Walking along an ordinary village road lined with houses and rice fields, visitors suddenly cross a high, grass-covered earthen ridge shaded by trees. No sign marks the spot. A short distance further, the road crosses a second ridge, and then a third. Passing all three brings visitors into the innermost ring, and those earthen ridges are the oldest surviving citadel ramparts in Vietnam.
Within that innermost ring lies a tract of land holding a temple, a small shrine, a communal house, a pagoda, and a round well before the temple gate. Placed side by side in this cluster are remarkably different subjects of worship, from a founding king and a crossbow-making general to a princess and the village tutelary god of Cổ Loa. Those layers of worship are bound into a single whole, making this complex unlike any other ritual site in the country.
IVenerating a king and a tragedy within the royal house
The worship complex inside the citadel comprises the following sanctuaries, each dedicated to its own subject:
- Đền Thượng (Upper Temple) honors King An Dương Vương (Thục Phán), ruler of the kingdom of Âu Lạc. Villagers call it the Upper Temple because it stands on a high mound in the southwestern corner of the Inner Citadel.
- Am Bà Chúa (Shrine of the Princess), commonly called Am Mỵ Châu (Mỵ Châu Shrine), honors Princess Mỵ Châu, the king's daughter.
- Đình Ngự Triều Di Quy (Ngự Triều Di Quy Communal House) venerates the king in his role as the village tutelary god (thành hoàng) of Cổ Loa, while also co-enshrining General Cao Lỗ.
- Đền thờ Cao Lỗ (Cao Lỗ Temple), standing near Đầm Cả Lake, specifically honors the general who helped the king design the ramparts and devise the multi-bolt crossbow (nỏ liên châu).
- Chùa Cổ Loa (Cổ Loa Pagoda, formally Bảo Sơn Tự) and Chùa Mạch Tràng (Mạch Tràng Pagoda) worship the Buddha in the northern Mahayana tradition.
The story behind this complex is well known across Vietnam, and this page does not retell the military narrative: the kingdom of Âu Lạc fell, the old capital passed through later eras (including a second turn as national capital under Ngô Quyền in 939), and the local residents established shrines to the first king who built his capital on their soil. What merits close attention here is how ancestor veneration and the remembrance of predecessors have been maintained on this exact tract of land across two thousand years.
A headless natural stone
Inside Am Bà Chúa rests a natural stone block, not a carved statue, whose shape suggests a seated human figure lacking a head. Villagers regard it as the body of Princess Mỵ Châu. Draped in robes, crowned with a headscarf, and set upon an altar pedestal like a statue, the stone receives incense offerings as an enshrined figure.
This is one of the most forthright forms of veneration preserved in Vietnamese folk belief. Ordinarily, when people wish to enshrine someone, they carve a statue. Here the village did not carve one. They accepted a stone formed by nature in its incomplete state and venerated that very incompleteness. The legend of Mỵ Châu is the story of a daughter beheaded at the end of a dynastic tragedy, and the object venerated is likewise headless. No decorative artifice stands between the story and the form.
Read through the lens of indigenous belief, the layers of worship here overlap without erasing one another. The first layer is royal and martial veneration, honoring the founder and defender of the realm within the tradition of national ancestors and kings, complete with imperial investiture decrees and court-style sacrifices. The second layer is veneration of a member of the royal household who is tied to the most tragic turn of the story. The third layer is tutelary deity worship, bringing that same king into the communal house as the guardian spirit of a specific village.
For a single community to enshrine both the ruler who bore responsibility and the daughter who bore the consequence, placing their altars a few dozen paces apart, is rare. In most places, worship centers on triumphs. At Cổ Loa, what is venerated includes the wound. The villagers did not rewrite the legend to give it a happy ending. They simply set down both altars and lit incense before both.
Accompanying this worship are several local taboos observed by residents of the eight villages around the citadel. Passed down orally, with each village keeping its own customs, these taboos mainly concern naming and dress during the festival season so as not to touch upon the tragic elements of the legend. Outside visitors are not bound by these village rules, though knowing of them helps one show quiet respect.
The most common misconception at Cổ Loa is assuming that the buildings standing inside the citadel date back to the time of King An Dương Vương. They do not. The earthen ramparts do belong to the earliest period, around the 3rd century BCE, forming the oldest layer of the site. Yet the entire worship complex is much later: Đền Thượng reflects 17th- to 18th-century architecture with a major late-19th-century restoration, Bảo Sơn Pagoda was founded in the early 17th century, and Ngự Triều Di Quy Communal House was built in 1907, just over a century ago.
The name of the communal house can also mislead. Ngự Triều Di Quy means the surviving rule and footprint of the royal court, and the building stands on ground that villagers believe was the site of the ancient audience hall. That is a local tradition of place rather than an archaeological conclusion, and the timber hall itself is an early-20th-century structure. Separating the two-thousand-year-old memory of the ground from the century-old building keeps the timeline clear.
IITwo thousand years on a single tract of land
What stands out at Cổ Loa is not a single date but continuity. The royal capital moved away, yet the people remained, and each generation added another structure to this ground. Reading the timeline in sequence reveals two millennia of steady accumulation.
- 3rd century BCEConstruction of the earthen rampartsThree spiral earthen walls, the Inner, Middle, and Outer Citadels, were raised across nearly 46 hectares of rampart footprint within a 500-hectare heritage zone. In 939, Ngô Quyền also chose this site as his royal capital.
- Early 17th centuryFounding of Bảo Sơn PagodaCổ Loa Pagoda, formally named Bảo Sơn Tự, was built behind the communal house inside the citadel. Heritage records count 132 historical artifacts preserved in the pagoda.
- 17th to 18th centuryShaping of Đền ThượngBased on its architectural components and artifacts, Đền Thượng reflects the Revival Lê period. The temple compound covers about 19,138.6 square meters.
- 1732Pair of stone dragons before the ceremonial gateThe pair of stone dragons flanking the steps of Đền Thượng was carved in the Nhâm Tý year (1732) under the Revival Lê dynasty, representing one of the most securely dated artifacts at the temple.
- 1897Casting of the bronze statue of King An Dương VươngAfter villagers unearthed an ancient hoard of bronze underground while restoring Đền Thượng in 1893, they cast the bronze statue of Founding Emperor An Dương, completing it on the 16th day of the 5th lunar month of the Đinh Dậu year (1897).
- 1907Construction of Ngự Triều Di Quy Communal HouseThe communal house was erected on the ground believed by villagers to be the former royal audience hall. Built on an inverted-T (chữ Đinh) plan, its main hall has five bays and two side wings with a chồng rường giá chiêng timber frame.
- 1962National heritage rankingThe Cổ Loa site was ranked in the first batch of National Historical and Cultural Heritage Sites.
- 2012Special national heritage siteCổ Loa was designated a Special National Heritage Site under Decision 1419/QĐ-TTg on September 27, 2012, classified as a historical, architectural-artistic, and archaeological monument.
- 2015 to 2023Intangible heritage and three National TreasuresThe Cổ Loa bronze drum and plowshare collection (2015), the crossbow-bolt casting mold collection (2020), and the bronze statue of An Dương Vương (January 2023) were named National Treasures. The Cổ Loa festival entered the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage under Decision 603/QĐ-BVHTTDL on February 3, 2021.
One discrepancy in the sources should be stated plainly. Regarding the weight of the bronze statue in the rear sanctuary of Đền Thượng, a Chinese-character inscription cast onto the statue itself reads Đồng tượng nhị bách ngũ thập ngũ cân, meaning 255 cân (traditional catty units, often cited as 255 kilograms in popular accounts), whereas the summary dossier of the Department of Cultural Heritage records about 200 kilograms. Because the difference stems from converting traditional weight units into modern kilograms, the library records both figures.
Regarding the number of component sites within the complex, publications vary depending on how they count: some list around sixty sites including archaeological loci such as Mả Tre (where the bronze drum was unearthed in 1982) and the crossbow-bolt foundry excavated between 2004 and 2007, while others count only the five or six principal worship structures. This is a difference in scope of enumeration rather than a factual contradiction.
IIIThe worship cluster inside the ramparts
The wider heritage zone encompasses three earthen rampart rings, numerous archaeological sites, and residential villages. This page focuses on the worship cluster inside the Inner Citadel and its immediate surroundings. Đền Thượng stands on a high mound at the southwestern corner of the Inner Citadel, Am Mỵ Châu and Ngự Triều Di Quy Communal House lie near the center of the Inner Citadel, Bảo Sơn Pagoda sits directly behind the communal house, and the Jade Well lies right in front of the Đền Thượng gate.
The principal sanctuary of the complex, covering 19,138.6 square meters and facing south. Its halls align along a sacred axis from the outer ceremonial gate, inner gate, dragon courtyard, front hall, middle hall, and rear sanctuary, flanked by two side galleries (giải vũ). Before the steps stand the 1732 stone dragons, and inside the rear sanctuary sits the 1897 bronze statue of King An Dương Vương, a National Treasure.
A round well set in the middle of a crescent-shaped pond directly before Đền Thượng. Folk tradition links the well to the closing chapter of the Mỵ Châu and Trọng Thủy story, while architecturally the well and pond form a water mirror in front of the temple gate.
A small shrine shaded by an ancient banyan tree beside the communal house, housing the headless natural stone revered as the body of Princess Mỵ Châu, dressed in robes and headscarf. Though the smallest structure in the cluster, it draws as many worshippers as Đền Thượng.
Built in 1907 on the ground believed to be the ancient royal court, laid out on an inverted-T (chữ Đinh) plan with a five-bay, two-wing main hall, curved corner eaves, and a six-row timber frame. Above the ceremonial archway hangs a four-character plaque bearing the hall's name.
Cao Lỗ Temple honors the general who designed the citadel and the multi-bolt crossbow. Bảo Sơn Pagoda and Mạch Tràng Pagoda worship the Buddha in the Mahayana tradition (Buddhism). Founded in the early 17th century behind the communal house, Bảo Sơn Pagoda preserves 132 artifacts, while Mạch Tràng Pagoda in Mạch Tràng village bears 18th-century architectural features.
Three earthen enclosures, the Inner, Middle, and Outer Citadels, whose rampart footprint covers nearly 46 hectares. They form the oldest historical layer and the physical frame containing the entire worship cluster, now interwoven with village homes and fields.
One layout feature deserves special notice: a Buddhist pagoda sits right inside a royal worship complex. At most heritage sites associated with former dynasties, if a pagoda exists, it stands outside as a separate precinct. At Cổ Loa, Bảo Sơn Pagoda stands immediately behind the communal house and beside the princess's shrine, sharing the same village lanes. That arrangement shows that this ground was never frozen as a closed memorial park. It remained a living village, and every spiritual institution the residents needed was built side by side over the centuries.
Regarding the Chinese characters at the top of the page, those two characters read Cổ Loa, meaning Ancient Spiral (or Ancient Snail), named after the swirling plan of the earthen ramparts. This name is attested in classical Sino-Vietnamese historical texts.
IVThe lie of the land and orientation
This section presents the library's reading through the lens of traditional Vietnamese geomancy (phong thủy), rather than statements recorded on stone stelae or in official monument dossiers. The library notes this clearly so readers can distinguish archival fact from geomantic interpretation. For a site once chosen as a national capital, this reading is especially pertinent, as ancient builders examined capital grounds more carefully than any other terrain.
First is its position within the river delta. Cổ Loa lies on the left bank of the Red River in a basin where the ancient Hoàng Giang River connected with the Red, Đuống, and Cà Lồ rivers, rising on a tract of mounds higher than the surrounding floodplain. In traditional site reading, this is a water-mouth convergence (thủy khẩu hội tụ), where multiple waterways meet. Classical manuals regard such a junction as the strongest point where terrain gathers qi, because water flows in from several directions before dispersing. Siting a capital at a water junction secured both vital energy and boat transport, representing an early Vietnamese approach to capital selection that predated mountain-backed capitals.
Second is the spiral geometry of the ramparts, which gave the site its name. The three earthen rings are not regular concentric circles but curl inward upon one another, requiring anyone entering from outside to wind along curved paths rather than walk straight through. In classical geomancy, this resembles a returning dragon looking back toward its ancestor (hồi long cố tổ): incoming energy does not rush straight through but spirals inward, with each ring retaining a portion until it settles in the innermost enclosure. Traditional texts favor winding approaches over straight axes, since a straight channel lets qi depart as quickly as it arrives.
Third is the siting of Đền Thượng. The temple is placed not at the geometric center of the Inner Citadel, but on a high mound in its southwestern corner, traditionally called Kim Quy (Golden Turtle) Mound, and it faces south. South is the favored orientation of northern Vietnamese temples, receiving sunlight and summer breezes while blocking cold winter winds. Directly before the temple gate lie the crescent pond and the Jade Well, providing a bright hall (minh đường) and water gathering (thủy tụ). Behind the temple rise the high mound and the thick earthen rampart, forming a rear pillow (hậu chẩm). In a delta plain without mountains, the natural mound joined to the man-made earthen wall serves as the backing mountain, a distinctive feature of Cổ Loa where human earthwork reinforced natural topography.
Fourth is the spatial relationship among the sanctuaries. Đền Thượng occupies the highest ground and faces outward along the main axis. Am Bà Chúa nestles beneath an ancient banyan tree on lower, more sheltered ground off the temple's main axis. Ngự Triều Di Quy Communal House stands near the center of the Inner Citadel where villagers gather. Read in traditional terms, this layout mirrors the hierarchy of a household: the father sits on high ground facing outward, the daughter rests in a sheltered spot turned inward, and communal village affairs occupy the middle ground. Here the lie of the land follows not only topography, but also the kinship and ritual relationship among those venerated.
Finally, there is the canopy of ancient trees. Am Mỵ Châu and several shrines in the complex are shaded by centuries-old banyan trees with wide crowns and exposed roots. In traditional thought, a sanctuary that sustains great trees on its own ground possesses a living dragon vein (long mạch) capable of nourishing life. No stone stele at Cổ Loa records a formal geomantic formula for siting the capital, so the observations above are offered as a comparative reading through traditional Vietnamese eyes.
VThe eight-village covenant and the first-month festival
The most distinctive ritual feature at Cổ Loa is that worship belongs not to a single village, but to an alliance of eight villages under a covenant known as bát xã hộ nhi (the eight guardian villages of Loa Thành). Those eight villages are Cổ Loa, Văn Thượng, Mạch Tràng, Sằn Giã, Ngoại Sát, Đài Bi, Cầu Cả, and Thư Cưu, formerly located across Cổ Loa, Uy Nỗ, Xuân Canh, and Liên Hà communes of the former Đông Anh District.
Joining the festival is Quậy village (Hà Vĩ, in the former Liên Hà commune). According to local tradition, the people of Quậy were the original inhabitants of the Cổ Loa tract who voluntarily ceded their land and relocated so King An Dương Vương could build his citadel. For that deed, the eight villages revere Quậy village as the eldest brother (anh cả), seating its elders on the upper mat and entrusting them with reading the confidential prayer (mật khẩn) on the main festival day. Among the eight covenant villages, Cổ Loa serves as host because the temple stands on its soil. Each village maintains its own palanquin, ritual team, and assigned duties, marching in a fixed procession order that never changes.
| Lunar date | Rite | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 11th and 12th lunar months of the preceding year | Preparations | The eight villages hold joint council meetings, select ritual officiants (quan đám), assign duties, and rehearse sacrifices and processions, the longest phase of the festival cycle. |
| 5th day of the 1st lunar month | Preliminary sacrifice and opening of the temple | Announcement rites at Đền Thượng, procession of the prayer text to the temple, joint preliminary sacrifices (giáp tế) by the eight villages, and preparation of palanquins and ritual vessels. |
| 6th day of the 1st lunar month | Main festival day and joint grand sacrifice | The principal day, traditionally commemorating King An Dương Vương's coronation. Elders of Quậy village read the mật khẩn prayer, the joint sacrifice (tế hội đồng) lasts over two hours with sixty-seven liturgical calls, and the palanquin processions of all eight villages converge on the Đền Thượng courtyard. |
| 6th to 15th day of the 1st lunar month | Extended festival period | Individual villages continue rites at their own communal houses and shrines, while festivities carry on in the temple courtyard and citadel grounds. |
| Throughout the festival | Folk games and performances | Crossbow shooting, swinging, wrestling, human chess, classical tuồng opera, and water puppetry, performed in rotation by the villages. |
| 1st and 15th days of every lunar month | New-moon and full-moon offerings (lễ sóc vọng) | Regular incense offerings at Đền Thượng, Am Bà Chúa, and the communal house without palanquin processions. |
A minor point regarding festival dates deserves clarification. Monument management dossiers list the festival as running from the 5th to the 6th day of the 1st lunar month, with the 6th as the main day. Many popular accounts simply state the 6th day of the 1st lunar month because that is the date everyone remembers. In practice, ceremonial rites begin on the 5th and village festivities can continue until the full moon on the 15th. All three descriptions refer to the same cycle, differing only in whether they count the core state-recognized days or the full village season.
Also noteworthy is the joint grand sacrifice (tế hội đồng) with sixty-seven liturgical calls, one of the longest and most complete traditional sacrificial liturgies preserved in the Red River Delta. Rather than a modern reenactment, this liturgy has been memorized and handed down across generations by the ritual teams of the eight villages, serving as the anchor that keeps the bát xã hộ nhi alliance united as a single ceremony rather than eight separate village rites.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Thôn Cổ Loa, xã Cổ Loa cũ, nay là xã Đông Anh, Hà Nội
- Getting there
- Located in Cổ Loa village, Đông Anh Commune, Hanoi (within the former Cổ Loa Commune), about seventeen to twenty kilometers north of central Hanoi depending on the route. All worship structures sit within the Inner Citadel ring and can be visited on foot.
- Coordinates
- 21.1122, 105.8714
This is an active worship complex set in the middle of living villages rather than a museum park. Visitors are expected to observe local custom: dress modestly, remove hats when entering the inner halls, walk quietly in the rear sanctuary of Đền Thượng, and refrain from touching the bronze statue, the stone dragons, or the altar vessels. At Am Bà Chúa in particular, visitors should not touch the natural stone or disturb the robes and headscarf draped over it, nor drop anything into the Jade Well. Because the earthen ramparts are archaeological monuments, visitors should keep to established footpaths and avoid climbing eroding sections of the walls.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
Contribute photos, information or video for Co Loa Citadel and Temple Complex
Góp ảnh, thông tin hoặc video cho Khu di tích Cổ LoaEveryone is welcome to enrich this page: a photo you took, a detail the page misses, a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
Thầy Ưng Khiêm mời cộng đồng cùng làm giàu trang này. Ảnh chụp tận nơi, một chi tiết lịch sử chưa được nhắc, một đoạn video ngắn: mọi đóng góp đều được đọc và trả lời.
No community contribution yet. You could be the first. Chưa có đóng góp nào từ cộng đồng. Bạn có thể là người đầu tiên.
?Quick Questions
Who is venerated at Cổ Loa
Đền Thượng honors King An Dương Vương, ruler of Âu Lạc. Am Bà Chúa honors his daughter Princess Mỵ Châu through a headless natural stone rather than a carved statue. Ngự Triều Di Quy Communal House venerates the king as the village tutelary deity alongside General Cao Lỗ. The complex also includes a separate temple for General Cao Lỗ and two Mahayana Buddhist pagodas, Bảo Sơn and Mạch Tràng.
What is the bát xã hộ nhi covenant
It is the traditional alliance of eight villages that jointly venerate King An Dương Vương and hold a shared annual festival: Cổ Loa, Văn Thượng, Mạch Tràng, Sằn Giã, Ngoại Sát, Đài Bi, Cầu Cả, and Thư Cưu. In addition, Quậy village (Hà Vĩ) is honored as the eldest brother because its ancestors ceded the land to build the citadel. Each village has its own palanquin and ritual team, marching in an unchanging order.
When is the Cổ Loa festival held
Ceremonial rites begin on the 5th day of the 1st lunar month, the main festival day falls on the 6th, and folk festivities can last until the 15th. The central rites are the reading of the mật khẩn prayer by Quậy village elders, the joint grand sacrifice with sixty-seven liturgical calls, and the procession of palanquins from all eight villages to Đền Thượng.
What is the stone inside Mỵ Châu Shrine
It is a natural stone block, not a human-carved statue, shaped like a seated figure without a head. Villagers revere it as the body of Princess Mỵ Châu, dressing it in robes and a headscarf and offering incense to it on the altar, a rare form of worship that preserves the tragedy's incompleteness directly in the object of veneration.
Do the temple buildings at Cổ Loa date from King An Dương Vương's time
No. Only the three earthen rampart rings date to the early period around the 3rd century BCE. The worship buildings are much later: Đền Thượng reflects 17th- to 18th-century architecture with a bronze statue cast in 1897, Bảo Sơn Pagoda dates from the early 17th century, and Ngự Triều Di Quy Communal House was built in 1907 on ground believed by villagers to be the former royal court.