Dong Mon Village, the cradle of Ca Tru singing in Hai Phong.

Dong Mon village (Hoa Binh commune, Thuy Nguyen district, Hai Phong city) is known as the cradle of Ca Tru singing in the Northern coastal region. It not only houses the Phu Tu temple dedicated to the founders of Ca Tru singing but was also once a large Ca Tru guild in the region with famous male and female singers.

Dong Mon Ca Tru, the cradle of ceremonial drum rhythms.

The people of Dong Mon, Hoa Binh commune, Thuy Nguyen district (formerly Thuy Duong district, Kinh Mon prefecture, Hai Duong province), in addition to cultural activities and festivals like other villages, also have a distinctive and well-developed form of Ca Tru (traditional Vietnamese singing) with many famous artists from the Three Prefectures and Eight Districts. According to surviving documents and accounts from elders, Ca Tru in Dong Mon originated during the Le Dynasty.

According to local accounts, the elders say that Ca Tru singing here originated from four brothers of the Pham family in Thuy Duong village, Kinh Mon district, Hai Duong province: Pham Quang, Pham Nghiem, Pham Huan, and Pham Thi Cuc Nuong. All four brothers followed King Le Dai Hanh in fighting the enemy. After their deaths, the villagers erected temples to worship them: Ngoc Phuong village (now Thuy Tu hamlet, Thuy Duong commune) worships Pham Quang and Pham Thi Cuc Nuong; Nuong Ke and Chiem Phuong villages (now Hoa Binh commune) worship Pham Nghiem; and Thuong Son village (now Nui Deo town) worships Pham Huan, who were the first to bring Ca Tru singing to this area. This is only oral tradition; it is possible that Ca Tru singing began during the Early Le Dynasty, but at that time, Ca Tru was probably still mixed with other forms of folk music and had not yet become an independent art form with its own musical rules as it did from the Later Le Dynasty onwards.

However, based on the remaining relics, it can be affirmed that Dong Mon village, Thuy Nguyen district, is also one of the cradles of Ca Tru art. Evidence of this is the temple in Dong Mon village, Hoa Binh commune, Thuy Nguyen district, which is dedicated to the two founders of Ca Tru art, built during the Late Le Dynasty. This temple worships Dinh Du, also known as Thanh Xa Dai Vuong (some also call him Dinh Le), and his wife, Princess Bach Hoa (also known as Princess Man Duong Hoa, daughter of Bach Dinh Sa, a district official in Thuong Xuan, Thanh Hoa ). There are two hypotheses about these two founders. The first hypothesis is that Dinh Du and his wife adopted Ca Tru art, established a guild in Dong Mon, and taught the craft to their children in the village and neighboring villages and districts. This detail is perhaps difficult to verify, but through the legendary story of the founder of Ca Tru singing and the system of ancestral shrines that remain throughout the country, as surveyed in the first part of Chapter 1, it can be seen that it is not certain that the couple Dinh Du ever came to Dong Mon and taught the craft to the local people. However, like many other Ca Tru villages and guilds, the people of Dong Mon still built a temple to honor the founders who contributed to passing on the songs, rhythms, and musical instruments to future generations. Therefore, the second hypothesis seems more plausible: it is rumored that the couple Dinh from Thanh Hoa created a new and very beautiful style of singing, and the people of Dong Mon sent people there to learn the music and singing, and then returned to the village to pass it on to their descendants. The Ca Tru singing craft in Dong Mon officially originated from that time.