Oil and Lacquer

In the mountains that border Ha Nam (which are actually in Ninh Binh, a larger bordering town) are the temples devoted to King Dinh and King Le from feudal Vietnam.

Dinh Bo Linh was a distinguished officer at the end of the Ngo Dynasty. In 968, he became emperor and took the name of King Dinh Tien Hoang. He was responsible for unifying the country, he even renamed it Dai Co Viet, which means Great Vietnam. He had many palaces, which he assigned to his son King Nam Viet Vuong (Dinh Lieu).

At the end of his throne to his youngest son, Hang Lang, to be emperor. Enraged, King Nam Viet Vuong, the oldest son, and also an important figure in his father’s reign, killed Hang Lang. This however, didn’t make up king, because one night, some crazy minor palace officer named Do Thich had a dream, then woke up, and killed King Dinh Tien Hoang and King Nam Viet Vuong. This left one of the other young sons, Dinh Ve Vuong to be emperor. However, he was only 6 years old.

The queen, Duong Van Nga, made the courageous decision to marry Le Hoan, an important Vietnamese general. He became emperor Le Dai Hanh and thus started the Le Dynasty. King Le was a good ruler, he kept Vietnam safe, improved the roads, and replaced Chinese currency with Vietnamese currency.

In these mountains, there were two temples, one to King Dinh and the other to King Le. There is also a special statue and altar place devoted to Queen Duong Van Nga in King Dinh’s temple. Visitors come to pray to these kings and the queen for health and longevity.

We climbed up the mountain to visit the grave of King Le. Half way up, an old woman sold us overpriced soy milk and told us the story of these kings. She told us to be patient, breathe, and keep going up the mountain.

At the top of the mountain we encountered another old lady, who recited a poem about the kings and told us to pay our homage. We each put down 10 VND (60 cents) and prayed for some more health and longevity.