An Hien Garden House

Hue has royal tombs, worship halls and a steel bridge. It also has a style of building and living that is hard to find anywhere else, the garden house, or nhà vườn.

One of them, An Hiên Garden House, is called the foremost garden house of Hue.

It stands on a street that runs along the left bank of the Perfume River, near Thiên Mụ Pagoda. The grounds cover 4,608 square meters. The main house takes up only 135. Most of the land is garden: fruit trees, flowers, a pond and old shade trees.

That is already a philosophy. A small house and a big garden. The nobles of Hue did not need huge rooms. They needed nature: fruit trees, water, shade and birdsong. This was the refinement of Hue culture.

The house was built before 1895 for the eighteenth princess, a daughter of Emperor Dục Đức. Dục Đức was the most tragic emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. That was Vietnam's last royal dynasty, which reigned from 1802 to 1945. He ruled for only three days in 1883. Then he was deposed and starved to death in prison, after 75 days of confinement. Yet despite her father's fate, the princess was still looked after, and she lived in this garden house.

After that, the house passed through many owners. In 1920, a woman named Khâm Điệp bought it. In 1936, her son sold it to a provincial official. He improved the house and tended the garden. In 1940, he died.

The person who left the deepest mark on An Hiên was his wife, Đào Thị Xuân Yến.

When her husband died in 1940, Xuân Yến took over the garden house. She managed it for 57 years without a break, until she died in 1997. In that time, she renovated the garden, preserved the rường house, planted more precious trees, and kept everything whole through the war and through the great upheavals of the country.

Thanks to her, the house can still be visited today.

An Hiên is not called the foremost because it is the finest of all the garden houses Hue ever had. After 1975, many noble garden houses of Hue were torn down, sold or divided up, or fell into such decay that they could no longer be recognized. An Hiên is one of the few that are still whole. It earned the name because it is the most intact of those that remain, and the one with the most soul. And the reason it remains is that one woman decided to tie 57 years of her life to this place.

The main house is a traditional Hue rường house. It has three rooms and two side wings, and it faces south, following feng shui, to take in the south wind and the light. The roof is laid with yin-yang tiles, two layers set alternately, one facing down and one facing up, which makes a sturdy structure and good insulation. The wooden columns are lacquered red and gilded, a sign of people of high standing. The walls are built of thin handmade brick, long and small, the traditional kind in Hue. Inside are gilded boards, paired verses in Chinese characters, and an altar to the family ancestors.

The garden takes up most of the land. Mango, jackfruit, pomelo and star apple, tropical trees typical of central Vietnam. Apricot blossom, orchids, chrysanthemums. A lotus pond. Old trees giving shade. Paths paved with brick and gravel.

Leaves rustle. Flowers scent the air. Light filters down through the branches. This is a place of stillness. It is the ordinary life of a noble Hue family more than 130 years ago, kept alive by the love of one woman.

An Hiên is not as dazzling as the Imperial City. It does not have the spiritual aura of Hòn Chén Hall. It is not as grand as the Nam Giao Esplanade. But it is something very Hue: quiet, refined, holding many generations.

Under the old trees of An Hiên, there is the sound of leaves and the sound of water. Some people chose to give their whole lives to keeping one peaceful moment for those who came after.