“The ancient village of dong son from the early twentieth century to present” (làng cổ đông sơn từ đầu thế kỷ XX đến nay)

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCESNGUYEN THI LIEN THE ANCIENT VILLAGE OF DONG SON FROM THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY TO PRESENT MAS

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES

NGUYEN THI LIEN

THE ANCIENT VILLAGE OF DONG SON FROM THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY TO PRESENT

MASTER THESIS MAJOR: VIETNAMESE STUDIES

HANOI, 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES

NGUYEN THI LIEN

THE ANCIENT VILLAGE OF DONG SON FROM THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY TO PRESENT

Master thesis, major: Vietnamese studies

Code: 60 22 01 13

Supervisor: Prof.Dr Ngo Đuc Thinh

Hanoi, 2013

This thesis is seen as the result from having studied at Institute of VietNam studies & Development of Science – Hanoi National University along withhaving spent most of the time on practical inspecting experience throughout thestudies

The author would sincerely like to express the grateful to those belovedlecturers who have directly lectured those Master classes for the year of 6specialized in Viet Nam studies and beloved teachers who are in theManagement Board of Institute, Department of Education for offering allnecessary help under any conditions throughout the course of the studies so thatthis highly-expected thesis was successful completed

Especially, the author would like to thank so much to the professor NgoDuc Thich for his thoughtful in guiding and spending most of his valuable time

to exchange ideas and direct for the author During the instruction time under hisclose surveillance and instruction, the author has gained so much of boththeoretical and practical experience in terms of working style, planning skill andserious attitude towards works

Besides, in order for this thesis to be successfully completed, the authorwould also like to thank to the local authority of Dong Son ancient village, localcouncil of Ham Rong street, the Management Board of vestiges and landscapes

of Thanh Hoa …furthermore thanks to the people of Dong Son ancient villagefor providing a lot of useful information

Last but not least, the author would like to thank to the ManagementBoard of Hong Duc University – Thanh Hoa; those beloved teachers in the Head

of Department of Social and Science, family members, close friends who havealways been there for me to make this thesis done successfully

My most sincerely thanks to all!

Hanoi, date 02 month 05 year 2013

Author

Nguyen Thi Lien

UNDERTAKING MINUTES

I would like to guarantee that these content and material, data used inthis thesis are true and collected, performed by me only All these works weredone under the close supervision and directly instructed by the Professor NgoDuc Thinh All references used in this thesis were extracted from mentionedspecified sources

Author

Nguyen Thi Lien

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rational of the study 1

2 Objectives and scope of research 3

3 The purpose of the thesis 3

4 Research situation related to the thesis 3

5 Research methods 5

6 New results and contributions of the thesis 6

7 Organization of the thesis 6

CHAPTER 1: APPEARANCE OF DONG SON ANCIENT VILLAGE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 8

1.1 Some basic concepts 8

1.1.1 The concept of village 8

1.1.2 The concept of ancient village 8

1.1.3 The concept of traditional village 9

1.2 Dong Son – riverside and half-mountain half-plain village 10

1.2.1 Geographic location 10

1.2.2 Natural condition 10

1.2.3 Landscape 15

1.3 The long tradition of the Dong Son ancient village 19

1.3.1 The history and development of the Dong Son ancient village 19

1.3.2 Traditional economics 21

1.3.3 Traditional culture 24

1.3.3.1 Tangible culture 24

1.3.3.1.1 Resident organization, cuisine, apparel, travel 24

1.3.3.1.2 Historical relics 28

1.3.3.2 Intangible culture 30

CHAPTER 2: SOME TRANSFORMATIONS OF DONG SON ANCIENT VILLAGE FROM AUGUST REVOLUTION TO PRESENT

44

2.1 The theory of social transformation 44

2.2 Transformations of Dong Son ancient village in the war against America (1954 – 1975) 45

2.2.1 Context of the transformation 45

2.2.2 Expression of the transformations 46

2.3 Transformations of Dong Son ancient village from Doi Moi (1986) to present 54

2.3.1 Context of the transformation 54

2.3.2 Expression of the transformation 55

2.3.2.1 Economic transformation 55

2.3.2.2 Social transformation 59

2.3.2.3 Cultural transformation 68

CHAPTER 3: CONSERVATION, DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE IN THE ANCIENT OF DONG SON VILLAGE WITHIN THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW RURAL AT PRESENT 76

3.1 Awareness and role of citizens and local government in preservation and construction of culture 76

3.1.1 Awareness, role of people 76

3.1.2 Awareness, role of the Party, State and local government 78

3.2 Current situation of cultural conservation and construction in the ancient village of Dong Son at present 80

3.2.1 According to the movement of cultural village 80

3.2.2 According to the proposed projects 87

3.2.3 According to 19 criteria of new rural construction of the Prime Minister 88

3.3 A number of solutions and proposals 89

3.3.1 A number of solutions 89

3.3.2 A number of proposals 92

CONCLUSION 95

REFERENCES 97

1 Rational of the study

The village is a community or a basic clustered human settlement ofVietnamese people It has an origin of old since the disintegrated process ofthe primitive communal mode And then, it has become social classes and afirst state in Vietnam In the history, Vietnamese village associated with thelength of the country’s history It is the process of continuous development,not only improve and adapt to the natural world, but combat against alsoforeign aggression and domination In the process, the country has sometimeslost, but the village has not lost It still maintained and developed until today

It not only plays an important role in the history of the country, but isalso home, active school, and closely connected place with everyone inVietnam In the spiritual and deep concept of Vietnamese people, the villagerepresents the ancestral land, is also home to acknowledge success andreputation of everyone Thus, the research about Vietnamese village isnecessary to know about the process of formation, development, contribution,location, and role of village in the local history

There are many researches in and out country, which studied aboutVietnamese village They provided a lot of documents and new information,which contribute to better understanding of Vietnamese villages and society.However, the results of these researches have still not fulfilled the demands ofVietnamese village nowaday Because of urban life, Vietnamese society aswell as village is changing rapidly Therefore, it is necessary to have morestudies about Vietnamese village to find solutions for retaining the beauty ofthe Vietnamese village before its changes in recent years

Ever Dong Son ancient village has known as the first place that hasfound out the Dong Son culture – a brilliant culture in the nation’s history

Other subjects of the Dong Son ancient village is not actually known orstudies by people as well as researchers The research into Dong Son villagewill give us a comprehensive view of a village in its stature in the world.

Dong Son village as well as many other Vietnamese ancient village, is

a community of the residents, economics, culture, and society, appears veryearly, and has a special position in the close relationship among family,village, and state, which took place during the process of nationalconstruction and defense over thousand years Moreover, it has differentcharacteristics from other villages

However, in the nowadays, because of developing trend of humanity,Vietnamese village in general and Dong Son village in particular is facing tofierce challenges between tradion and innovation, ethnic and modern.Although, it needs to innovate, it still needs to retain and preserve specialidentities of the village It is an extremely important requirement that need toget attention not only of the government, but get also awareness of everyonewho is living in the village as well as in the community Thus, the study indepth about the Dong Son ancient village in early twentieth century to thepresent is essential It can show more detail about the changes in all aspects ofpeople’s life in the village, and contribute to conservation and promotion oftypical cultural values in the village As a result, everyone knows how tomake their homeland to become a better place step by step

As urbanization process, the typical identities of village was beingeroded and lost from time to time Therefore, I chose the Dong Son village for

my research to learn about its changes and to contribute to rediscover itsdistinctions

2 Objectives and scope of research

Object of the research is to study all aspects of people’s life in theDong Son ancient village

Scope of the research

Scope of the problem: study about the appearance of the Dong Sonancient village in early twentieth century to see unique characteristics of thevillage as well as its changes And, giving recommendations to preserve,conserve, restore, and build the Dong Son ancient in the construction of newcountryside nowadays

Location: Focus on the Dong Son ancient village, and compare withother villages

Time: From early twentieth century (1900) to 2010

3 The purpose of the thesis

Based on the appearance of the Dong Son ancient village in earlytwentieth century, compare with the other ancient villages at later stages tosee its transformation

Study about the awareness of local people and government aboutcultural conservation as well as conservation status, cultural construction inthe Dong Son ancient village today And then, give out recommendations topreserve the Dong Son ancient village before infulences of urbanizationprocess now

4 Research situation related to the thesis

There are many researches which studied about Vietnamese villageboth internal and external country in recent years And, there are manyvaluable results of these researches, which helped a lot of Vietnamese people

to have a better understanding about their community in which they areliving However, the Dong Son ancient village is not really attracted by many

scientists to participate in research Hence, there are only a small number ofresearches that related to the Dong Son ancient village such as.

“History of Ham Rong Ward Party (1945 – 2010)” – Thanh Hoa

publishing house, which refered to some aspects of the Dong Son ancientvillage such as the process of establishment’s village, monuments andlandscapes, and traditional history of village

“Folk games forum in the Dong Son area” – Postgraduation’s thesis of

Tran Thi Lien, which studied about basic characteristics of Dong Son folkgames in the common situation of folk games in Thanh Hoa province

In the “Collection of materials of Ham Rong and and of Ham Rong

victory” published by the Library of Thanh Hoa province, with the first, the

second, the third, the fourth and the fifth episode, there are a number ofarticles about Dong Son ancient village such as the one about ancient houses,Ham Rong bridge, fighting spirit and winning over the American invaders

In 2004, Department of Culture and Information of Thanh Hoa

province organized “Scientific conference celebrating 80 years of discovering

and researching Dong Son culture (1924-2004)” and published the book

“Antiquities of Dong Son culture in Thanh Hoa” In above work, there are

some articles related to ancient Dong Son village, for example: “80 years for

detecting Dong Son archaeological location and Dong Son culture: Research achievements, conservation and promotion of values” written by Ngo Hoai

Chung; “About a museum of Dong Son culture in Ham Rong region” written

by Nguyen Van Ngoc and “History of discovering Dong Son culture” by

A.Prof.Dr Pham Minh Huyen

In the article “Kết chạ in Thanh Hoa” published in the journal of Past

and present, No 342 in 2009, the author Trọng Đạt refers to the custom of

Kết chạ of Dong Son villagers with Giang Hen ones Through this traditional

custom, the author highlighted the unique in the spiritual life of the people ofDong Son village.

A number of research works of the author Hoang Tuan Pho such as

“Landscape of Dong Son - Ham Rong” (2004), “Sacred spirit of Ham Rong”

(2009) refer to the formation history of Dong Son village as well as itslandscapes

The book “Ham Rong, historical clash” published in 2010 on the

occasion of the 45th anniversary of Ham Rong victory raised the significance

of location of Dong Son village in wartime as well as in peacetime It is alsothe first place where they found relics of bronze age

It is an omission in the history of issue if we do not refer to the book

“The ancient village of Dong Son” by Luong Dai Dung being the editor The

book gave the readers information about daily life of its inhabitants However,there is no comparison between the earlier time and present time to see thechange in all aspects of the village

In addition to above works, there are others ones such as “Pagodas of

Thanh region”, “Folk songs of Thanh Hoa”, “Monography of Dong Son”,

"Monography of Thanh Hoa, the episode 2, 3" These works mentioned someaspects of the daily life of Dong Son villagers before

Method of system – structure: Village is a separate system, so when weuse this method, we can see an interactive relationship between internal

elements of its and some aspects Thanks to this method, the Dong Sonancient village can be show up as a unified entity.

Interdisciplinary research method and study area: it helps researcher tohave a full view of social and cultural space of the Dong Son ancient village

In addition, there are some research methods such as observation,comparison, statistics, interviews, etc, which were also used in this research toget a comprehensive and objective view of the Dong Son ancient village

In the process of researching, the author delivered 150 questionnairesand implemented 17 in-depth interviews in the ancient village of Dong Son,which is in order to collect accurate and objective information for theresearch At the same time, it will give readers useful information of peopleliving here

6 New results and contributions of the thesis

The research is the first study that has a systematic view about theDong Son ancient village from the early twentieth century to nowadays Itprovides for researchers with extensive and reliable information

The research has also an objective perspective about conservativeissues as well as giving some solutions and recommendations to preserve,conserve, and restore culture of the Dong Son ancient village in theconstruction of new countryside today

Results of the research also contribute to suggest for further studiesabout an old Vietnamese village with special characteristics

7 Organization of the thesis

Beside the introduction, conclusion, reference, and appendix, theresearch includes three chapters:

Chapter 1: Appearance of Dong Son ancient village in the first half ofthe twentieth century

Chapter 2: Some transformations of Dong Son ancient village from theAugust Revolution to present.

Chapter 3: Conservation, development of culture in the of Dong Sonvillage within the construction of new rural at present

CHAPTER 1: APPEARANCE OF DONG SON ANCIENT VILLAGE

IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

1.1 Some basic concepts

1.1.1 The concept of village

There are many different concepts of village which is very familiar to

everyone Some people considered villages as “living cells of Vietnamese

society, a natural product created by the process of settling and residing together of Vietnamese people who cultivated” [69, pp 11-12] Some people

considered villages as “units possessing and distributing public land It is

also the social unit of villagers gathering around the village temple, communal house with religious of its gods to become the cultural unit (festival) and sometimes/often the administrative unit of commune - local level (the commune is the first and the village is the second)” [78, pp.16-20].

According to Phan Huy Le, he said that village is “the settling community of

small farmers who cultivate rice and doing crafts and small businesses based

on the model of rural commune gradually turning into feudal system” [38,

pp.3] Thus, depending on the way of approach, each person recognizes thevillage with different characteristics However, it can be said that the village

is “the basic settling community in rural Its inhabitants are mostly farmers

engaging agriculture, settling in alleys or cramped campus compared with cultivated fields surrounding the village There is autonomy expressed clearly

by village rules or village convention There are rituals, customs and traditions called village's culture”.

1.1.2 The concept of ancient village

The concept of “ancient village” is not popularly used as the concept

of “village” A village considered as an ancient village must satisfy a number

of criteria as follows:

Firstly, in terms of the formation history, the village must be aged 200years or more.

Secondly, organizational form of residing by descent

Thirdly, the systems of epitaph, genealogy, conventions, decrees, relics

of the village prove the existence of the village since its establishment

Thus, a village considered an ancient village when it fully meets thespecific criteria, in particular here, it is Dong Son village

1.1.3 The concept of traditional village

Vietnamese villages beginning to appear along with the disintegration

of the clan commune has a history of about 4000 years The concept of

“village” have been mentioned by many researchers, however the concept of

“traditional village” does not really attract many people In this thesis, basing

on research of Professor Nguyen Quang Ngoc the author offers a number ofcriteria to identify a traditional village

Firstly, each village has a certain geographical area as living spaceincluding resident area, land, hills, mountains, rivers, ponds used by thevillage community or the members of the village community

Secondly, residents of the village are members of a community having

a strong attach to each other by many relationships such as neighbor one(villages, hamlets, Lane ), blood one (family, kinship), the professional one,relationship of beliefs and relationship of supporting or helping each other(corporation, group)

Thirdly, culturally, each village usually has communal house where itstutelary god is worshiped as well as pagodas, temples, shrines , public spacesfor cultural activities, festivals and beliefs

Fourthly, in terms of management, it may be the council of oldvillagers, the Council of family heads managing, in addition to this,management is carried out through conventions.

Thus, it can be seen that a traditional village must fully has abovecriteria

1.2 Dong Son – riverside and half-mountain half-plain village

1.2.1 Geographic location

The Dong Son ancient village “is located in the 22 0 6 north latitude,

114 0 93 east longtitude” [15, pp.12], belongs to Ham Rong ward, Thanh Hoa

city, about 4,5 km north-northeast of city center, on the bank of Ma river.Thus, there are many different transport systems such as cars, motorcycles,boats, which can help to transport quickly and rapidly

The village is the central area of Thanh Hoa plain area in which isaccreted by alluvia of Ma and Chu rivers However, in around the village issurrounded by rocky and soil mountains that is a special feature of the villagecompare with other villages in the northern delta in general and Thanh Hoaplain in particular The Ma rive locates in front of the village, and mountainsstay behind of the village, the feng shui of the village is very good

Geographically, it is bordered by Thieu Duong, Nam Ngan and DongTho ward, Dong Cuong commune, and Ma River in the North, South, West,and East respectively

1.2.2 Natural condition

- Topography

Dong Son village is a peaceful idyllic village, but its landscape istotally different from other villages It has Ma River flow through, undulatingmountains from far, and fields between river and hills lead to spectacular

sight for this area Therefore, it dominates among big plain of Ma River with

“charming mountains and rivers”

Ancestor of the Dong Son village chose a good location to build thevillage First, there are mountains surrounding the village These mountain

systems were spreaded out by folk that “ninety nine mountains” both rocky

and soil extending, bend, and bobbing on the Ma River They have originfrom the Duong Xa village (Thieu Hoa district) with different names as

“Truong mountain, Long Ham mountain” [5, pp14] When it comes to Dong

Son – Ham Rong, there is a prominent mountain, so local people calledDragon Mountain And, other mountains are named such as peacock, thebehind village mountain, elephant mountain, lobster mountain, phoenixmountain, etc It is not really sure that whether there are 99 mountains or not,but people in Dong Son village still believe that Dong Son is located in the

land of “99 mountains” with phoenix bird figure, elephant kneeling, huzhou.

These are 99 mountains in the East; there is one mountain that faces toDragon Mountain, which is Ngoc Mountain, and people call Nit Mountain Inthe previous stage, this mountain system is also in line with TruongMountain, but because of Ma River separated Ngoc Mountain out This ishanded in the folk until now

“Ninety nine mountains at the east side And the Nit mountain at the river is not come Ninety nine mountains are crowed And the Nit mountain is not yet back east side 1 ”

It can be said that the mountainous terrain in this place has created thegood landscapes for Dong Son in particular and Ham Rong area in general

This is shown the most clearly in the eyes of the old man “Ham Rong

mountain – Long Hao mountain and in formerly Dong Son called Truong Son The mountain from Ngu Hoa in the Duong Xa commune leads to consecutive flexibility as dragon, finally floating jumped a high mountain, the rock pile, on the mountain in which has Long Quang cave Under mountain has a protruding rock on the river, which looks like the sucking sand and absorb water dragon” [70, pp.222].

Ma River means Mother River follow Vietnamese language Thus, wecan sure that it is a huge river It starts from Dien Bien area through Son Laprovince, flows through the northern of Lao, and then comes to Thanh Hoa atTam Chung commune, Muong Lat district, and finally goes to East Beach viaHoi gate (Sam Son beach) and two sub-gates include Len and Lach Tuonggate It has 3,5km length when it flows through Ham Rong ward includeDong Son village It is a big water source for cultivation and livestock as well

as supplies enough demand of fishing source for local people In particular, ithas a big contribution to transport between the plain and mountain, betweenupland and lowland areas

“As northern delta, Thanh Hoa plain is created by modern alluvia that spread out on the large surface, and slightly inclines toward the sea at the side of the Southeast In the edge of the North and North West is composed by old alluvial of Ma and Chu River – from 2 to 15 m high” [58, pp.200] Hence,

in the plain still remains a lot of various soil and rock Dong Son village is not

an exception in the Thanh Hoa delta system As a result, land area in theDong Son village not only uses for rice cultivation, but uses also for vegetablecrops and animal husbandry Especilly alluvial soil, it is accreted regularly by

Ma River, so it brought many advantages for people in the village

- Climate

Thanks to to topography as above, the climat in the Dong Son ancientvillage has characteristics of coastal plain and the monsoon tropical climate

with 4 seasons include spring, summer, fall, winter “The annual average

temperature is around 23 0 C to 24 0 C, the highest temperature is 41,5 0 C, and the lowest temperature is below 10 0 C” [5, pp.18] “The annual average humidity is quite high from 80-85% The lowest humidity is 50% when having North-East monsoon and West Wind; it sometimes has humidity reach to 90%

at the end of winter” 2 We can see that in the Dong Son village receives a bignumber of temperature and humidity in around year, so it is good fordeveloping agriculture, forestry, and fishing Forestry develops very strongwith many classes; cultivation develops average from 2 to 3 seasons per year;there is no abandon land However, the most serious climatic issue foragricultural activities in Dong Son village is high relative humidiy, whichencourage disease problems on both cultivation and livestock Moreover,there are some natural disasters that comes to suddently such as flood, and thewater of Ma River stays in high level quickly result in that there are manydifficulties for agricultural production and people’s living However, there aremany advantages more than disadvantages

In the Dong Son village is quite hot in the summer season due tosurrounding mountain systems, so it is difficult for wind come to inside lead

to lacking of air exchange between inside and outside of the village In thewinter, the village is quite warm because there are mountain systems whichlimit North and East-North wind

- Natural resources

+ Land source

Land area of the Dong Son village is about “4000ha, and have only 1/5

for cultivation land, 4/5 land area left is mountainous area [15, pp.25] It

means that cultivation land comprised 800ha of total land area in the DongSon village Rice land is not only land for one crop, but also has land for twocrops In the land for one crop, people can grow other crops such asvegetables, corn, and so on to support people’s life Besides, in the villagestill has alluvial land in bank of river, garden land, and land in the hillside.People can grow food crops such as maize, potatoes, cassava, and plant short-term industrial tree such as mulberry, cotton, pineapples, beans, and so on Itsupplies demands of local people as exchange of goods with other villages.+ Water source

In the early years of the twentieth century, there is lack of pond, lake,and well system in the village In whole village, there are only some ponds oflandlords, rich peasants, which used to fish as well as used to fire Water fordaily activities is taken from one well in front of the village, but water islimited, so water from well is used only to cook Bathing, washing, water wastaken from water of Ma River In the bank of Ma River, people made rockystep to serve their daily activities If how much water in the well is lack of,

Ma river can provide enough water demand of people in the village, so it can

be said that Ma River helped people to overcome problem of water shortage

in the early years of the twentieth century

+ Forestry source

Forestry and mountains in the Dong Son village comprised a quite bigarea with a variety of precious wood such as Erthrophloeum Fordi Oliver,

Bullet wood, Chukrasia tabularis, and so on as well as animals such asrhinoceros, deer, tigers, and so on Forestry brought many benefits for people

in the Dong Son village They can go to the forest looking for firewood ortimber to build houses or hunting animal for family meals However, in theearly twentieth century, the forest of the Dong Son village is no longer asbefore, it became to hill garden of people in which planted crops Now, theDong Son village does not have natural forests instead of forests ofeveryhousehold and follow to the control of the Party and State And, it wasbringing profits for people as well as contributing to balance environmentalecosystem

1.2.3 Landscape

- Cua Roong Mountain (C4 Hill)

Cua Roong Mountain is one of tops of Ham Rong Mountain; it is aplace for people in the Dong Son village plant crops In the war with theUnited States, this hilltop put an anti-aircraft artillery battalion 37 (4 battalion,

228 regiment is known as C4) C4 is the horror of US air force when

bombarded on Ham Rong In the short time, “C4, other units, and local

militia shot doen 116 American aircraft together” [15, pp.103] Thus, C4 was

awarded the title of hero unit of the armed forces and the name of the CuaRong mountain loss intead of C4 hill Results of war expressed deep gratitudebetween C4 militia and people in the Dong Son village Now, C4 hill hasbeen embellished with a convenient way to go to relic Foothill is two largestone tablet in which record victories and the list of soldiers who sacrificedhere In the top of hill is a system of combat service includes 6 cannon tunnels(K1- K6), 3 commander tunnels (2 D tunnels, 1C deputy), 1 tunnel forscouting service, nurses, gas military, radiation machine These works havebeen built soild concrete In 1994, C4 is one of relics of the national

monument by decision No.974 dated 07.20.1994 with a protected area of9600m2.

- Canh Tien Mountain

Canh Tien mountain is one of two mountains that created the feng shui

“Dragon in the left side, white tiger in the the right side” for entire region.

This mountain is located in the south of the Dong Son village Canh Tien wasnamed follow to the shape of the mountain, and according to the legend, itinvolves white fairy and giant Vom spouses After tricking white fairy came

to cave, the couple ripped one side of wing and buried with one side of wingleft in the Dong Son village After some time, there sprang up a mountainwith the shape of fairy wings Canh Tien Mountain progresses from high tolow in the East –West direction This is one of the mountains in which people

in the Dong Son village planted crops and livestock to create deliciousfamous products for region such as cassava, yam, taro, mountain goat, etc

In the Vietnam war, Canh Tien Mountain was also known by anothername Quyet Thang because in the halfway up the mountain toward East has

put the word “Quyet Thang” by stone; it shows the will of Thanh Hoa

military and people Thus, Canh Tien Mountain not only brings in itselfvalues in term of sights, but also brings values of cultural history

- Mat Rong Cave (Mat Rong cave, Long Quang cave)

Mat Rong cave as “huge eyes through the forehead dragon, while the

left eye looks to left side of Ma river, the right eye looks toward the Thanh Hoa city Dragon eyes also emitted toward and twisted the Hoa Chua pearl and bossed across many villages of Hoang Hoa district” [48, pp.289] Cave

has name Long Quang cave; gate of cave is spacious; inside of cave is highand airy We can go inside via many ways, for example, the way from South-West starts the line connecting the southern bank of the Ham Rong bridge

along the ridge of Rong mountain, and then comes inside via right eye ofDragon or come to cave from North-East via the left eye of dragon.

Mat Rong cave has been known long time ago with its primordialbeauty, purity, and captivated a lot of literators, hold on footsteps of manyimperial orders and poets Formerly, the king of the later Le had a routineevery few years come to Son Lang to cult – in which the start of the later Le

In 1478, Le Thanh Tong is a famous bard who stopped enjoying the charmingmountain and rivers of Long Quang cave In front of wonderful landscape, theking poetized and carved on a grinding ceiling between the stone roofs withdecorative wire arounding This poem named Mat Rong cave, but its contentlikes a picture overview Rong mountain, and the most dominant thing is MatRong cave

Long Quang cave

Translator:

“Fret with the wonderful scenery, Looks far clearly surrounding from top of mountain.

Remember landscape when visit Ngoc Kiem tomb,

Thought I lost to Dao Nguyen.

Cloud idle land flooded, do not sweep, Regular line in the sky, sun up.

Beauty make forest, headline slot,

As defending invited to visit individual”.

(Hoang Tuan Pho)

- Tien Son Cave

“Plants such little dust Entrance to not know that near or far Beauty instead of interesting galaxy Who onwer of peach garden is”

In Thanh Hoa, it seems that any mountains have magical traces TienMountain is a place for fairy excurse; Tien cave is a place for fairy practicemedicine; Tien Well is a place for fairy combs her hair and mirror Tien cavenot only located in the midland (Ho Cong cave), coastal land (Tu Thuc cave),but also in the delta (Tien Son cave).

Tien Son cave is located in inner of Muon mountain; the way goes tothe cave on the southwest of halfway up the mountain, and called withdifferent names such as Moi cave, Doi cave According to the legen, Tien Soncave is a place that a lovely fairy was detained by giant Vom spouses because

in the past, God sent his generals to beat these spouses She tricked to take herwings and locked into the cave In her own world, she built house to stay,seweed clothes to wear, created lake for bathing, digged well to use andmirror while brushing hair by herself

Tien Son cave is extremely deep, no one could dare claim that having a

full discovery “Let every cell, every cell … suddenly open, dual suddenly,

through off the road, but the entrance is sometime wide, sometime narrowing from this room to other rooms look like an endless world” [49, pp.61] In

inner cave has a way to go to Ham Rong cave and go to other caves in the 99mountains Every cave in here is a captivating fairyland There are manyemperors who used to stop their steps and created poetry For example, TranNghe Tong had to stop on the bank of Ma River, climb to mountains and go

to Tien Cave, and then visit Lieu Nhien cave Thus, he created a poem aboutLieu Nhien cave

Vong Dong Son Lieu Nhien cave

Translator:

“Temporary boat forced into trees, Slot in a quiet house pillow fight.

Next year who knows who is healthy?

Visitors welcome this old mountain scenery”.

(Hoang Tuan Pho)

In a word, we can see that the Dong Son ancient village has a favor of

nature with stunning landscapes converge to make a “Ha Long Bay on the

land”, and hold on many poets’ soul It makes the Dong Son ancient village

to dominate on the center of Thanh Hoa area in particular and in the Northdelta in general

1.3 The long tradition of the Dong Son ancient village

1.3.1 The history and development of the Dong Son ancient village

At the beginning of BC under the Han Dynasty, the Dong Son villagebelongs to Cuu Chan district with Tu Pho administration This is stated

clearly in the Geographic book “Cuu Chan district opened in Nguyen Dinh

year sixth Han Vu De Dynasty, administration of district is Tu Pho, Vuong Mang changed Hoan Thanh” [2, pp.49] This may be a dense prosperity at

that time The reason why we can say that due to from 20 years of thetwentieth century to today, archaeologists discovered in Dong Son and Thieu

Duong have bronze cultural sites “These findings showed that on the right

bank of the Ma River, from the Giang village to Ham Rong has had flourishing places of Lac Viet residence in the Bronze Age In these places, people have discovered the relics of Tay Han dysnesty and have also some ancient tombs from the Eastern Han Dynasty surrounding” [2, pp.53] This

land is still under the Cuu Chan in the Tuy – Duong dysnesty

In the Ly –Tran dysnesty, this region was known by various names Inthe Ly dysnesty called Thanh Hoa (Ai Chau before) and the name of ThanhHoa was mentioned first time In the Tran dysnesty 10th Quang Thai year

(1397) “Ho Quy Ly is main admistrator, modified the mode of government,

changed highway into town: Thanh Hoa is Thanh Do” [2, pp.126] Dong Son

district at that time is under Thanh Do and thanks to this situation, Dong Sonwas known

After national hero Le Loi drove Minh, restore national independence,

on the unity territory, he has divided the country into 5 areas “In 7 th Quang Thuan (1466), to strengthen administration unity, Le Thanh Tong divided the country into 12 direct admit, changes the government, changed the town In the 10 th year, the re-map of the country added the government districts up the states” [2, pp.172] The Dong Son ancient village now is period Dong Son

district, Thieu Thien government, Thanh Hoa state

In 1740 Post-Le dysnesty under the reign of Le Hien Tong, Trinh TheLoi was required to go to Thanh Hoa in hide and seek land for fightingagainst external and internal enemies He was found in the land of the DongSon in which has good conditions for economic development and basesconstruction It is located in the valley with a large area, surrounded bymountains and the Ma River Thanks to support and assistance of people inthe lowland Dong Cuong (Canh Da Den) and upland Duong Cuong (Ba Khe),Trinh The Loi established Dong Son village3

After the establishment of village, he carried out demarcation of village

boundaries and delimitation of place for each family “Therefore, everyone in

the family is born to live on the same land together, rely on each other, and responsible for each other” [48, pp.286] When a theft occurs or having

enemies, there must unite to fight the invaders, protect the family, clan andvillage He not only takes care of the stability of everyday life, but also takescare of the epiritual life of people in the village Thus, Dong Son people wereliving in a peaceful setting of Vietnamese village To commemorate Trinh

The Loi, people respected him as village royal and built a temple in the center

of village named Nhi

According to the legen, the Dong Son ancient village was established

before the time Dinh – Le dysnesty At that time, “Duong family sent a

thousand adopted children to discover land, practice martial arts, close the war boat, prepare for food, and wait for large career in Dong Son village Although the village is located in the riverside, it has mountains and forests around three sides result in that the enemy set up in the Tu Pho district near Duong Xa cannot keep track and detect traces of generals” [48, pp.258].

Since the early nineteenth century to before the august 1945 revolution,

Dong Son village belonged to “Dong Son commune, Tho Hac, Dong Son

district, Thieu Thien, Thanh Hoa province” [73, pp.107] Thus, the Dong Son

ancient village has a long history, the people in the village from generation togeneration still reside here There are many generations of people who havegrown up here and brought fame to the village as well as the country

1.3.2 Traditional economics

- The situation of land

Situation of land in the Dong Son village before the August revolution

is similar with the situation of almost villages in the North of Vietnam Theland is mainly in the hands of landlords, rich peasants There are landlords inthe village own up to 7-8 arces, while each household has about 1-3 acres orland less This leads to a large number of farmers have to work for landlords

or tenants to lease the landlord’s fields and then submit taxes to them Ofcourse, in the process of hiring farm, farmers are always suffereddisadvantages that are they only hire bad plots, difficult cultivation lead tolow productivity Beside, there are many natural disasters such as storm,

flood, drought, etc, so farmers had to work very hard in around the year, butare still not well off

Although the land is mainly in the hands of landlords, among clans aswell as temple in the Dong Son village also own a piece of land These fieldsare assigned to their relatives in the village to take profits to support activitiesand offerings such as festivals, temple worship Thus, the funds areguaranteed to help to work through, and not make more difficult for people inthe village

Beside rice area does not change, the area of other crops such ascassava, sugar cane, peanuts, and soybeans increase continuously becausepeople in the Dong Son village regularly break out the hills around the villagefor cultivation This has contributed significantly to the fight against hunger

of people in the Dong Son village

- Agricultural economy plays a key role

The Dong Song ancient village is located in Dong Son culture, it hasaffected, impacted to the people’s life in the village, especially in theproduction activities In the past, famers have planted 1 rice crop, and laterthey learn about weather rules, accumulated practical experience in the field,there are two rice crops and intercropping on the rice land or tools ofproduction are more varied and more suitbale for the production lead toincreasing productivity in working

Traditional labor was the Dong Son people followed in the early years

of the twentieth century This is shown very clear by development of theagricultural economy Residents of rice farming are emerged Rice land area

is exploited completely This is reflected in that the fields is not only used for

1 crop (Nguoc field, Xuoi field, Cach Can field), but also used for two crops(Dong field, Me field) These fields will be grown other crops after harvest

That planted the short-term crops mainly maize and potatoes for everydaymeals as well as for livestock and poultry During the labor process hasaccumulated experience, and has innovated methods of water into the field It

is taking advantage of the river tides push water up into the field for ricecultivation or irrigate for crops Later, irrigation developed, farmers no longerapply this method in the cultivation process

Beside rice area, the village also has a large area of hilly land thanks topeople exploited to plant crops Mostly they are planted short-term industrialcrops for daily life and exchange with other regions On the hills, lowmountains planted beans, cassava, yam, pineapple, mulberry, cotton, etc.There are some well-known products such as yam, cassava, and was handedpraise

“The best cassava in the Dong village The best cotton in the Vac village” 4

Commodities and rice have helped generations of the Dong Son people

to overcome hunger, cold The most terrible famine took place in 1945, whenthere were more than 2million people who died in the starvation People inthe Dong Son village still hold on with rice mixed with potatoes, cassava evenboth pennywort porridge and bran porridge

Cultivation associates with livestock Livestock plays an important role

in the daily life of the residents in the village In the past, every household had

at least one sow and rose freely without barns On the hills, beside cultivativeactivities, those are places for grazing livestock such as cattle, goats.Livestock activities, now, are still maintaining, but the structure of livestockhas changed In the past, cattle are mainly livestock, and goats are the mostcommon livestock now These changes are results of changes in the economic

values of the animal As a farming village, small industry is mostlyundeveloped There are only some careers that support directly daily life andproduction activities such as carpentry, weaving, and tile terracotta Making

Giang career is the most emerged Type of Giang in Dong Son village is very special and famous in around area “Cot in Giang village; Giang in Dong

village” Giang Dong Son is tied with rattan, eight fibers with four wires, on

the top of Giang has shape of canarium, on the bottom of Giang has a piece ofcow-hide, so called skin-head Giang This Giang is only in Dong Son result inthat there are many people in other villages who brought material for people

in Dong Son and learn how to do Giang such as Dong Tho village, Giangvillage

In a word, the traditional economy of the Dong Son village in earlytwentieth century is agricultural economy with mainly rice planting People inthe village always lie on fields, gardens to produce agricultural products inorder to serve and ensure for daily life

each time point for people in the village know to control daily activities infamily suitably At that time, the Dong Son village does not have clock, so tonotice accurate gap between two times, they used Nun straw to count thetime One time is equivalent to two of Nun straw and burnt two belt means to

a new time, so they knocked to let people know the time

+ Hamlet gateway

In the Dong Son ancient village, there is not only village gateway, butalso has hamlet gateway in every hamlet Hamlet gateway was built in theearly years of the twentieth century with materials both brick, stucco plasteredstone, simple decoration with two dragons flanking a moon (two dragon flank

a moon in the center), but they are decorated gorgeous Currently, the village

is still two gates in Tri hamlet and Nhan hamlet, others broke

+ Country lane

Country lanes of the Dong Son village is structured follow to bone include a main road running from the village to the end of the villagewith many small streets cross each other and to the main road This type oflayout is the same as other Vietnamese north villages such as Duong Lamancient village or Cu Da ancient village The reason explains why peoplearranged country lane like that is to facilitate in travel as well as securitygruarantee in daily life As if the village is stolen, it will be hard to escapebecause all entries are crossed together, and people stay in everywhere At thefirst time, country lane is made by soil, after that it is made by stone The bigpiece of stone is taken from mountains, is chosen and paved the way Thereare gutters which run parallel to the lane for drainage Thus, thanks to thisstructure, people’s life in the Dong Son village became more convenient inactivities as well as production With clean lane, people can travel, transport,

herring-or dry agricultural products mherring-ore convenient Or good drainage will help the

plants in gardens, which are not flooded lead to death and revenure of people

is not lost

+ Housing

According to the village elders told, before the August Revolution,people live mainly in the thatched cottage, bamboo house, and some woodenhouse The owners of those wooden houses are rich in the village at that time.Currently, there are only some wooden houses in Dong Son village, and some

of them have been recognized as cultural historical relics with kinds of artisticarchitecture relics It should be interested here is that how to preserve andprotect the wooden house from the urbanization process

General structure of housing in the Dong Son village has 5compartments in the main house or 3 compartments with two gables andhaving pavement On the every roof has drains, when it rains, water from theroof flows directly out into the field Two compartments in the gable areplaces to rest as well as to keep family belongings Three remainingcompartments with a compartment in the center is a place to set up theancestral altar and to welcome guest Two compartments next to centralcompartment can put mahogany, tea sideboard, or couch and add up bed forthe host or guest

Houses of people in the village, there are some sub-houses beside mainhouses Those sub-houses play a major role in activities of every family It isusually each family to add a sub-house with 2 -3 compartments use to cookand keep labor instruments or other equipments in daily life It is sometime aplace for female members in the family to sleep

In this living space is not only the main house, sub-house, but is alsoroof to meet wind, yards, gardens, fences, gates, which make distinctions forvillages in the Thanh region

- Cuisine

In the past, people in the Dong Son village cooked brown rice,depended on economic viability as well as daily habits to eat two or threemeals per day Rice is usually eaten with eeg-plant, fish, fish sauce, shrimp,fiddler sauce, or sometimes with meat These items are self- support and eatregularly in the whole year Fish and kinds of fish sauce that are made byseafood comprised a large part of meal structure of people in the village Atthe time of hunger, rice is often mixed with glory-morning, cassava, sweetpotatoes And, on holidays, festivities, people in the Dong Son village usedsticky rice, pork, goat meat to worship the holy, ancestor, and then to give forchildren

A big difference in the cuisine of the Dong Son village in particular andother villages of Thanh Hoa in general is drink In the period, all people in thevillage drank raw water; there are only some families who drank lid Eugeniatea On the festivities, people drank cassava wine which was made by people

in the village cooked In the years before the August revolution, in the DongSon village is not still appear kinds of drink that have characteristics ofbeverages such as tea or soft drink

- Apparel

As many other villages, costumes in the villages are distinctive betweenweekdays and holidays, between men and women In the weekday, womenwear brown skirts (made by cloth, brown dying, and mud plaster), overalls(coveralls collar rotation for the elderly, old overalls cut off for youngpeople), sashes, worn beams of 4 wires, conical hats, barefoot or woodenclogs, cow leather sandals On major holidays, festivals of the year, womenwear more beautiful with silk skirt, four-panel traditional dress, green scarf,and terrace hat Men’s apparel at work, they wear a loin-cloth, naked, on

about 40 years of the twentieth century, they wear shorts, a short T-shirt withtwo or three bags, barefoot, wearing a conical hat In the daily life, theirapparel like above, on the solemn occasions such as kinship activities, villageactivities, men wear long white trousers, two-panel shirt, wear wooden clogs

or bamboo clogs These costumes are made by people in the village, there areonly few family hire someone to sew costumes for their family This showsthat self-reliance of Vietnamese villagers in general and the Dong Son village

is very high

- Travel

In the early twentieth century, people in the Dong Son village are onlywalking, boat, to transport something people can carry or move via boat onthe water In general, walking is the most common travel in the village

Through the organization of residence, food, clothing, andtransportation, tangible culture of the Dong Son village early twentiethcentury is shown clearly; we can know how they wear, how they eat, howthey live, and how they travel As a result, we can understand about some part

of their spiritual life

1.3.3.1.2 Historical relics

The historical relics of Dong Son village were randomly discovered in

1924 “by a fish farmer founding some bronze objects exposing at river banks

after the rains” [29, p.28] Since the discovery of relics to present, there are

seven excavations including six official ones and an unofficial one Throughover seven excavations, thousands of relics have been found and have beenclassified into groups such as team working tools, weapons, domestic utensils,jewelry and musical instruments Group of working tools include axes (stoneaxes, bronze axes), plows, hoes, shovels, sickles, chisels …., especially axes

with oblique blade This is “a typical product of the Dong Son culture The

most interesting thing is that obliquity of axes’ blade is imbued local traces Axes with oblique blade of the Dong Son – Ma river type have oblique blade being similar to the shape of shoemakers’ oblique knife Another with less quantity but being also imbued local traces is axes with curved blade as the same as crescent shape including beautiful decorative patterns of the dancers, the boating, the deer, and crocodile These are probably the bronze objects which are considered logos rather than the tools in actual using” [54,

shape The interesting is that “these shapes are the shapes of women With

the face, posture, dress, full of luxury and imposing jewelry, they are clearly women to be honored and respected in society Through these beautiful swords, they can recognize the spirit of the Dong Son culture with self- esteem, confidence and mighty” [54, p.14]

Group of domestic utensils including pots, vases, plates, bowls … Thepopularity and diversity of these instruments referred that the daily lives ofthe Dong Son people were more stable and wealthy

Group of jewelry including bracelets, anklets were made of metals andstones, earrings, brooches, feathers … These show the rich and diversity ofthe Dong Son people not only in material but also in the spiritual aspect

In particular, of relics of the Dong Son village, it is drums which aremore prominently as well as are expressions of artistic and technical talent of

the owners of Dong Son culture The drums and the patterns engraved onthem helped us to imagine something about the lives of the ancientVietnamese There are many styles of patterns on the drums but mainly theyare in the form of stars, especially stars 12 wings in the middle of drum’sface Between the wings of stars, they are motifs of peacock’s feather or thecross bars with interlocking triangles Surrounding the stars, they are theshapes of people, plants, animals and geometric patterns All these thingshave become scientific basis of classification drums as well as portrayingtraits of economic affairs, culture and society of Dong Son people at that time.

1.3.3.2 Intangible culture

- Belief, religion

+ Ancestor worship belief

Ancestor worship of Vietnamese people was born long time ago, based

on the belief in the immortality of the soul after death, believed that the deadpeople can go back to visit, bless for their family members Since long timeago, ancestor worship has become a culture, moral and human principles It isalso an important part of the spiritual life of Vietnamese people, especiallyliving in each household and family in the Dong Son village In the village,altar is placed in the most formal, high, clean place in house The large family

in the village such as Luong Trong, Luong Tri, etc, ancestor worship iscontucted in their worship hall, while smaller families, ancestor worship isconducted at the head of a clan Ancestor worship is an important task, sodescendants should be never neglected; need always to remain each other tofulfill filial piety Descendants’ heart with ancestors is presented at any time,any where, especially in festivities, and Tet holidays In particular, whenmentioning about ancestor worship in the Dong Son village, we cannot butmention the even of 2st March lunar year Annually every lunar 2st March,

every family in the village brought banquets to Nghe communal house (theHoly temple) to sacrifice At that time, solemn bustling atmostphere takesplace in every street, household as well as in everyone On 2st March,everyone has to go back with their relatives to offer feast to their ancestoreven staying wherever and doing anything When the preparations werefinished, all descendants of the family gathered into Nghe communal house tohold a ceremony And, we can see very fast attachment of everyone in theDong Son community First, people came to communal house not only tohold a ceremony, but also to meet, communicate, and learn more about eachother They can share and overcome difficulties together To have a fund aswell as the heart of descendants with ancestors, in every family of the Dong

Son village often have a common property that is called “cult-portion part”,

and is delivered for the patriarch, detailed head, or a household in the family

to preserve and do From these common fields created common profits forwhole family This is the main funding source in holding ancestor worship ofevery family in the Dong Son village This money is used to specific jobssuch as church repairing, buying the cult and things in the holidays andanniversary Thus, ancestral worship not only presents the filial piety ofdescendants, but is also a profound education for the next generation aboutthe cultural tradition of ancestors and nation

+ Divine worship belief

In the belief life of the people in the Dong Son village, beside ancestralworship, they have a divine worship We can mention a number of gods,saints such as Church of the Great Holy, Church of village Royal, Church ofLieu Hanh mother

Temple of Le Uy – Tran Khat Chan

Temple of Le Uy – Tran Khat Chan is located in Dong Son village toworship Tham Xung Ta Quoc – Chang At Dai Vuong He was the yougestson of Le Ngoc (Le Coc), cinese governor of Cuu Chan district (now DongHoa commune, Dong Son district) When Duong dysnesty overthrew Tuydysnesty, Le Ngoc companied with three sons against the enemy In thefighting process, Mr At has sacrified To commemorate his merits, there aremany places in which set up the temple, and the Dong Son village is not anexception People in the village took his anniversary on 3rd March lunar year

to celebrate village festival In the jubilant atmosphere of the festival, people

in the Dong Son village organize Cha eating festival with people in the GiangHen village This festival is not only a commemoration At Dai Vuongsacrifice, but also shows very fast attachment of people between two villages

as well as to remind future generations refer to his bright mirror

Besides, this temple is also a place to worship general Tran Khat Chan

He was born in the Ha Lang village, Vinh Ninh district (now Vinh Locdistrict, Thanh Hoa province) He was a famous general of Tran Nghe Tongand was promoted to superior general In 1399, Ho Quy Ly has killed himalong with 370 otheres and burried at Dun Mountain People mourned overand worshiped in the Le Uy temple Therefore, the temple is also known byanother name that is a temple of two holy

The temple was originally built in the in the Ma Tat area, and on 20thAugust 1789 – buffalo year, the temple was moved to Ma Yen mountain(where the rest of the horse) Temple area is 400m2 on the campus of almost7000m2 under MaYen mountain foot, the back of temple lies on the mountain,temple face looks toward West with a lot of architectural items such as yard,appreciated subject, martial entertainment, forecourt, semicircular pondharem, etc With a huge campus, it meets the demands of people in the village