Photo series: Duong Lam - the most famous ancient village in Vietnam

Located in Son Tay town, Hanoi city, Duong Lam village has special historical, cultural and architectural values ​​and is considered the most famous ancient village in Vietnam. In the past, this place consisted of 9 villages, of which 5 were Mong Phu, Dong Sang, Cam Thinh, Doai Giap and Cam Lam, adjacent to each other. These villages were linked together into a unified entity with customs, practices, and beliefs preserved for thousands of years. In Vietnamese history, Duong Lam is famous as a land of "spiritual people", the birthplace of King Phung Hung and King Ngo Quyen, and is known as "one village, two kings". Today, Duong Lam ancient village still retains most of the basic characteristics of an ancient Vietnamese village with village gate, banyan tree, ferry, communal house yard, pagoda, shrine, guard post, well, rice fields, hills... An iconic image of Duong Lam is the ancient gate of Mong Phu village. The gate is in the shape of a house with two gable roofs located next to a wharf, under the cool shade of banyan trees. The outstanding architectural work of the ancient village is Mong Phu communal house. The communal house was built in 1684, bearing the typical features of a traditional ancient communal house. Every year, the communal house holds a festival from the first to the tenth of the first lunar month with games such as pig-raising, chicken-worshiping, etc. Another important structure is Mia Pagoda (also known as Sung Nghiem Pagoda), founded in 1621, which is a place to worship Lady Mia and Buddhas. The pagoda still retains many architectural structures from the 17th century along with 287 statues of high artistic value. Regarding ancient houses, Duong Lam still preserves nearly 1,000 traditional houses, most concentrated in the villages of Dong Sang, Mong Phu and Cam Thinh. Many houses were built from the 17th to 19th centuries. The characteristic of Duong Lam residential architecture is the use of laterite – a product of Son Tay land – as a wall building material instead of bricks. This gives the architectural space of the ancient village a unique and attractive nuance. Another unique feature of Duong Lam ancient village is the ancient brick road system with branches radiating from both sides of the main axis like a fish bone. With this structure, if you go from the village communal house, you will never turn your back to the Holy Gate. Duong Lam’s famous specialty is soy sauce. The soy sauce here is of the same quality as other long-standing soy sauce-making villages in the North. In addition, the village also has delicious stuffed candy, peanut candy, and lam tea… which are famous far and wide. In terms of architectural scale, Duong Lam ancient village is only behind Hoi An ancient town and Hanoi ancient town. This is the first ancient village in Vietnam to be recognized as a National Historical and Cultural Relic (in 2006)…