Unique houses in the West: Tower house built by an old man for more than 20 years

Mr. Mai Huyen (91 years old, living in Bung Coc hamlet, Phu My commune, My Tu district, Soc Trang ) has spent more than 20 years building a tower house to preserve the traditional culture of the Khmer ethnic group.

The old man built a house and made a statue alone.

According to Mr. Mai Huyen, when he was young, his parents sent him to the temple to practice and learn Khmer. Later, even though he returned to secular life, he always studied Buddhist scriptures during his free time. In 2000, when his children had settled down, he began his journey of collecting Buddhist books. To date, he owns more than 100 books written in Khmer.

The tower house was realized by Mr. Huyen from the teachings in Buddhist scriptures and built over 20 years. PHOTO: DUY TAN

Also since 2000, Mr. Huyen has been determined to realize the teachings of the Buddhist scriptures by building a cool house as a resting place for travelers and a tower house for villagers to deposit the ashes of their loved ones.

Cool houses were built for travelers to rest. PHOTO: DUY TAN

"The Khmer people who follow Buddhism all live altruistically, so they build cool houses along the road for passersby to rest. The Khmer also have the custom of becoming monks to show filial piety, building tower houses to worship the deceased. From there, I built these two structures as a way to realize what I learned from Buddhist scriptures and preserve the traditional cultural values ​​of my people," said Mr. Huyen.

The statues arranged in the tower house all tell a story or a teaching of Buddha. PHOTO: DUY TAN

When building the cool house and the tower house, Mr. Huyen received wholehearted support from the villagers. Many people came to contribute money and construction materials. Many people even wanted to join in the construction, but he refused because he wanted to do it himself. "I want to carry out this project myself to ensure its meaning and to reflect the scriptures. I have focused all my efforts working day and night to build it, for more than 20 years, but there are still many items that have not been completed," Mr. Huyen shared.

All the Buddha statues in the tower were handcrafted by Mr. Huyen . PHOTO: DUY TAN

Tower house attracts international tourists

The cool house is 3m wide, 4m long, 5m high, decorated with many Buddhist reliefs around, and there are stone benches inside for passersby to rest. Passing through the cool house is the tower house, about 100m2 wide, inside which Buddha is worshiped and ashes are placed. In particular, the roof and walls of the house are decorated with hundreds of large and small reliefs. Inside the house are arranged more than 300 Buddha statues of various sizes.

The roof of the tower has thousands of small towers, 4-faced Buddha statues, weighing up to more than 200 kg. PHOTO: DUY TAN

"On the roof of the tower, I placed thousands of small towers and four-faced Buddha statues, weighing more than 200 kg. I manually moved them all to the roof," said Mr. Huyen.

The four-faced Buddha statues placed on the roof of the tower are extremely special. PHOTO: DUY TAN

The Buddha statues are placed according to careful calculations, each statue is a different image. The reliefs placed one after another all tell stories in Buddhist scriptures such as: Buddha entering nirvana, Buddha begging for food, Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree... With his innate talent, Mr. Huyen did not attend any sculpture or painting school, but the hand-made statues are very vivid.

Buddha statue with glass stickers on 4 positions on the face to illuminate the viewer. PHOTO: DUY TAN

Besides the tower house, Mr. Huyen also built a 3-room house for his family to live in. The house has a unique architecture, painted mainly in yellow. The walls and ceiling are decorated with many paintings with different stories and meanings. On the left of the house, there is a stone bed about 10 meters long and 3 meters wide to organize parties, funerals or perform arts for visitors.

The architecture of the 3-room house where Mr. Huyen lives is also built and decorated like a pagoda . PHOTO: DUY TAN

In recent times, many people have come to visit this unique tower house, including tourists from Germany, Belgium, France, the US, etc. Currently, Mr. Huyen uses the 3-room house as a place to serve visitors who come to stay overnight. From there, it helps visitors enjoy the feeling of living in the traditional cultural space of the Khmer people in the countryside, discovering the lifestyle and cuisine here.

Until now, Mr. Huyen continues to carry out his life's work . PHOTO: DUY TAN

Mr. Do Thanh Hoang, Head of Bung Coc Hamlet, said that Mr. Mai Huyen has 12 children. The family has more than 7 hectares of rice fields, everyone works hard and is well-off. Mr. Huyen is a very special person who built a cool house, a tower house, as well as the 3-room house he is living in. Neighbors and children only helped with material things like sand and cement. These projects are still being completed by him.

Thanhnien.vn

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhung-ngoi-nha-doc-nhat-mien-tay-nha-thap-duoc-cu-ong-gay-dung-hon-20-nam-185241012102557023.htm