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| A tractor crosses the temple square where farmers have stacked their rice straw |
Duong Lam Ancient Village is only 50 kilometers from Hanoi. From the city take Duong Lang- Hoa Lac highway past the Hoa Lac – Son Tay crossroad heading to Bat Bat and turn left to Duong Lam Ancient Village. It is typical of an old rice farming village in northern Vietnam with 200 year old houses made from laterite. The village still relies mainly on rice cultivation.
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| The owner of this house, Ms Hong, renovated it using traditional materials such as laterit - Photos: Thai Hang |
About 50 meters from the main road, the Mong Phu ancient gate, under shadow of 300 year-old tree, welcomes tourists to Duong Lam. The dirt road leads to the village, passing a lotus lake. Some houses on the edge of the village used to be built with laterite that was quarried at the site or brought from neighboring Thach That Commune; but they have been repaired or rebuilt with modern building materials.
Also rebuilt only thee years ago, the house of Ms. Hong caught our eye from a distance thanks to its new renovations. The red-brown dirt house is built from laterite and wood that cost the owner about US$100,000. Hong said she was willing to pay that money as the old house was passed down through the generations to her and it was badly damaged was got it. She wanted to restore it to to its original condition.
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| One of the old lanes in Duong Lam village |
Hong told stories while she gave tourists traditional candy made from peanuts and served tea made from the flowers and leaves of Voi, a tree only found in the north.
We then continued up the dirt road to an old temple in the center of the village, where villagers gather on special occasions. In front of the temple was a small square that was covered with of stacks of harvested rice stalks. It was noon and we sat at a street side stall run by an old woman who told us some of the village history and about some of the national heroes who came from Duong Lam such as Ngo Quyen and Phung Hung. The deeper into the quiet village we walked, the lanes got narrower and the houses seemed to be older.
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