Being recognised as national herirage site in May 2006 by the ministry of Culture & Information, the ancient village of Duong Lam is an attractive destination thanks to its ancient cultural & architectural values. Let's do a trip to and experience....!
Duong Lam ancient village –an interesting destination to trace back the origin of the village’s culture & its traditions in Vietnam.
Duong Lam ancient village, 60km far from Hanoi, is wel-known as the place of birth for two legendary kings in Vietnam and as the typical village of well-preserved ancient houses as well as the village’s characteristic symbols in the red river delta that you can find nowhere.It is worth spending your day or two-day tour exploring the beauty of this village, having talks with friendly local people here and discovering surrounding attractions of Mia Pagoda, Ba Vi Mountains….
The typical gate to Duong Lam ancient village
Firstly, mentioning about the village of Duong Lam, people normally think of the birth place to many talented people, especially two famous kings who led resistance wars against Chinese invasions.The first king is Phung Hung(771-802) who united people to fight against Duong invaders and got the nation’s independence.Another famous king is Ngo Quyen (896-944) who did a decisive struggle against Han rulers and officially ended a thousand year of Chinese domination in Vietnam in 938.In Duong Lam village, there are ancient temples built by locals to worship them that you can pay a visit to.
Secondly, different from other villages in Vietnam, Duong Lam is an ancient village of many well-preserved old houses, the place that you can find typical symbols of Vietnamese village in Red River delta.
Overview of Duuong Lam village
Duong Lam -the village of many preserved old houses
The village has the history around 1200 years old.The road system is like a fish bone structure with many ancient houses dating back to up to 400 years.There are total 956 old houses in 5 villages of Duong Lam area.Some of houses are of wooden type, while most of other buildings here are with the walls of laterite bricks and mud ( abundant materials in the region).The house is normally designed with one floor but long structure of 5 or 7 spans with two wings.In the main span (sitting room), there is an altar with different incense bowls to worship ancestors, the kitchen gods and Buddha.The doors and columns are sophisticatedly carved with nice designs of flowers, leaves & trees.The whole wooden structure are firmly jointed together with emerging thresholds of 30-40 cm from the floor, which is said to prevent evil spirituals from coming inside the house.In gereral, wooden & laterite houses last for long time, cool in summer, warm in winter.
Mr Huyen's old house
Your trip to Duong Lam, it will be great to visit different old houses of nice architectures, typically the ones open to public such as Mr.Huyen’s house, Mr.Hung’s house (residential home), Ms Lan’s house (the mandrin’s home).You can request them to prepare lunch of local foods for you, enjoy local specalties of Che Lam, Ga Mia (mia chicken),Banh Te (cake of ordinary rice), Keo Doi (peanut sweet) or Tuong (soy sauce) produced & supplied here as well; and rent a bike with them to travel around the village.
Typical symbols of ancient villages you can find in Duong Lam
Apart from its historical and architectural values, Duong Lam ancient village is also an important place to study about characteristic images of the village’s traditonal culture in northern Vietnam.You can find here a simple village gate of old style, a 300 year-old banyan tree, water-wells, communal houses, pagoda, lotus pond, rice fields as interesting factors with nice stories related to the village’scustoms, of which make Đường Lâm a more special village than the others.
Old bike loading of corn along the lane
- Banyan tree : The banyan tree is the first symbol that you can see in the entrance to enter Mong Phu village. A huge tree of 300 years old with many leafy branches where used to be a good shade for locals to have a short break after few hours doing farmwork under the sun.The place they met neighbors, rested & talked happily about their lives, agricultural experiences.In a tradditional village of Vietnam, there are normal with three banyan trees near rice fields : one at the beginning of the hamlet, the others in the middle and at the end of the village.
- The village’s water well - a big one normally located in the village center, where villagers used to garther to get water,to wash- it was like a popular meeting point for local boys & girls.In that sense, it was also the place to nurture the couple’s love & happy family.When you travel to the center of village, you can view two big water wells near Mong Phu communal house (like two eyes of a dragon on two side of communal house-dragon head)
- The communal house is a very important symbol in a village, dedicated to the commune’s founder who established the village, taught the villagers the skill or the trade;or protected the villagers from the dangers of invasion or natural plagues.The communal house is a meeting point of men in the villages to discuss about the village’s important events & matters.Locals people meet eachother here to find down common decisions & solutions – the village’s community cultures.Duong Lam commune consists of 5 small villages so it has 5 communal houses as well.Doan Giap & Cam Lam village with a communal house is dedicated to Phung Hung- the national hero who won a victory against Duong invader in 791; Cam Thuong communal house worships both the founder of the village and Cao Phuc Dien-the hero under Le dynasty; the communal house of great value of culture & sculptural architecture is located in Mong Phu village which worships Tan Vien- the god of mountain.
How to get to Duong Lam village?
Duong Lam is 60km on the west of Hanoi and in one hour drive you can reach there.The easiest way is joining us in a private tour with guide & driver along to show you more cultural & architectural values of this ancient village.You can do in a day tour or 2 days/ 1 night tour, homestaying in ancient homes or in Moonview garden bungalow to enjoy the comfort and peaceful life in village.If you do it on your own, you can travel to Duong Lam by public buses (number 71 at My Dinh bus station, number 70 at Kim Ma bus station and number 77 at Ha Dong bus station to Son Tay station, then take a taxi or motobike to Duong Lam), motobike or renting a private car with driver from Hanoi
Explore Duong Lam village with Golden Holiday Travel
Golden Holiday Travel are happy to share you Vietnam & her travel tips so that you could enjoy the best of Vietnam.We hope this share of Duong Lam ancient village is useful for your coming trip to this rural countryside.If you would like to know more about Vietnam destinations, customized day tour to Duong Lam village or private car rental to Duong Lam, Ba Vi mountains, Tay Phuong pagoda, Thay Pagoda altogether, please, don’t hesitate to drop us email to goldenholidaytravel.vn@gmail.com.As a local travel company in Hanoi, Vietnam, we are delighted to support you for your trip of interesting exploration & authentic local experiences.
We wish you a trip of awesome inspiration in Vietnam
Golden Holiday Travel Team.
