The Guardian God of the North

The statue of the Dark Warrior of Quan Thánh (Holy Mandarin) is bronze with a shiny black patina and deserves its nickname, “Big Buddha,” for it is nearly four meters high and weighs four metric tons. A Trịnh seigneur ordered it cast in 1681. The statue’s only rival among Hà Nội’s religious objects is the bronze Amitabha (A-di-Đà) cast in 1953 for Thần Quang Pagoda on Ngũ Xá Street.

The Dark Warrior wears a Taoist priest’s gown, his hair floating behind the nape of his neck. He is barefoot, his left hand raised in a gesture of prohibition while his right hand is placed on the handle of a sword around which a snake coils. The sword’s tip rests on a tortoise’s back. Master Trọng of the Founders’ Guild made the statue and also had his own statue honored in the temple.

Many pilgrims, particularly candidates for the scholarly examinations, frequented the shrine in its heyday in the hope of receiving divine guidance by way of oracular verses.

Quan Thánh Temple is in a picturesque site close to West and Trúc Bạch Lakes. The temple entrance has four rectangular pillars. Visitors walk through a porch with three entrances into a courtyard planted with shady mango trees. The shrine stands at the back of the courtyard. Its front has finely sculpted woodwork lacquered in red and gold. Inside, a bronze gong (khánh) hangs in the nave. Four altars precede the sanctuary at the far end of a narrow corridor. There, pilgrims may contemplate the Guardian God of the North standing in mysterious semi-darkness.

The Giant Genie of Chèm
A temple dedicated to Lý Ông Trọng from 200 B.C. is thirteen kilometers from Hà Nội center. This giant genie served the Chinese emperor.

After returning to Việt Nam, the Chinese emperor had the statue erected in bronze at the entrance to Han Yang Citadel to keep order among the Hsiung Nu barbarians.

Twenty to thirty people could hide inside the statue’s stomach. Whenever barbarian scouts arrived, the people hiding inside received a secret signal to move parts of the statue. The frightened Hsiung Nu believed the Military Governor was still alive. They didn’t dare come near the border.

The Trưng Sisters
Throughout the centuries, Vietnamese patriotic traditions have crystallized in great figures, the most moving and most popular of whom are the Trưng Sisters.

An early Chinese conquest lasted from 111 B.C. until 40 A.D. Trưng Trắc, the daughter of a family of indigenous seigneurs (lạc hầu), raised a revolt assisted by her husband, Thi Sách, and her younger sister, Trưng Nhị. Another version from old annals says the Chinese assassination of Thi Sách sparked Trưng Trắc’s rebellion. In either case, other Lạc seigneurs joined the sisters. The Việt drove out the cruel Chinese proconsul, Tô Định, who fled. Trưng Trắc’s troops stormed sixty-five citadels. Victorious, Trưng Trắc proclaimed herself queen.

In 41, the Chinese court sent a veteran general, battle-hardened Mã Viện (Ma Yuan), against Trưng Trắc. The Trưng sisters won some battles but were defeated. Legend has it that they drowned themselves in the Hát River. In another version, they drowned themselves in Lãng Bạc Lake, which is often confused with West Lake.

The story of the Trưng sisters is engraved in Vietnamese minds and hearts and became a symbol of patriotism during Chinese domination and French rule. In modern times, all political parties and political figures of all persuasions, including collaborators, have claimed they were inspired by this tale.

What is the source of such fervent veneration and affection for the Trưng Sisters? Why do the Sisters retain such an outstanding place in the pantheon of national Vietnamese heroes?

First, time: Two thousand years of worship. The Trưng Sisters are the first historical figures to have asserted Việt cultural and national identity through arms. During the first millennium before Christ (the Bronze Age), they defended Việt values and customs that were pre-Chinese and pre-Confucian. Trưng Trắc established a historical Việt state in the Red River Delta in the heart of Southeast Asia.

Second, women: Women taking arms to avenge their husbands, women warriors—not only the two sisters but their mother and other heroic women soldiers and their female commanders. The images still provoke the imagination. Matriarchy had not yet disappeared in pre-Chinese Việt Nam. Later, leaders influenced by patriarchal Confucianism would change historical facts, but they could not lessen the Sisters’ influence. Hà Nội and three neighboring provinces alone have 200 temples to the Sisters and their lieutenants.

According to legend, Trưng Trắc’s troops had assembled on the banks of the Hát River before the insurrection. After the Sisters threw themselves into the river, their bodies floated downstream as far as Đồng Nhân, now on the outskirts of Hà Nội. The population erected a temple there in the Sisters’ honor, but floods ruined it. In 1819, the people moved the temple to Đồng Nhân Village, which is now Hà Nội’s Đồng Nhân Street. Each year, on the third day of the fifth lunar month, the local people organize a ceremony with great pomp to honor the Sisters.

The story goes that, at the time, Phùng Khắc Khoan (1523–1616), a doctoral scholar and poet, was strolling with two companions along West Lake, lured there by the beauty of the scenery. They met the female owner of a roadside inn, who delighted them by reading poems she had composed. When Phùng Khắc Khoan (alias Trạnh Bùng) returned some time later, he found no trace of the woman; even her shop had disappeared.

However, the young woman had left behind a poem introducing herself. The poet understood she was no mortal woman as he had thought but, rather, a celestial being (Liễu Hạnh) whose heavenly father had allowed her to stay awhile on earth. Phùng Khắc Khoan built a temple on that spot to honor her. Princess Liễu Hạnh became part of the pantheon of the Cult of Mother Goddesses and, since the sixteenth century, has enjoyed such veneration that she has become the essence of the cult.

Other interpretations link the appearance of Phủ Tây Hồ in those superb surroundings either to a Lê Dynasty decision to venerate Princess Liễu Hạnh and elevate her to the rank of Mother of the Earth or to the efforts of some of her descendants. Either way, the area thrived for hundreds of years. However, in 1947, French occupation troops razed the entire Tây Hồ Village. Nevertheless, the local population soon rebuilt the religious complex.

Vietnamese myths and legends arising from this initial world view often refer to goddesses when describing creation of the universe, including female sun and moon goddesses. Natural forces (clouds, rain, thunder, lightning) were deified and feminized because the wet-rice agricultural population held dear a notion of fertility envisioning images of human procreation by women.

Mother goddesses included Mother Âu Cơ of the Lạc Việt Nation and Mother Poh Nagar of the Champa because they symbolized the country and the nation. Other Mother goddesses were patron saints of traditional crafts, including weaving, sericulture, and carpentry. Vietnamese have also traditionally worshiped historical female figures (the Trưng Sisters from the first century, Triệu Ẩu from the third century, and Ỷ Lan from the eleventh century) in token gratitude for services they rendered to the country.

The Cult of Mother Goddesses has neither a structural doctrine nor organized clergy but is, rather, an indigenous belief bearing the primitive traits of a population engaged in agriculture. People pray for a good harvest, for success in business, for success in an exam, for marital happiness, for recovery of good health, or for a safe trip. The cult does not profess to discover eternal truths and immortality but remains grounded within the requirements of daily life; as a result, the cult’s appeal is undeniable, especially to the young, who are more concerned with the here and now.

In addition, the Cult of Mother Goddesses personalizes Heaven and Earth as omnipresent forces. For rites, practitioners use round cakes symbolizing the vault of Heaven and square cakes symbolizing Earth. Worshippers believe the universe is comprised of four palaces—Heaven, Earth, Water, and Forests—each with goddesses who are spiritual incarnations of the Mother Goddesses.

Some speak of three original palaces, explaining that the cult began in the plains of the Red River Delta. When the cult reached the higher regions, the Fourth Palace of Mountains and Forests came into being. Others argue that the addition came with the entry of Princess Liễu Hạnh into the pantheon. For Vietnamese, the celestial status of the Mother Goddesses is so high that differentiation into which goddess might have been the fourth is irrelevant.

Four colors are associated with four goddesses and the four palaces: Red with Heaven; white with Water; yellow with Earth; and green with Mountains and Forests. These determine the color of the costumes and votive objects of each palace as well as the costumes worn by the medium whenever he or she communicates with a specific deity.

The cult has ông đồng and bà đồng (male and female mediums) instead of priests, missionaries, or monks. Practitioners believe these mediums are predestined to serve the cult and act as intermediaries between humans and deities. Spirit possession ceremonies are the principle rite. Specific spirits are incarnated into the mediums in a spectacular synthesis of dramatic elements (music, liturgical songs, dance, gestures, and speech). Once re-incarnated, these spirits pass judgments, cure illnesses, and grant favors to believers.

Heritage