Cross the brick courtyard into the five-bay front hall and you meet something unusual among the temples of the northern delta. The main altar here does not honor a village tutelary god (thành hoàng), nor a general raised to divine rank, nor the Mother Goddess. It honors the Jade Emperor (Ngọc Hoàng Thượng đế), ruler of the whole sky in the old way of imagining it, flanked by the Five Old Immortals (Ngũ Lão Tiên Ông) and the immortals of heaven and earth.
Back in the courtyard you meet the second unusual thing, a tower of terracotta about four and a half meters tall, its body divided into many tiers and covered in carving. Many-tiered terracotta towers are usually associated with Buddhist pagodas, yet this one stands in the courtyard of a temple to the Jade Emperor. These two details alone are enough to show that An Xá is not like the temples around it.
IThe Jade Emperor and the heavenly immortals
The temple honors the Jade Emperor at the main altar, together with the Five Old Immortals, the heavenly immortals (Thiên tiên) and the earthly immortals (Địa tiên). According to the heritage records, the beings worshipped here are those who opened up the wild marshland and taught the people to farm. That is the key point. The worship of heaven here does not hang in the air but is rooted in the very work of a delta village.
The two Chinese characters beside the title are the library's own rendering of the place name An Xá in Sino-Vietnamese, not copied from a board or stele in the temple. According to the file of the Department of Cultural Heritage, the formal name of the temple is Thụy Ứng Quán, the Shrine of Auspicious Response, and these three characters are still carved on the stone frieze of the rear sanctuary.
In the Taoist pantheon, the Jade Emperor governs the whole realm of heaven, standing above the ranks of celestial beings and over the immortals as well. Below him are many ranks, among them the heavenly immortals, who dwell in heaven, and the earthly immortals, who dwell on earth. In the northern delta this system mostly could not stand on its own. The Jade Emperor was often pushed to a side altar in a Buddhist pagoda, or absorbed into the altars of the Three and Four Palaces of the Mother Goddess religion, or reduced to a name in a prayer. Very few places have kept the Jade Emperor at the main altar with the full ranks of immortals around him, and An Xá is one of those very few.
A point needs adding, to keep things in proportion. This is not a Taoist temple (đạo quán) in the strict sense of Chinese Taoism, with Taoist priests, scriptures and monastic rules. It is a village temple, worshipping in the folk manner, but the pantheon it honors is drawn from Taoism. What survives is the pantheon, not a whole religious institution.
The temple's second name is also worth reading. The place is commonly called Đền Đậu An, and the word Đậu is not a family name or a personal name. According to the heritage records of the Department of Cultural Heritage, this is one of eight sites bearing the name Đậu in the former Phù Tiên district, the area that later became the districts of Tiên Lữ and Phù Cừ. The records state that sites called Đậu are tied to Taoism and are found only in Hưng Yên, nowhere else in the country. A name that exists only in a narrow area and is tied to a particular layer of worship is usually the trace of a local tradition with a long history.
IITwo ways of counting the temple's age
Of all the places the library has written about, this is the temple whose dates disagree most sharply. The gap between the two ways of counting is not a few decades but nearly two thousand years. The library records both and says plainly what each rests on.
- The legendary layerThe Five Old Immortals descend, and the Thụy Ứng shrineLocal legend tells that the Jade Emperor sent the Five Old Immortals and other immortals down to help the people clear the wild land, drive off wild beasts and teach farming. Press reports quoting local accounts say the first place of worship was built before the Common Era under the name Thụy Ứng Quán, putting the temple's age at about two thousand two hundred years.
- 16th centuryThe terracotta altarThe terracotta altar in the temple bears the marks of the 16th century according to its national treasure file, and is the earliest securely dated object at the site.
- 16th to 17th centuryThe date in the heritage fileThe Department of Cultural Heritage records that the temple was built at the latest around the 16th to 17th century and restored many times afterward. This date rests on the surviving objects and architecture.
- 1676 and 1773The stone chime and the bronze bellThe stone chime bears the Vĩnh Trị reign date of 1676. The bronze bell, 1.7 meters tall and weighing about 880 kilograms, was cast in the thirty-fourth year of the Cảnh Hưng era, 1773. These are two dates confirmed by inscriptions.
- 2020Special national heritage siteAn Xá Temple was ranked a special national heritage site under Decision No. 2280 signed on 31 December 2020.
- 2021 and 2023Two national treasuresThe terracotta tower was recognized as a national treasure under Decision No. 2198 signed on 25 December 2021. The terracotta altar was recognized under Decision No. 41 signed on 30 January 2023.
The most common misunderstanding here is the age of the temple. The library sets it out plainly in the voice of the historical record, without taking either side to task.
The first way of counting follows the heritage file. The Department of Cultural Heritage records that the temple was built at the latest around the 16th to 17th century and then restored many times. This count rests on things that can be touched and read, the 16th-century style of the terracotta altar, the stone chime of the Vĩnh Trị era dated 1676, the bronze bell of the Cảnh Hưng era dated 1773. The words at the latest also deserve attention. The heritage authority leaves open the possibility that the temple is older, only it cannot confirm how much older.
The second way of counting follows local legend. Accounts in the area and some newspaper articles say the temple dates from before the Common Era, originally under the name Thụy Ứng Quán, and put its age at about two thousand two hundred years.
The two counts are not of the same kind. One is a date established by study, the other is the date of a legend. The library records both because both are in use. One more thing is worth saying. Even taking the most cautious date, the 16th century, An Xá remains one of the rare places in the northern delta to have kept the worship of the heavenly immortals, and that value does not depend on which figure one chooses.
IIIThe Công-shaped plan and two national treasures
The temple faces south, with a plan in the shape of the character Công (工), two transverse halls linked by a longitudinal one in the middle. This is a familiar layout for communal houses and temples in northern Vietnam, but An Xá has one unfamiliar detail. The linking hall and the rear sanctuary are both built entirely of solid blocks of bluestone.
The outer hall (tiền tế), five bays, about 20.6 meters long, about 8.05 meters wide and about 9.79 meters high. The central bay holds the altar of the Jade Emperor, and the two side bays hold the altars of the heavenly and earthly immortals.
The hall (ống muống) joining the front hall to the rear sanctuary, about 6.4 meters wide and about 5.53 meters high, built entirely of solid blocks of bluestone.
The innermost hall (hậu cung), three bays, about 9.2 meters long and about 6.1 meters wide, its front wall, columns and roof trusses all of solid bluestone. According to the file of the Department of Cultural Heritage, it holds the altar of the Three Pure Ones and the Six Imperial Lords (Tam Thanh Lục Ngự), with the terracotta altar table at its center.
Two places of worship off the main axis. The name Thiên Quan, the Official of Heaven, keeps exactly the meaning of the pantheon honored here.
The Mother Temple stands to the left of the gateway, facing the Thiên Quan Temple, showing that the worship of the Mother Goddess is present within the grounds, beside the worship of the heavenly immortals rather than in its place. The Memorial Temple, against the left gable of the main temple, honors those who led the building and restoration of the temple.
Two communal houses (đình) outside the grounds to the east, part of the heritage complex according to the records of the Department of Cultural Heritage. Đình Vô, about 200 meters from the temple, honors Lỗ Quốc chúa Võ Đại vương, one of the Five Old Immortals. Đình Căn, about 500 meters away, honors Đức Ông Đại Phạm and the heavenly immortals.
The twelve-tier terracotta tower
This is the object that made the site famous. The tower is 450 centimeters tall and 150 centimeters along each side of its base, its body divided into twelve tiers, made of terracotta and set on a stone base. According to its national treasure file, the terracotta body dates from the Restored Lê period (Lê Trung Hưng), while the stone base dates from the Mạc period, which means the tower has been rebuilt at least once on its old foundation.
The outer surface is what most deserves a look. The whole body is covered in carving, and the subjects mix two worlds. There are dragons, phoenixes, lions, celestial maidens, strongmen and winged horses, the imagery of the sacred realm, and there are also scenes of wrestlers and snake catchers, with birds, deer and tigers, the imagery of daily life and of the forests and marshes. A tower in the courtyard of a temple to the Jade Emperor, with wrestlers on its body: this is how village craftsmen brought heaven down to the eye level of those who look at it.
The sources also differ about this tower. The national treasure file and the Department of Cultural Heritage record twelve tiers and a terracotta body from the Restored Lê period. Some popular articles call it instead the Cửu trùng tower, the nine-tier tower, and date it to the Lý and Trần periods. In an article by VOV, the researcher Trần Lâm Biền says the tower has ten tiers. The library takes the figures of the treasure file as the main reference, but records the other descriptions too so that readers will recognize them when they come across them.
The terracotta altar and the ritual objects
The second treasure is the terracotta altar, also called the terracotta incense table, about 1.10 meters high, with a top about 2.78 meters long and about 0.82 meters wide. It is a rectangular block that, seen as a whole, takes the form of a great lotus throne, and it bears the marks of the 16th century. A terracotta incense table of that size is rare, because large ritual furniture in the northern delta was mostly made of wood or stone, and large terracotta pieces are very hard to fire evenly and crack very easily.
Besides the two treasures, the temple keeps a bronze bell about 1.7 meters tall and weighing about 880 kilograms, cast in the thirty-fourth year of the Cảnh Hưng era, 1773, and a stone chime of the Vĩnh Trị era, 1676. These two objects carry their dates in writing and serve as fixed points against which the different counts of the temple's age can be checked.
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
This section is the library's own reading through the eyes of traditional feng shui, not something recorded in stelae or in the heritage file. The library marks it clearly so that readers can tell the record apart from the interpretation.
The first thing worth saying is the southern facing. The front of the temple faces south, the facing most favored by communal houses and temples in northern Vietnam. But for a temple to the Jade Emperor, facing south carries a further layer of meaning. In the old way of thinking, the supreme ruler sits in the north and looks to the south, back to the north and face to the south, which is the posture of one who governs. To set the altar of the ruler of heaven in exactly that posture is to make the seat fit the rank, what the old rules call being in one's rightful place (đắc vị).
Second is the lie of the land of a marsh that has been cleared. According to the temple's own legend, the beings worshipped here came down to open up the wild marshland and teach the people to farm. Read in the old geomantic way, this is a land of strong Water and weak Earth (Thủy vượng Thổ nhược), too much water and too thin a soil, a pattern the old books consider hard to live in because the damp qi stagnates. Raising foundations, digging ditches and building up planting beds is precisely the work of building up Earth to master Water. In the farmer's terms it is breaking new ground, in the terms of old geomancy it is reshaping the lie of the land.
Third is the tower in the courtyard. By the old rules, on low ground where qi disperses, people often raised a tall, pointed mass to draw qi together, called a scholar's brush (văn bút). A twelve-tier tower four and a half meters tall in the middle of the courtyard of a delta temple plays exactly that role. It is the only high point, drawing the eye and the qi from the wide flat surroundings into a single vertical axis. The tower here is not for holding relics like a pagoda tower. It stands as an axis linking earth and heaven, fitting for a place that honors the ruler of heaven.
Last is the Công-shaped plan. Two transverse halls joined by a longitudinal one form a closed figure. Qi enters the front hall, passes through the linking hall and flows into the rear sanctuary without spilling out to the sides. Taken as a whole, An Xá Temple shows that in the northern delta feng shui is mostly man-made feng shui. Where there are no mountains, foundations are raised. Where there is no vein, ditches are dug. Where there is no brush, a tower is built. To read the land here is to read the labor of the villagers, not a form given by heaven.
VThe festival of the fourth lunar month
The temple's great festival opens in the 4th lunar month, not in spring like most village festivals in northern Vietnam. The 4th month is when the spring rice crop is nearly ready for harvest, the very stretch of the year when farmers watch the sky most anxiously.
| Lunar date | Rite | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 1st day of the 4th lunar month | Opening the temple and the announcement rite | The start of the festival, announcing the opening before the altar of the Jade Emperor and the immortals. |
| 1st to 12th day of the 4th lunar month | The main festival of the year | The heritage records of the Department of Cultural Heritage say the festival of An Xá Temple is held in this period every year. |
| 6th to 8th day of the 4th lunar month | The principal festival days | Press reports name these as the most important days, centered on the sacrifice and the processions. |
| During the principal festival days | Procession of palanquins | The palanquins of the beings worshipped here are carried in procession through the grounds and around the village. |
| The last day of the festival | Reenacting the old tale | The festival reenacts, for about an hour, the tale of the poor mother who defeated a fierce tiger, tied to the legend of clearing the marshland. |
| 12th day of the 4th lunar month | Putting out the lamps and closing the festival | The festival ends at 11 at night with the rite of putting out the lamps (triệt đăng), when all lamps and candles in the temple and the surrounding area are extinguished, closing the festival cycle of the year. |
The tale of the poor mother who defeated a fierce tiger, reenacted at the festival, belongs to the same thread as the temple's legend. The immortals came down to drive off wild beasts and teach farming, while the villagers themselves stood up to the tiger. Put together, the two halves make one account of how the land was opened up.
Because the main altar honors the ruler of heaven, the rites here follow a custom of valuing purity, with mainly vegetarian offerings, unlike the custom at temples to deified humans.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- thôn An Xá, xã Hoàng Hoa Thám, tỉnh Hưng Yên
- Getting there
- In An Xá hamlet, Hoàng Hoa Thám commune, Hưng Yên province, in the area of the former Tiên Lữ district. The temple is in the middle of the village, reached from the inter-commune road, and the terracotta tower stands right in the courtyard, so it can be seen from outside the gate.
- Coordinates
- 20.6818, 106.1046
This is an active place of worship, not a museum, so the house customs should be kept. Visitors are expected to dress modestly, remove hats on entering the front hall and the rear sanctuary, walk softly and speak quietly, and place money in the donation box rather than on the altars. Because the main altar honors the ruler of heaven, the custom here favors vegetarian offerings. The two national treasures are the terracotta tower in the courtyard and the terracotta altar inside the temple. Visitors are asked not to touch them and not to place offerings on them, because terracotta chips very easily.
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?Quick Questions
Who is worshipped at An Xá Temple
The main altar honors the Jade Emperor, together with the Five Old Immortals and the heavenly and earthly immortals. According to the heritage records, these are the beings who opened up the wild marshland and taught the people to farm. It is one of very few places in the northern delta that still keep the worship of the heavenly immortals at the main altar.
How old is An Xá Temple
The sources disagree very sharply, so the library gives both. The Department of Cultural Heritage records that the temple was built at the latest around the 16th to 17th century, based on the surviving objects and architecture. Local legend and some newspaper articles say instead that the temple dates from before the Common Era under the name Thụy Ứng Quán, putting its age at about two thousand two hundred years.
Why is it also called Đền Đậu An
The word Đậu is not a family name or a personal name. According to the heritage records, this is one of eight sites called Đậu in the former Phù Tiên district, the area of the former Tiên Lữ and Phù Cừ districts. Sites called Đậu are tied to Taoism and are found only in Hưng Yên.
What are the national treasures at An Xá Temple
There are two. The first is the twelve-tier terracotta tower, 450 centimeters tall, with a terracotta body from the Restored Lê period on a stone base from the Mạc period, recognized under Decision No. 2198 of 25 December 2021. The second is the terracotta altar bearing the marks of the 16th century, recognized under Decision No. 41 of 30 January 2023.
When is the festival of An Xá Temple
The festival opens in the 4th lunar month. The Department of Cultural Heritage gives the festival as the 1st to the 12th day of the 4th month each year, while press reports single out the 6th to the 8th as the principal days. The festival includes a procession of palanquins and a reenactment of the tale of the poor mother who defeated a fierce tiger.