70th anniversary of Hanoi's Liberation Day Vietnam - Asia 2023 Smart City Summit Hanoi celebrates 15 years of administrative boundary adjustment 12th Vietnam-France decentrialized cooperation conference 31st Sea Games - Vietnam 2021 Covid-19 Pandemic
City Guide
Jan 05, 2019 / 08:42

Ha Temple: A sacred beautiful landscape in Hanoi

Thanh Minh

The temple is not only sacred but also one of the beautiful sights of Ba Vi district of Hanoi.

Ha Temple located in the relic of Tan Vien Son Mountain in Ba Vi range is a sacred temple and a beautiful landscape of Ba Vi district, Hanoi.
The entire relic of Tan Vien Son Saint of Ba Vi Mountain is located in two communes of Minh Quang and Ba Vi of Ba Vi district, Hanoi, worshipping Duc Thanh Tan Son Tinh - the mightiest god of the four immortal gods of the Vietnamese.


 
Temple Ha is also called Tay Cung, located at the foot of Mount Tan on the flat land near the Da river. According to researchers, Ha Temple was built later than the Middle and Upper Temples. Legend has it that the three Son Tinh brothers from Lang Xuong Cave went to Ngoc Tan Mountain to collect firewood, but one day, they did not come back before night, the three brothers had to cross the forest to set up a tent. Later the people built a temple right there to commemorate them and called it the Lower Temple.
According to Ngoc Pha about the story of the Duc Thanh Tan kept in Va (Dong Cung) temple in the early 18th century, Ha Temple was already built. According to the book "Son Tay province" by Pham Xuan Do, the temple was called the Western Palace, worshipping “Tam vi duc thuong dang than” (Cao Son Dai Vuong and Quy Minh Dai Vuong).
 

 
The structure of the temple is arranged in Chinese number three. In addition to the yard, there is a stone tablet inscribed with the word "Tan Vien tu ky" (record of Tan Vien temple), erected in the first year of Tu Duc’s (1848) reign under the Nguyen dynasty. The content of the tablet indicated that the temple was built on a large scale, King Tu Duc spent a large sum of money to build the temple.
The Lower Temple is called "Temple of Five People", which means that it is where 5 people (Trung Nghia people belonging to General Tu Vu, Dong Luan, Luong Khe, Dan The, Thach Xa belonging to General Luong Truyen) are worshipped.


 
The temple has three rows of horizontal chambers, many of them such as Tam Quan Gate, Dai Bai, Tien te, back chamber and Mau temple are very large. The place houses two statues of the dynastic guardians, holding the spear on both hands. On the roof of the three-door gate there is a two-storey mansion, with eight curved and tiled roofs. Between the two roofs there are four Chinese characters "Quoc Son tu Ha" and many other carvings depicting the image of the sun, lightning bolt, birds, phoenix, fire. In the 18th century, above the middle of the room hanging the letter Han: "Tan Vien Son Linh Thanh" with some parallel sentences written in Chinese.
The temple is not only sacred but also one of the beautiful sights of Ba Vi district of Hanoi.

Other News

Trending