Village temple at the foot of the waves

Duy Phien village, Bac Phuoc hamlet, Trieu Phuoc commune, Trieu Phong district, was once an isolated rural area surrounded by rivers on all sides. For hundreds of years, every rainy season, the people of Bac Phuoc hamlet, including Duy Phien village, lived in constant anxiety because of the rising, raging floodwaters that swept away dikes, destroyed fields, and devastated villages. In those fierce storms, the Duy Phien village communal house served as a shelter and protection for the villagers. The communal house also hid revolutionary cadres, stood as a "witness" to history, and was a center for political , cultural, and religious activities, as well as a meeting place to discuss important village issues...

The Duy Phiên village communal house has become a source of pride for generations of villagers - Photo: NB

Bac Phuoc is an area located north of Trieu Phuoc commune, surrounded by two branches of the Hieu and Thach Han rivers, with a total area of approximately 4 square kilometers. Before being merged into Bac Phuoc village, this island had three villages: Duy Phien, Ha La, and Duong Xuan, with about 330 households and over 1,500 inhabitants. Through countless changes and upheavals, these small villages have remained isolated amidst the surrounding saltwater, facing numerous anxieties.

Decades and centuries ago, Bac Phuoc islet was associated with mangrove swamps, and its people had to endure the harshness of natural disasters. Especially during the rainy season, floodwaters from upstream combined with high tides and sea waves, submerging the islet in water. Faced with the devastating power of floods, the people of Bac Phuoc learned from experience and built dikes and raised house foundations to avoid being flooded.

The village of Duy Phien is situated along the riverbank, flowing towards the sea. Since ancient times, during the dry season, every household would carry soil to reinforce the foundations of their houses and cattle sheds to protect them from floods. The Duy Phien village communal house is the place where the villagers collectively built up the soil and gravel, making it the highest point in the village and a sacred symbol of the community.

According to the elders, Duy Phien village has a history of over 500 years. Like many other villages, Duy Phien village has accumulated the distinctive features of Vietnamese culture, while also possessing the characteristics of an island region with diverse water resources and small-scale farming that its ancestors cultivated hundreds of years ago. Currently, the village has 7 clans with 153 households and over 630 inhabitants.

Regarding the Duy Phiên village communal house, ancient records do not provide specific details, and even the elders in the village cannot recall the exact time of its initial construction. All that is known is that in the past, the ancestors of Duy Phiên village established many shrines for worship, such as the Thành Hoàng Shrine, the Ba Họ Shrine, and shrines dedicated to various deities and individuals granted titles by the imperial court. However, due to war and natural disasters, most of these ancient shrines and temples are no longer intact.

According to surviving documents, the site where the Duy Phien village communal house stands today was originally built by the villagers with the collective efforts of their ancestors. Every year, on the 15th day of the 6th lunar month, the villagers would hold a ceremony there. In 1939, the communal house was rebuilt with a four-roofed wooden structure covered with tiles. During the resistance against the French, the communal house suffered significant damage.

In 1959, the village rebuilt the communal house with brick walls, a double tiled roof, three sections including an outer house and a relatively spacious ancestral hall, and a courtyard with four ancient banyan trees. In 1972, the communal house was largely damaged by American bombs.

In 1998, the village communal house was rebuilt and inaugurated on August 2nd, 1998. After 21 years, the communal house had deteriorated, so the villagers decided to build a new, more spacious one. In 2019, construction began on the communal house with a total cost of over 3.2 billion VND. In April 2021, Duy Phien village held the inauguration ceremony for the new communal house.

According to the design, the temple complex has three sections. The central section is dedicated to the founding ancestors, the left section to the later founding ancestors, and the right section to the seven clans of the village. Every year, the village council regularly organizes ceremonies and memorial services for the ancestors worshipped in the temple, including the Spring and Autumn Sacrificial Festivals. On each occasion, the village council always performs rituals of gratitude, expressing appreciation for the contributions of the ancestors, and praying for peace and prosperity for the villagers.

During the festival, each household sends at least one person aged 18 or older to attend and share in the festivities, thereby strengthening community bonds, especially during the Lunar New Year.

Village temple at the foot of the waves

Numerous children from Duy Phien village from all over the country came to attend the inauguration ceremony of the village communal house in 2021 - Photo: NB

For decades, the communal house has served as a refuge for villagers during major storms and floods, such as the historic floods of 1983, 1985, and 1989. The grounds are filled with ancient trees with lush foliage, providing a safe haven for livestock and poultry. The elderly, vulnerable, children, and families severely affected by flooding are often brought to the communal house for shelter. Many families even cook and sleep there during the floods.

The village communal house not only sheltered the villagers from natural disasters but also served as a refuge for revolutionary cadres and was the venue for many important political and social meetings and activities of the village. In October 1975, before the relocation to the Lao Bao new economic zone (Huong Hoa district), a meeting was held at the communal house to discuss the relocation plan. The communal house also served as a place to honor and award scholarships to the children of the village, organize activities to promote education and talent, and launch many emulation movements to build the homeland.

The village communal house serves as a historical "witness," observing, watching over, and protecting the villagers of Duy Phien as they participated in wars against the Ming army during the post-Tran dynasty in the 14th century, the Lam Son uprising in the 15th century, Nguyen Hue's offensive to Northern Vietnam in the late 18th century, and the defeat of the Siamese army in the early 19th century. It also responded to and participated in the Can Vuong movement in 1885, as well as subsequent uprisings against French colonialism and American imperialism.

In the struggle for national liberation, the revolutionary movement in Duy Phien village was established very early, in the 1930s and 1940s. During this period, the village had the first Red Peasant Association of the commune; it was the first place the commune chose as a base to build resistance forces against the French in 1947-1948; it was also the first place in the commune to have a secret tunnel during the resistance against the Americans and the first place to establish a village front government in June 1964.

The only village in the commune that had a Young Pioneers unit fighting against the Americans in the years 1965-1968; it was the first area where the liberation army returned during the 1972 campaign. Notably, in the years 1955-1960, Duy Phien village served as a revolutionary base for the Provincial Party Committee's leadership. Throughout the resistance war against the Americans, it was a revolutionary base, hiding and nurturing many district Party committee and Party branch cadres, as well as guerrilla cadres operating secretly.

The war ended, leaving behind much pain and loss, but also immense pride when the people of Duy Phien village were awarded the Second Class Liberation Order by the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam in 1973. The village boasts 6 Heroic Vietnamese Mothers, one Hero of the People's Armed Forces, 62 martyrs, 30 wounded and sick soldiers, and over 100 people who received various medals and awards from the State.

Hundreds of years have passed, and countless generations of children from Duy Phien village have been born, raised, left, and returned, all carrying within them a sense of pride in their revolutionary and studious homeland. Contributing to their homeland and country in peacetime are four PhDs, hundreds of children with college, university, and postgraduate degrees, many exemplary entrepreneurs, and many outstanding citizens and Party members in learning, working, producing, and doing business.

The Duy Phiên village communal house is not merely a sacred place of worship, but also a space for cultural and spiritual activities, a bond connecting the community, and a cultural and religious institution for the villagers. Therefore, every spring, no matter where they are, the children of the villagers turn their thoughts towards their homeland, contributing to village and national affairs, celebrating the spring festival, and offering prayers of gratitude to their ancestors...

Nhon Bon

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