TRUNG PHUNG TEMPLE

Trung Phung Temple is located at no. 43, Alley 165, Cho Kham Thien Alley, Trung Phung ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi city. In 19th Century, this land site belonged to the Phung Thanh and Thi Trung villages, Tien Nghiem sub-district, Tho Xuong district, Hoai Duc sub-province, Hanoi province.

According to the only remaining edict of conferring dated to Thanh Thai year (1889), the temple is the place for worshiping Hue Minh Lady Goddess, who had the merits for protecting the country, the people and guard the life of the Trung Phung villagers.

Later, Trung Phung is used for worshipping Mother Goddesses according to folk’s belief. This is Vietnamese belief which existed from the old days and varied to adapt to the social changes. Mother Goddesses worshiping belief means worshipping the “Homeland” Mothers, such as the Earth Mother – Water Mother – Au Co Mother, with the desire of health, good fortune, luck and is an essential demand in religious life of Vietnamese people to bring about belief, strength and courage in the life. The Mother Goddesses worshiping tradition originated from ancient time when the Vietnamese people worshipped natural Mother named Mother Goddess. Through thousands of years, the Mother Goddess worshipping tradition in our country has developed to form the belief of Mother Goddesses of Three Realms (Heaven – Earth - Ocean), the Four Palaces (Heavenly Palace - Mountains’ Palace - Watery Palace - Earthy Palace). In 16th Century, on the basis of the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms, the Four Palaces, with the appearance of Lieu Hanh Mother Goddess, a young local religion has been formed. The Mother Goddesses worshiping belief is attached to the art of Chau Van, also known as Hat Van, a folk traditional artistic form of Vietnamese people which has been recognized as National Intangible cultural heritage.

Based on currently available relics such as: edict of conferring, horizontal lacquered board, parallel sentences, statue of Goddess, etc. and remaining architectural traces, Trung Phung temple was built in about 19th Century and restored in 20th Century. The latest repair was in 2007, which resulted in current architecture.

The temple lies in the same land field with Trung Phung communal house and shares the Entrance gate. The middle entrance door is in form of two storeys, two roofs with one overlaying the other and 8 roof sides altogether covered with pseud tube-tiles; eight roof corners are ornamented with sabre tip-like patterns. On the centerline of the roof, there are embarked dragons flanking to the sun. On the two sides are the auxiliary doors which are in the same form with the main entrance. To the sides of the auxiliary doors, there are two symbolic pillars whose tops are embarked with a pair of “Nghê” (a lion-like creature) flanking to each other; the pillar bodies have parallel sentences in Chinese characters; the pedestals of the pillars are shaped with a tie pattern in the middle.

After the entrance, on two sides of the temple yard there are small architectural items: on the right hand side is the Stele House to commemorate the Soldiers who died for the independence and freedom of the nation; on the left hand side is the rock-work to make good landscape. In the back, there are Maiden House, Page House. In general, these items are in harmony with the landscape and scale of the vestige.

General architectural items of Trung Phung temple include: the Front Hall, the Middle Hall and the Back Palace which are arranged according to traditional folk architecture.

From the yard, going up the 5 footsteps, we enter the Front Hall with 3 compartments, close brick walls and extending frames at the sides and roof covered with traditional tiles. At the middle of the roof centerline, there is a pair of embarked dragons flanking to the sun, and at the two sides of the roof there are ornamental “kìm” (a dragon-like creature) heads. On the two sides of the hall, there are two symbolic pillars, whose tops are ornamented with stylized Cape jasmine fruit; the pillar bodies are divided into even decorative area and embarked with parallel sentences in Chinese characters.

The frame set consists of 4 wood-pseudo concrete frames linked in form of “Overlaid beams and Gong hanging frame in upper, traverse beams in middle and diagonal beam in lower”. The frames are supported by solid columns. The veranda is quite large. The front doors is in form of “Railings in upper, plate in lower”. The floor is paved with Bat Trang bricks.

Few ornamental patterns are presented in the beams, bars with subjects of leaves, sealed characters. In the middle compartment, there hanged a door painting in fresco, which is inscribed with dragon flanking to the sun, tiger face, leaves. Below it, there is a wooden altar with worshipping throne and objects.

The Middle Hall is in the same form as the Front Hall. The middle compartment is for worshiping the Saints, Mandarins Council, the King of Heaven - Nam Tao (Birth supervising god) – Bac Dau (Death supervising god), the Five High-ranking Mandarins; the right compartment is for worshipping the Lord of Mountainous Farms; the left is for worshipping Saint Tran Hung Dao.

The Back Palace consists of 3 longitudinal compartments; there are 3 front doors. The upper part is ornamented with “double” door painting in fresco which is inscribed quite beautifully and meticulously. The middle door is normally closed, only side doors are open for entrance.

The frame set of the Back Palace is linked in form of “Overlaid beams in upper, semi-overlaid beams and Gong hanging frame in middle and diagonal beam in lower”. The middle compartment has pedestals with different elevations to place statues of Mother Goddesses of the temple.

Trung Phung temple still preserves many relics with cultural, historic and artistic values, such as: 01 edict of conferring dated to Thanh Thai year (1889), 14 statues of Mother Goddesses, 08 sets of worshiping cubicles, 06 horizontal lacquered boards, 06 parallel sentences pairs, 07 door paintings in fresco, 05 altars, 07 sets of worshipping thrones and many worshiping subjects like the set of eight weapons for ornament, Incense thurible, large wooden compote, weapons, sword holder, etc. which are in artistic style of Nguyen Dynasty.

Through historical ups and downs of the nation, Trung Phung temple always attracts attention and care of the local authority and people. The temple is the address for holding cutural and religious activities of the local people, governing ethic behavious and strengthening the spirit of solidarity and support in the life.

Trung Phung temple was classified by Hanoi city People’s Committee as cultural – historical vestige in 2016.