4 ANCIENT GUARDIANS OF THANG LONG

Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam with many famous destinations, one of the most famous things of Hanoi is the four ancient temples known as “Thang Long four guardians”. It is the normal name of 4 sacred temples in Hanoi that are located in 4 main directions of ancient Thang Long: Bach Ma temple in the East, Voi Phuc temple in the West, Kim Lien temple in the South and Quan Thanh temple in the North. For many years of history, “Thang Long 4 guardians” still remain until today and it has become the pride of Hanoian for their both sacredness and famous destinations.

Guardian of the North – Quan Thanh temple

Quan Thanh temple was built about hundred years ago, under the Ly dynasty with the purpose to worship Tran Vu God, the one who takes care of the martial art in heaven. Located near Hanoi West Lake with nice view and sacred atmosphere, after many time of repairing, nowadays, Quan Thanh temple is famous for its architecture of the 17^th century.

Quan Thanh Temple

Quan Thanh temple included: Tam Quan gate (three doors gate), Temple yard and the three main buildings: Front hall, annex, back hall. 

Main Hall of the temple

Inside Quan Thanh temple, there is a 4 meter height – black copper statue with the weight of nearly 4 tons. This statue named Huyen Thien Tran Vu and it  was built in 1677 to show the respect of local people to the Gods worshipped here. 

Huyen Thien Tran Vu Statue

Besides the copper statues here, Quan Thanh temple is also famous for its wood-carving architecture. On the wood parts of the temple, there are images of holy animals like dragons, phoenix, bats; some kinds of beautiful flowers that shows the uniqueness of Le dynasty in 16^th century.

Carving on the Altar

Guardian of the South – Kim Lien temple

Kim Lien temple is built in honor of Saint Cao Son, one of the 50^th son of Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ (ancestors of the Vietnamese nation). Cao Son followed his father to the mountains and is one of two deities worshipped in the Tan Vien Mountain temple.  Cao Sơn was the deity who secretly contributed to helping King Le Tuong Duc quell the rebellions in Dong Do, so the King decided to build Kim Lien Temple in 1509 to worship him.

Kim Lien Temple is located on a high hill and consists of two separate parts: in front of the hill is the arched gate and the main structure on the hill itself.

Kim Lien temple gate

The four sets of pillars propping up the roof are designed in the traditional architectural style with vivid and sophisticated decorative motifs typical of the Nguyen Dynasty art (19th century).

Beautiful gate of Kim Lien

The entrance gate is a three compartment chamber with lively decorative details such as phoenixes keeping books in their mouths, clouds, an unicorn.

Decorations of the temple

This temple consists of a grand ceremonial hall – which restore in 2000, on the occasion of Hanoi’s 990th founding anniversary – and a three-compartment back sanctuary. Inside the sanctuary, the front compartment is where a common altar is placed; compartment is where a ritual throne and ritual weapons are installed, and the back compartment is where the statues of Saint Cao Son and two other goddesses are worshipped.

Inside the temple

The most important relic in the Kim Lien Communal House is the stone stele of “Cao Soon God’s contribution,” written in 1510, telling of Cao Son’s efforts to help KingLe regain his throne from troublesome members of his family.

Guardian of the East – Bach Ma temple

The temple was built in the 9^th century, worships Long Do, the deity who protected the Thang Long Royal Citadel. In 1010, Ly Thai To king moved the citadel from Hoa Lu (Ninh Binh) to Thang Long and wanted to expand it. The king asked the troops to build the citadel higher, but whenever they did that, the citadel collapsed. The king asked people for the reason and knew that this place was awe-inspiring powerful earlier. Then he ordered to make offerings. At that night, in his dream, he met the deity who congratulated and told the king to follow the traces of horse hooves to build the citadel. Then the king saw a white horse galloping at full speed and then disappeared. On the next day, the king saw the traces of horse hooves on the ground in a circle and instructed the troops to follow them for the construction. The citadel was built very firm. To express the gratefulness to the deity, the king asked for carving a white horse for worshiping and conferred the title of “Thang Long tutelary god”. From that, the white horse has become a sacred symbol and Bach Matemple (or white horse temple) has been known from that.

Bach Ma Stele

The temple now still keeps lots of old valuable relics such as stone steles, palanquin, cranes and pairs of toy earthen statue for worship.
 Bach Ma temple is a very nice architectural work which includes three-door temple gates, burning incense place and forbidden palaces. It is a closed architectural work, making the temple become among rare and typical works of the Northern delta region.

Bach Ma main gate

Every year, to honor Long Do deity, the People’s Committee of Hoan Kiem district holds Bach Ma temple festival on lunar February 12 and 13. The event includes many offerings and cultural activities like ceremonial songs, Vietnamese popular opera, poem recitation and fencing.

Bach Ma Main Hall

Being one of the gates of “Thang Long four gates” and located in favorable location for cultural tourism development, Bach Ma temple is not only meaningful to Hanoi people and visitors but also provides valuable sources of documents for studying the thousand-year history of Thang Long - Hanoi

Guardian of the west – Voi Phuc temple

Voi Phuc Temple is located inside the precinct of Thu Le Zoological Garden, belonging to Ngoc Khanh Ward, Ba Dinh District, Ha Noi. The temple worships Linh Lang who is known as one of four Guardian Gods - Thang Long Citadel's Western Guardian God

Rocky Elephant in the temple

Voi Phuc (Kneeling Elephant) Temple was built during the reign of King Ly Thanh Tong (1054 - 1072), dedicated to Royal Highness Linh Lang - Linh Lang God. Therefore, it is also known as Linh Lang Temple.

To remember the merits of the prince, King Ly Thanh Tong bestowed the title His Royal Highness on Linh Lang and built the temple in his honour. In front of the temple are two kneeling elephants, hence the name Voi Phuc is called by the residents. The place of Voi Phuc Temple is also a historical relic.

Temple main gate

Over the vicissitudes of history, the temple was heavily damaged. From 1953 to date, this temple has been renovated several times. Today, besides two elephants kneel in front of the temple, there are objects in the temple such as two bronze statues; a sacred stone with indentations; parallel sentences that praise the merits of the Thang Long Citadel's Western Guardian God.

Every year, to commemorate the merits of Linh Lang God, Voi Phuc Temple Festival is held on the 9th to the 11th day of the second lunar month. This is a Grand procession festival with flags, fans, gongs, drums, parasols, bat am (cantanets) musical band and senh tien group dancing.