Liễu Hạnh Holy Mother Temple at Ngang Pass

IHoly Mother Liễu Hạnh and the legend of the Ngang Pass tea stall

The temple is dedicated primarily to Holy Mother Liễu Hạnh, whom local residents of the Hoành Sơn region also revere as Princess Liễu Hạnh, Lady Liễu (Bà Chúa Liễu) or the Mother of Upper Heaven (Mẫu Thượng Thiên). In Vietnamese folk belief, Holy Mother Liễu Hạnh is the sole female deity among the Four Immortals (Tứ bất tử), alongside Tản Viên Sơn Thánh, Phù Đổng Thiên Vương and Chử Đồng Tử. She is revered at once as a celestial princess in the upper realm and as a compassionate mother who protects ordinary people, travelers crossing the mountain pass and fishermen sailing turbulent coastal waters.

The legend of the thatched tea stall at the foot of Hoành Sơn

IIMore than four centuries beside the north-south mandarin road

The history of Liễu Hạnh Holy Mother Temple at the foot of Ngang Pass is closely intertwined with Vietnam's southward expansion and travel along the trans-national mandarin road. According to local cultural heritage files and reports published by Nhân Dân Newspaper and the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, local inhabitants first erected the shrine in the Đinh Tỵ year (1557), the first year of the Thiên Hựu era under Emperor Lê Anh Tông of the Later Lê dynasty, right on the site of the Holy Mother's legendary tea stall.

Just one year after that founding date, in the Mậu Ngọ year (1558), Duke Nguyễn Hoàng sailed past the Roòn estuary and crossed the Hoành Sơn range to take up his post as governor of Thuận Hóa, initiating two centuries of Nguyễn Lord rule in Đàng Trong. Throughout the Trịnh-Nguyễn division when the Gianh River and the Hoành Sơn mountains served as the borderland, and later under the Tây Sơn and unified Nguyễn dynasties, the small shrine at the foot of Ngang Pass remained a vital sanctuary where mandarins, envoys, examination candidates heading to the capital and merchant junks sheltering in Hòn La bay stopped to pray for safe passage.

• 1557Founding of the temple at the foot of Ngang Pass
  According to local heritage records, the shrine was built in the Đinh Tỵ year, the 1st year of the Thiên Hựu era under Emperor Lê Anh Tông, on the legendary site of Holy Mother Liễu Hạnh's wayside stall in Vĩnh Sơn village.
• 17th to 18th centurySpread of Mother Goddess worship across Hoành Sơn
  Successive Later Lê emperors bestowed royal decrees upon Holy Mother Liễu Hạnh with honorific titles such as Mã Hoàng Công Chúa and Chế Thắng Hòa Diệu Đại Vương, establishing the pass-foot temple as a spiritual anchor along the mandarin road.
• 1833Emperor Minh Mạng builds Hoành Sơn Quan on the pass crest
  In the 3rd lunar month of the Quý Tỵ year, the 14th year of Minh Mạng (1833), the Nguyễn court constructed the Hoành Sơn Quan fortress gate atop Ngang Pass, linking the military pass gate above with the Mother Goddess shrine below.
• Late 19th to early 20th centuryRestorations in laterite stone and traditional lime mortar
  Villagers of Vĩnh Sơn and passing pilgrims repeatedly contributed to restoring the temple using laterite stone, fired brick and oyster-shell lime mortar suited to the stormy coastal climate.
• 1996Reconstruction and restoration on the ancient foundations
  After decades of weather damage and natural decay to its wooden structures, local residents and authorities reconstructed the Front Hall, Rear Sanctuary and triple-gate screen system upon the original foundations.
• 2000Ranked as a provincial historical and cultural heritage site
  The People's Committee of former Quảng Bình province issued a decision recognizing Liễu Hạnh Holy Mother Temple in Quảng Đông commune as a provincial historical and cultural heritage site.
• 2024 to 2025Provincial tourist site recognition and administrative merger
  In October 2024 the temple was officially recognized as a provincial cultural and spiritual tourist site. From July 2025, under Resolution No. 202/2025/QH15 and Resolution No. 1680/NQ-UBTVQH15, the site belongs to Phú Trạch commune, Quảng Trị province.

IIILaterite stone architecture, screen walls and the Three Holy Mothers sanctuary

Rather than displaying the sprawling scale of major Mother Goddess palaces in the northern delta, Liễu Hạnh Holy Mother Temple at the foot of Ngang Pass exhibits the compact, sturdy proportions of coastal central Vietnamese shrines. Regarding the total area of the main architectural compound, published sources record a slight variation: several local tourism studies cite an area of roughly 335 square meters, while Nhân Dân Newspaper and the national tourism portal give approximately 350 square meters. The entire complex is arranged symmetrically along a straight sacred axis that rises in stepped terraces from the pass-foot road against the lower slope of Mount Hoành Sơn.

What gives the temple its distinctive regional character is its combination of laterite stone (đá ong), monolithic blue stone, fired brick and traditional lime mortar. Along the foot of the Hoành Sơn range, which faces salt-laden northeast monsoon winds in winter and dry, scorching southwest foehn winds in summer, thick walls built of laterite and brick keep the inner sanctuary cool, solemn and resilient against coastal typhoons. Across the roof ridges, gable ends, gate pillars and screen walls, central Vietnamese artisans applied high-relief stucco and colorful porcelain mosaic inlay (khảm sành sứ) depicting the four sacred animals (dragon, unicorn, turtle, phoenix) and the four noble plants (pine, chrysanthemum, bamboo, apricot).

Stepping across the small brick-paved courtyard between the triple gate and the threshold of the Front Hall, visitors notice how closely the Front Hall and Rear Sanctuary are linked. The Front Hall provides an open, airy space to receive pilgrims offering incense and to conduct communal sacrificial rites. Moving into the Rear Sanctuary, the light softens markedly, leaving the warm glow of oil lamps illuminating the crimson, green and white robes of the Three Holy Mothers seated within intricately carved wooden shrines. Beneath the main altar stand the shrines to the Royal Damsels (ban Cô), Royal Young Masters (ban Cậu) and the Five Tigers (Ngũ Hổ) under the incense table, adhering faithfully to the canonical spatial grammar of a Four Palaces temple.

IVThe lie of the land and the facing

This section is the library's own reading through the eyes of traditional landform feng shui. It is not something recorded in the temple's steles or heritage files. The library states this plainly so that readers can distinguish historical documentation from topographical interpretation.

VThe third lunar month festival and Mother Goddess worship at the pass

Every year, Liễu Hạnh Holy Mother Temple at the foot of Ngang Pass serves as a major pilgrimage center for residents of northern Quảng Trị and southern Hà Tĩnh as well as travelers along the north-south highway. The temple's main annual festival takes place from the 1st to the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month, coinciding with the nationwide commemoration of Mother Liễu Hạnh's death anniversary in the third lunar month (the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month). During these days, local authorities and villagers hold the Ngang Pass cultural and tourism week featuring solemn traditional rites.

The most distinctive feature of the third lunar month festival beneath Ngang Pass is the convergence of chầu văn ritual singing and spirit possession from the Practices related to the Viet beliefs in the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms (inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016) with the traditional village sacrificial rites of central Vietnamese coastal communities. The melodies of the moon lute and bamboo clappers echoing beneath the cliffs of Hoành Sơn blend with the sound of East Sea waves, binding together the spiritual memory of communities on both sides of Ngang Pass.

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