travel

Phát Diệm Cathedral | Vietnam

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In The Quiet American (a book all expats in Vietnam are obligated to read, it seems), Graham Greene describes an early 1950s procession at Phát Diệm Cathedral:

“Past the white statue of the sacred heart that stood on an island in the little lake before the cathedral, under the bell tower with spreading oriental wings and into the carved wooden cathedral, with its gigantic pillars formed out of single trees, and the scarlet lacquerwork of the altar, more Buddhist than Christian . . .”

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Thankfully, the cathedral wasn’t significantly damaged in the ensuing 20 years of war, and stands today exactly as described, a unique monument to Catholicism in Vietnam. Built between 1875 and 1899, one might assume the cathedral was constructed as part of French colonization efforts; in fact, it is entirely the work of an already long established local Catholic community.

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Jesuit missionaries, primarily from Portugal and Japan, first built small communities of converts in North and Central Vietnam in the mid-16th century. Soon, French and Spanish Jesuit and Dominican missionaries entered the fray. By the early 1600s, Catholicism had gained enough of a foothold to make ‘toleration of Christianity’ a political issue. In 1630 Trịnh lord Trịnh Trang decreed from Đông Kinh that the French Jesuit mission (led by Father de Rhodes, the inventor of the modern Vietnamese alphabet using modified European letters) represented a threat to Vietnamese society, and expelled it from court and country (or Đàng Ngoài, at least). Throughout the north, Trịnh sanctioned pogroms in Catholic communities were regularly used to limit Catholic influence and expansion.

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The Nguyễn lords in central and south Vietnam (Đàng Trong) were more tolerant of Catholic missionaries, because unlike the Trịnh (who purchased their artillery from Holland and England), they relied on Catholic Portugal to supply cannons. Nevertheless, ten thousand Catholics were martyred during the Tây Sơn rebellion (which temporarily bested both Trịnh and Nguyễn dynasties from 1778 to 1802). These local Catholics were both specifically targeted as traitorous collaborators with Nguyễn Ánh, and more broadly scapegoated as harbingers of Vietnamese colonization.

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The Nguyễn dynasty relied on Catholic missionaries to arrange for European cannons and soldiers to put down the Tây Sơn rebellion, defeat the Trịnh, unify Vietnam, and conquer most of Cambodia. This was done by 1802, and as long as Nguyễn Ánh (installed in Huế as Emperor Gia Long) lived, Catholicism spread unchecked. At the time of his death in 1820, 4% of the Vietnamese population, including his firstborn son, had converted. However, Emperor Gia Long saw this tolerance as the repayment of a personal debt of gratitude, not a purposeful theological or philosophical expansion beyond Buddhism and Confucianism. So, he skipped over his firstborn to make a strictly Confucian and isolationist son, Minh Mạng, his successor.

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Emperor Minh Mạng expelled and banned all missionaries just 5 years later, in 1825. He went as far as inspecting French merchant ships for non-sailors, banning French and Spanish interpreters from working, requiring all priests to gather at Đà Nẵng and henceforth depart, and executing those who would not. It’s important to note that these efforts weren’t specifically anti-French nor even particularly anti-Catholic, Minh Mạng simply shunned all Western influence and contact, also denying British and American overtures. Unlike his father, he preferred fighting Siam and Qing unaided to accepting foreign influence alongside foreign weapons.

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It’s possible that Emperor Gia Long’s suspicions weren’t misplaced, or perhaps they acted solely out of desperation to survive, but in 1833 two thousand Vietnamese Catholic troops led by Father Nguyễn Văn Tâm rebelled against Minh Mạng, holding Saigon for two years while attempting to fight northwards and install Prince Cảnh (Gia Long’s firstborn) as a Catholic emperor. Though that particular effort failed, Vietnamese Catholics collaborated with French colonizers and fought against Nguyễn armies from the 1850s through the 1880s, and were rewarded with government jobs and formerly royal lands after France’s success.

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Of course, just as the Nguyễn dynasty had come to perceive their Catholic allies as dangerous interlopers within a single generation, so did the French. This is the generation, from 1875 to 1899, when Phát Diệm Cathedral was constructed: when Vietnamese Catholics were still proudly reaping what they had sown, and only beginning to perceive their privilege would not outlive their usefulness. Though European elements were inevitably incorporated, the architecture here was never intended to imitate foreign churches, and the bishops here were never foreign born.

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A Catholic never gained the Annamite throne; the French considered it more useful for the puppet emperors to remain Buddhist and Confucian, thereby appeasing the majority of Vietnamese. And France itself had just buried its last monarch (the defeated and exiled Napoléon III) in 1873, finally and permanently transitioning to Republicanism.

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The nun who showed me around was a young woman named Rose, and she was earnest in her beliefs, an intellectual, eager to learn the English names for everything (I supplied ‘sacred heart’, ‘immaculate heart of Mary’, ‘order of nuns’, and ‘stations of the cross’, among others I forget). She hoped to eventually be deployed to Europe or America or elsewhere she could see our cathedrals and hear our masses. She showed me how to ring their bell, which doesn’t have ropes; you strike it on one side with a wooden log in the manner of Buddhist temple bells. She showed me how the columns of the church were made of massive ironwood trees, in the manner of Vietnamese traditional houses; how the gongs are sounded to begin processions (where in the West, a table bell serves); how the angels’ faces had been carved and painted to reflect the local Catholic population at the time: 11 cherubim with Asian features, one with European.

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The priest who oversaw the cathedral’s construction is buried in its courtyard, with a carved stone dragon bed fronting his grave in the manner of Vietnamese emperors. The clouds painted on the ceiling are in the Asian curlicue style; the prayers overheard from the chapels are loud, uniform, continuous and monotone chants in the Buddhist manner, not the singsong intermittent mumbles of the West. In the West, three doors on the front of a church are for the convenience of getting people into the building, nothing more; here they are made in the Confucian tradition, so scholars can enter on the left, military men on the right; or women on the left and men on the right; or students on the left, teachers on the right, etc. The more you know about both temple and church architecture, the better you can appreciate the incredibly special blend of this place.

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Part of the Kim Sơn rural coast district, Phát Diệm is approximately a 45 minute drive from Ninh Binh city (about $20 on Grab) and so worth it. If you have some hours to explore, the village has several small old churches and restaurants serving local seafood specialties.

Hanoi Craft Villages | Vietnam

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According to Voice of Vietnam, within a two hours’ drive of Hanoi are 1350 craft villages, where families have passed down local artisanal skills for hundreds of years.

The most famous among them are:

  • Bát Tràng Pottery

  • Vạn Phúc Silk

  • Đông Hồ Woodcut Painting

  • Làng Vân Rice Wine

  • Non Nước Stone Carving

  • Ngũ Xã Bronze Casting

  • Phú Vinh Rattan and Bamboo Weaving

  • Đào Xá Traditional Musical Instruments

  • Quất Động Embroidery

  • Định Công Jewelry

  • Chuông Conical Hat

  • Chàng Sơn Carpentry & Fan

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As a lover of material culture, I very much wanted to visit at least a few. Based on my current shopping interests, I ended up choosing Đồng Kỵ wood carving, Hạ Thái lacquer, Chuyên Mỹ mother of pearl inlay, Quất Động embroidery, and Bát Tràng pottery.

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I paid a local tour guide $100 to drive me around to all five villages in one day. I do think it’s possible to do it on your own and have the same experience if you are comfortable on a motorbike; my tour guide had clearly not prepared anything special and we were more or less successfully walking in on craftspeople at work during the week. That said, if you plan on Grab taxi-ing it (like I would have otherwise done), even a sort of incompetent tour guide is more efficient, less stressful, costs the same, and you have someone to translate if you want to buy something.

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Speaking of shopping, I didn’t do any. I was fully prepared to spend hundreds on something special, but didn’t see anything. The villagers were mostly working to fill large, expensive, local, custom orders; what they had on offer at retail didn’t appeal. I’ve always noticed that Hanoi souvenir shops and galleries have heaps of the few same uninspiring wares. There seems to be no effort whatsoever to understand what tourists would buy. I wondered if the craft villages were really where these unremarkable things are made, and that seems to be the case.

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Once upon a time I owned a designer vintage shop, and recently I’ve been bitten by the retail bug again. The world has changed so much since I was in the game 15 years ago! Now, businesses can survive solely on social media. I’ve been toying with the idea of selling triple bottom line products I source as I travel.

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I believe there is potential in these villages to transform heritage savoir faire into modern luxury product, if I could find a local partner to handle communication and logistics. However, it would have to be built from absolute scratch; there is currently zero supply chain infrastructure in place. I also have zero capital, so it would be a slow and painful bootstrapping venture. Le sigh! I’ll get there eventually.

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Cat Cat Village, Sa Pa | Vietnam

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There’s no nice way to say it . . . Cat Cat Village is fake. It’s an entirely modern tourist trap built as a combo souvenir shop/Instagram set. Can you see ethnic minority people there? Sure. Can you buy genuine handicrafts from them? Yes, assuming you know what to look for. 

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90% of the place, however, is Vietnamese shopkeepers selling junk souvenirs and costumes to Vietnamese tourists, who spend the day taking photos for social media. The costumes are about as close to what local minority women wear as Disney’s Princess Jasmine outfit is to traditional Kurdish costume.

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No one lives in the “H’mong family houses,” they just sell batik outside. To add insult to injury, Vietnamese pop music blasts through loudspeakers, and every couple hours there’s a ridiculous dance show supposedly featuring ethnic minority performers doing traditional dances in traditional costume (nope, definitely not, and barely).

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The village is more or less a convenience. If you are:

  • too old or infirm to hike to a real village, or

  • you want to pick up Western style clothes “inspired by” the craft processes of the region (rather than wear things made by and for H’mong and Dao), or

  • you only travel for the ‘gram so you’re trying to get as many picturesque selfies as possible in one day

this is the place for you.

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Personally, I only had two hours to spend here, and almost burst into tears when it seemed like the paths of shit shops would never end, and any good landscape shot was occupied by at least 3 couples inanely posing.

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My best advice for Cat Cat village is:

#1 It’s better under the influence. The food is better, the trash souvenirs are funnier, the people taking their social media personas way too seriously seem less of a nuisance, and when you inevitably overpay for something, it bothers you less

#2 Do it backwards. The main entrance is right next door to the Sapa Sky hotel. Pay for your ticket, get a map, and then walk down the hill for 20 minutes to the other entrance and go in there. If you want to buy authentic clothes and snacks from local ethnic minority people, they occupy the far less trafficked backend of the park, probably because the rent is cheaper. 

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Trekking Sa Pa | Vietnam

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The most popular thing to do in Sa Pa is hike around the nearby villages and sleep in hill tribe homestays. It is the best way to get to know the tribes around Sa Pa, and learn a bit about their culture, how they self-identify and how they relate to each other.

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It’s also way more challenging than I expected! I was picturing a relaxing nature walk . . . nope. There was some technical hiking involved, and the villages are high up in the mountains. In my group of seven people (all with different fitness and skill levels) everyone ended up winded and sore, and a couple of us fell at least once on the washed out trails.

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I went with Lily’s travel agency, and the H’mong guide brought us on the old mountain trails the villagers use to get around, not tourist trails. Very little walking was done on paved roads or even cut steps. The dexterity of the local people (who grew up climbing the mountain trails every day) is amazing. Older people, small children, and people carrying heavy loads in shower shoes were doing better than tourists in their mid-20s with Alpine experience, hiking boots and poles!

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The physical challenge required enough of my concentration that it was hard to keep track of where we were going next and what we were supposed to see there. Differences between villages and tribes that are blatant to a local weren’t so clear to my foreign eyes, especially after dehydration, sunburn and knee problems set in . . .

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Local women on their way to Sapa would often turn around and follow along, lending a hand as necessary. When we stopped for lunch and dinner, they would try to sell us the handicrafts they kept in their baskets. Some Westerners are very annoyed by this, but I think $10 for 3 hours of sherpa service and a piece of batik is a great deal.

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They also made the cutest little motivational gifts from grasses and flowers, while I was resting or taking pictures. It takes about 3/4 of a day to get above the clouds, and I admit I felt a sense of accomplishment!

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The first village we visited was a Black Hmong village. The rice had just been harvested, so it was interesting to see what else was growing: cabbages, pumpkins, green beans, water spinach, leeks and many varieties of potatoes. Everyone had a loom to weave hemp and a vat of indigo on the porch (indigo dye smells terrible). Freshly dyed fabric was drying out on a water line or fence outside every house. Everything is blue near the houses; blue stains on the floors, fences, paths, rocks, and all the women have blue stained hands.

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There were so many dogs, the kind I am not accustomed to seeing: big mixes, mama dogs, so many puppies. Other domesticated animals included pigs, goats, chickens, ducks and water buffalo. Slaughtering an animal is a big deal here and a lot of tourists don’t realize that the beef or pork served to them is really a luxury for the people who made it. In an effort to avoid tapeworms I won’t eat pork here, and avoid beef as much as possible; the locals are always either terribly insulted or openly gleeful they get to eat my portion, never indifferent.

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I was surprised when our Black Hmong guide told us that despite living so close together for hundreds of years, the local tribes have mutually unintelligible languages; a Black Hmong can’t understand a White Hmong, for example. The mountains are so steep that until around 30 years ago, communication with the outside world was very limited and these villages were much more isolated than they seem now. Lingua Franca is Vietnamese; in the past it was French and everyone here calls me ‘Madame.’

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I think it’s fair to say the tribespeople are interested in Western commerce, but not Western culture. Everyone has a smartphone, Facebook, Whatsapp, motorbike, and they are all very keen to learn English. However, they prefer their traditional dress, traditional food, traditional lifestyle.

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Everyone marries early and has 5 or 6 kids. Women live with their husband’s family and help with farming and cleaning, but meet up with their own mothers and grandmothers to eat lunch, make clothes and craft little things to sell. Ridiculous EDM pumps in some homestays because they think Westerners like it, but a party here is staying up until 10 shooting ‘happy water’ (the rice equivalent of bathtub gin) and listening to guys play traditional flute music. Over the past 10 or so years, members of different tribes are intermarrying more and more.

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I was lucky enough to partially witness (from a respectful distance, so I don’t have pictures, sorry) two important ceremonies: the traditional breakfast party given the morning after a wedding, and the 10 year celebration of a death (including animist rituals, chanting, and the sacrifice of a water buffalo). A lot of the hill tribe people are also Catholic, meaning that though they were converted by the French a hundred years ago, and attend the church in Sapa town with some regularity, they run their lives by the lunar calendar, observing a blend of Daoist, Buddhist and Animist traditions.

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The lunch spots in the villages undeniably cater to tourists, but locals do also stop by to eat. It’s usually just someone’s house with a poured cement area for diners. They always let other locals sell groceries or knick-knacks in front. We also walked through a bamboo forest, and saw endless large potted plants, many on pedestals. I was very surprised to learn they are exotic orchids being cultivated for export! Further down the mountain, poinsettias for Christmas were also being grown.

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I paid $75 for my 3 days of trekking with 2 nights at homestays, transport to and from Hanoi, and meals included. In my opinion it’s an unbeatable value for a must-do experience. HOWEVER, if you are not particularly athletic, don’t feel bad about doing a one day trek and homestay instead of something longer; you won’t miss much. My best advice is to check weather reports and plan your trip for sunny days. When it’s rainy the trails get dangerous, and when it’s cloudy you won’t get the spectacular mountain views people go for.

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Temple of Literature, Hanoi | Vietnam

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The Temple of Literature (Vietnamese: Văn Miếu) is my favorite respite in Hanoi proper. Strolling through helps me forget the overwhelming noise, pollution and business outside, and I can easily spend a couple hours here relaxing.

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Founded as a Confucian temple in 1072, by 1076 Quốc Tử Giám University was built over an area just south of the temple, now taken up by 12 city blocks. The school/worship center was where civil servants were trained to serve the Lý dynasty.

The Confucian education system was inherited from the previous thousand years of Chinese occupation (111 BC to 980 AD) and therefore initially derived most of its content and structure from the Chinese system of educating mandarins.

Students generally studied for 3-7 years, learning classical Chinese, Chinese philosophy, Chinese history, and poetry composition. Among others, students read The Four Books (Tứ thư, 四書): "The Great Study" (Đại Học, 大學), "The Golden Means" (Trung Dung, 中庸), "The Analects" (Luận Ngữ, 論語) and "Mencius" (Mạnh Tử, 孟子); Five Pre-Confucian Classics (Ngũ Kinh, 五經): "Book of Odes (Kinh Thi, 詩經), "Book of Annals" (Kinh Thư, 書經), "Book of Rites" (Kinh Lễ, 禮記), "Book of Change" (Kinh Dịch, 易經) and "Book of Spring and Autumn" (Kinh Xuân Thu, 春秋).

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The Trần dynasty (1225 - 1400) opened up civil service to commoners, and during this time the famously difficult and competitive exam system developed into its 3 stage form. At specific fortuitous intervals on the Lunar calendar (around 2-3 years apart), exams were administered at provincial, national, and finally royal levels, with the national level schooling and exams taking place at the Temple of Literature. The royal exam was administered by the emperor personally and took place at court.

Four ranks were awarded to successful applicants:

Trạng nguyên (狀元) – first place, reserved for the best scholars

  • Bảng nhãn (榜眼) – second place

  • Thám hoa (探花) – third place

  • Tiến sĩ (進士) – all the other successful applicants

First place was reserved for exceptional genius, not simply scoring the highest in any given exam year. In roughly 800 years of educating scholar/servants, the trạng nguyên rank was only awarded to 55 men.

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Though the Vietnamese adapted Chinese script to create their own language (Chữ-Nôm) in the 10th century, it was only in the 12th and 13th centuries that Chữ-Nôm was systematized as the official language of government (and recognized as part of meaningful literature), with appropriate bilingual study materials issued. The classical Chinese characters visible throughout the temple today are Chữ-Nôm, and therefore unintelligible to Chinese readers.

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During the Lê dynasty, successful examinees were honored by having their names inscribed on the stone steles still displayed today. The stones tell us that between 1443 and 1778 over a hundred exams were held, with about 20 successful candidates emerging from each exam.

The school limped past the 1770 fall of the Lê dynasty, but eventually closed in 1779 during the Tây Sơn era of decentralized dynasties and peasant revolts. Coming to power in 1802, the Nguyễn dynasty moved their capital from Hà Nội to Huế, opening the new imperial academy there. The former Quốc Tử Giám was reopened as a Hoài Đức district school.

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By the time Hanoï was made the capital of French Indochina in 1902, the school had emptied of students and fallen into sufficient disrepair for the French to nickname it “the pagoda of crows,” both a metaphor for its death as a cultural center, and a literal description of the multiple crows nests in old mango trees throughout.

Despite registering the temple as a historic monument in 1906, the French first phased out imperial exams from 1913-1916, and then destroyed large sections of the site during the First Indochina War (1945 - 1954). What stands today is the restored temple complex, but not the outlying school and dormitory buildings.

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The layout of the temple was modeled on that of the temple at Qufu, Shandong (Confucius’ birthplace). In Confucianism, morality means respecting the 5 essential social relationships:

  1. Ruler and Subject

  2. Father and Son

  3. Elder Brother and Younger Brother

  4. Husband and Wife

  5. Friend and Friend

Furthermore, there are five essential elements that form the world: metal, wood, fire, water and earth.

Therefore, there are five consecutive walled courtyards connected by gateways, though in terms of exploration there are really seven main sections:

  1. the entry with 4 pillars and Văn Miếu gate

  2. the first courtyard and Đại Trung gate

  3. the second courtyard with the Khuê Văn Các (Pleiades pavilion)

  4. the third courtyard with the Thiên Quang Tinh (heavenly light well), stele pavilions, and Đại Thành (gate of great success)

  5. the fourth courtyard with East and West shrines for Confucian disciples and the Ceremony House

  6. the fifth courtyard with a shrine to the god of the place and East and West guard houses

  7. and finally the Đền Khải Thánh sanctuary and academy building

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The four pillars that form the street entrance famously warn riders to dismount. Entry tickets and audio guides are sold just next to the flag lined area. The bronze bell in the front Văn Miếu gate dates from the Trần dynasty, is inscribed with a phoenix and dragon symbolizing the emperor and empress, can only be touched by monks, and was only rung to announce the entry of very prestigious visitors. Walking under the bell to hand your ticket to the security guard, you are on the central path, once reserved solely for royalty (all others had to enter through either of the side gates and walk down those paths).

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At graduation and back-to-school seasons, you can find busloads of Vietnamese students of all ages racing through the first courtyard to pose at the various gates. The first gate, connecting the first and second courtyards, is the Đại Trung Môn, translated as “great middle gate”. It is so called because it combines the names of two important works of Confucianism: Đại Học (Great Learning) and Trung Dung (The Doctrine of the Mean). T

The carp symbol at the top references a Chinese proverb explaining that while many carp swim against the stream, the few that manage to jump over the waterfall become dragons. The left side gate is the gate of Accomplished Virtue (Thành Đức), and the right side gate is the gate of Attained Talent (Đạt Tài). In Chinese tradition, the left side is more important than the right, so these gates serve to remind students that talent will only get you so far, hard work has to take you the rest of the way.

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The second courtyard is my personal favorite area of the temple, and is where students traditionally spent their time studying and relaxing outdoors. The waterlily ponds and lawns remain incredibly soothing!

The Khuê Văn Các (constellations pavilion) is named to symbolize the Temple of Literature’s role as the brightest star in the Vietnamese educational and cultural firmament. The circle and square ornament enclosing the bell symbolizes sky and earth, yin and yang.

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In the third courtyard, the Thiên Quang Tinh (heavenly light well) served both as a literal mirror for scholars to dress themselves appropriately and as a symbol for calm and careful reflection.

There are 82 steles of doctors (9 of the original 91 have been lost to war and natural disasters). The bases of the steles are carved as tortoises who literally stand for longevity and wisdom, ensuring the names of the successful students last forever.

The Đại Thành Môn (gate of great success) connecting the third and fourth courtyards is the architectural distinction between the areas meant for relatively casual student use, and the areas intended for worship.

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In the fourth courtyard, the once Eastern and Western shrines for Confucian worshippers are now dedicated to tourist retail and offices. Formerly the Eastern building was devoted to Confucius and the Western building to Chu Văn An (the most famous historic master of the Imperial Academy). Now you can buy a bottle of water or an artistic bit of calligraphy here. Every effort is made to prune the potted plants into animal shapes, with little success.

The Đại Bái Đường (House of Ceremony) is the first really impressive interior, where new doctors kneeled and prayed for both physical longevity (symbolized by the crane) and eternal acclaim (symbolized by the turtle). Just beyond the House of Ceremony is the Đại Thành Sanctuary, where locals still come to worship and bring offerings for Confucius and his four greatest disciples. In the past, emperors and other eminences have worshipped here.

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The fifth courtyard is oddly empty and unornamented. There’s a second street exit on the south west end. The buildings on the side are shuttered. I have met one person who visited on a Saturday afternoon/evening and happened upon a classical Vietnamese musical performance of some sort happening here.

At the far end are the former guard houses, which now house little local art exhibits and a stand where you can purchase? or rent? (I don’t know, I’ve thankfully evaded them to date) scarves so as to not offend the religious old ladies squawking in loud disapproval of your shoulders/arms/cleavage/miniskirt.

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Beyond the guard houses is the old Imperial Academy administration building. Downstairs there are displays of relics that once belonged to scholars and students, including books, calligraphy brushes, ceremonial robes, scrolls and their lacquered cases, royal decrees etc. There are also a few very very old photos of the buildings and grounds from the turn of the last century. It’s incredible to see how this rather visually empty area has become a very densely populated urban neighborhood.

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One current use of the building that connects with its past is its role as the site for judging entries in national contests of various traditional Vietnamese art forms. I have seen elderly, traditionally dressed judges carefully examining the finalist entries for annual ceramics, waterolor, and calligraphy contests here.

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Upstairs is dedicated to the worship of the three emperors who contributed the most to the temple and university:

  • Lý Thánh Tông (1023–1072), who founded the temple in 1070 (middle altar)

  • Lý Nhân Tông (1066–1127), who founded the Imperial Academy (right altar)

  • Lê Thánh Tông (1442–1497), who introduced the steles in 1484 (left altar)

There’s a little balcony in front with a great open view of the old sections of the city.

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Back outside, there’s a pagoda bell that was cast in 2000, when the fifth courtyard was renovated. I’ve never heard it rung! In Buddhism generally, the belief is that ringing the bell awakens the mind, reminding Buddhists to share love and pray for peace. Supposedly when the bell’s peals reach heaven, the dead rest in peace; when the peals reach hell, sinners are temporarily released from their suffering. In traditional Vietnamese bronze casting, it’s known that mixing in a certain proportion of pure gold helps the sound of the bell carry farther. In Vietnam, donors are proud to donate real gold (at great expense, obviously) for pagoda bells, considering it a family honor.

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If you can’t tell, for me this a Hanoi must-do. Tickets are 30,000 VND (less than $2 USD) and audio guides (which are totally worth it!!) are an additional amount.

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