BÀ CHÚA KHO TEMPLE

Follow National Highway N°1 A to the North direction until Thị Cầu Railway Station (Milestone N°33), turn left and take the road towards the Giasswork Factory; after 500 meters’ distance, you will enter cổ Mễ Village and find Bà Chúa Kho Temple on the side of the Kho Mount, not very far from the main road.
The Temple is connected with a historical event: in 1076, Lý Thường Kiệt1 led the resistance war against the invading Song army. In this period, all this area, cổ Mễ Village, Kho Mount, Gạo Bridge, etc. (around the present Bà Chúa Kho Temple) were the State’s cereal stores on the Southern bank of the Như Nguyệt River (Cầu River), the front line of that war. Kho Mount, Đinh Mount, Thị Cầu occupied strategic positions from where the troops could control the long road from Lạng Sơn to Thăng Long (Hanoi) via the Cầu River.
Cổ Mễ Temple is dedicated to the cult of Bà Chúa Kho, a Vietnamese woman who perfectly organized food production and storage and superintended the State Treasure prior to and after the Như Nguyệt victory in 10762.
Legend has it that Bà Chúa Kho was bom into a family of poor peasants in Quả Cảm Village in the same region. She became a wife of a Lý King. Seeing that her native region had many uncultivated lands, she asked King Ly’s permission to go back to her village to create farms.
Having placed large cereal stores in cổ Mễ by the Cầu River to supply the army with food in the struggle against the Song invaders, the King entrusted her with the task of both superintending the food stores and reclaiming land. Under her good management motivated by the love for her native region, 72 farms in VŨ Ninh and cổ Mễ regions all became prosperous. After each harvest, rice was brought to the stores in cổ Mễ and Thượng Đồng. That is why the mountain in cổ Mễ is called Kho (store) Mount and Thượng Đồng Village is called Lam (large store) Village.
Nobody knows the real name of Bà Chúa Kho. After her death, the villagers built a temple dedicated to her in token of gratitude for her merits in 11th century. Her great services were also recognized by the succeeding feudal dynasties which granted the Temple the title of “Chủ Khô Linh Từ” (Sacred Temple Dedicated to the Great Store-Manager).

The present Temple was built in the architectural style of the 19th century. Its simple structure is designed with a three-stepped stair leading up to the side of Kho mountain. This is a rare commemorative site connected with the Như Nguyệt battle led by General Lý Thường Kiệt.
In Cổ Mễ Village, there are also a communal house and a pagoda. The latter (Cổ Mễ Pagoda) was built long ago with three beautiful statues made in the sculptural style of the Mạc Dynasty (15th- 16th centuries), its present structure with the letter “T”-shaped roof dates back to 19th century.

1. Lý Thượng Kiệt (1019-1105) was a talented general who, in 1076, commanded the Đại Việt (an old name of Vietnam) army and defeated the Song (Chinese) invaders.
2. The decisive battle took place on the Như Nguyệt River, where the Song were completely defeated by the Đại Việt army under Lý Thường Kiột's command.

Cổ Mễ Communal House is very large with five compartments and two supporting trusses built with a structure shaped like the Chinese character (chữ —). All columns are gilded and painted red but the colours have already faded. The beautiful wood sculptures represent traditional themes: “Dragons dancing amidst clouds”, “Five tigers fighting for a gem”. The Communal House is dedicated to the worship of Trương Hống, Trương Hát, talented warriors who helped Triệu Quang Phục (549-570) fight the Liang enemy1. In the Communal House, there is a stele whose inscription tells us the date of its construction was the second year of King Lê Hy Tong’s reign (1681).
Cố Mễ Communal House, Temple and Pagoda all remind us of important events of the Vietnamese history in the 6th, lllh, and 18th centuries, which were associated with this ancient village. Recently, due to the flip side of the market economy, the supertitious practice of “symbolic borrowing from Bà Chúa Kho” and “paying back the debt” has been developed. At the beginning of the year, many believers come to the Temple and ask Bà Chúa Kho to “lend” them “money” to do business; at the end of the year, they go back there to perform rites of “paying back the money to her”. This practice blurs the real significance of the worship of Bà Chúa Kho as a lady of integrity who devoted all her life to defending and developing the country.

1. The Liang Dynasty in China reigned from 505 to 570. In 505, it dominated Vietnam. In 544, Lý Bí, a Vietnamese patriot, rose against the Liang, swept away the Chinese administration, proclaimed himself Lý Nam Đế and founded the Dynasty of Anterior Lý. He died in 549 after transferring the throne to his beloved general Triệu Quang Phục.