Duong Lam ancient village

Visiting Duong Lam Village is getting to the root of the culture and traditions of Vietnam. This is also a great opportunity to explore architecture of ancient houses and stroll along its narrow alleys, visit temples to worship two kings who were born there

Overview

Duong Lam ancient village is located in Son Tay City, which is about 60km far from the central of Hanoi. The village is proudly the first village to be perceived as a national relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information.

Useful information

Duong Lam has a history of more than 1200 years, consisting of many ancient houses with their age of 400 years and above. This is also the only village in Vietnam which gave birth to two kings of Vietnam, who are King Phung Hung (761-802) and King Ngo Quyen (896-944). Both the kings are national heroes who drove back Southern Han invaders and kept independence for the country. Their temples are built inside Duong Lam village for worshiping.

Duong Lam’s cultural and historical values are the main attractions of this village. The sacred village is separated into more than six hamlets. Each hamlet has its own communal house, which are the worshiping places for gods and village founders. Those communal are really spotlights of Duong Lam because each one possesses unique ancient sophisticated decoration details. Mia Pagoda, Phung Hung Temple, Ngo Quyen Temple and Mong Phu communal house are recommended as priorities. The whole village is a complex of 21 relic sites which are all recognized as national and provincial vestiges.

Tourists coming here can enjoy relaxing glimpse while sigh-seeing beautiful landscape of ancient lateritic and mud houses, small lanes and green fishponds and taking some photos as Duong Lam has been being a venue of inspiration for photographers coming here. Also, the Vietnamese agricultural local life is presented much more vividly than any report on TVs.

If you have a tour-guide or go on a tour of a tourism company, you may have chance to taste local foods for lunch in ancient houses. However, if you travel without any tour-guide, you should prepare some foods beforehand for lunch because there is no restaurant in this village. 21 relics of Duong Lam Village are free for you to pick whether after or before lunch.