, rafters below). The upper architectural decoration of Hao Nam temple is focused mainly on trusses and beams with art style in the Nguyen Dynasty.

Inside, there is a large place which was red-lacquered and trimmed with gold and meticulously carved with the themes of the four supernatural creatures, the four season, leaves, flowers bearing the dating of 19th century. In this place, there are Throne - Ancestral tablet with the title of “Vạn Thánh Ngọc Thủy Tinh Công Chúa Thần Vị”, and under is the statue of Princess Ngoc Thuy Tinh which was later carved by the people in the shape of a pure Vietnamese Mother statue.

Hao Nam Temple still retains a number of typical objects, demonstrating the existence of the relic such as: throne – ancestral tablet, incense-table, door painting in fresco, horizontal lacquered boards, parallel sentences, incense-burner, Mother statues etc. with the art of 19th-20th century, contributing to enriching the traditional heritage treasure of Thang Long- Hanoi.

Together with the Hao Nam communal house, Hao Nam temple is a place of spiritual and cultural activities of the village community, a place to educate the younger generations about the love of the homeland and the country, directing people to beautiful values in life.

Hao Nam Temple was classified as a national relic in 1994.