Ba Chua Kho Temple

In the first lunar month, the crowds that come to one temple in Bắc Ninh grow so large that the road into Cổ Mễ village seems too narrow to hold them. People come to offer incense, to pray, and, following a folk tradition, to ask for luck and good fortune in the new year. The place is the Bà Chúa Kho Temple.

The temple stands on the slope of Kho Mountain, in the Cổ Mễ quarter. That quarter belongs to Vũ Ninh ward, in Bắc Ninh province. Many official documents also call the temple by the name Cổ Mễ. In 1989, it was ranked a national historical and cultural monument.

The museum and tourism office of Bắc Ninh record the story of the temple this way. The legend is set in 1077. At that time, the army of the Lý dynasty was resisting the Song on the Như Nguyệt front. The Lý dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1009 to 1225, and the Song was the dynasty then ruling China.

The army chose the area of Kho Mountain for its grain store, on the south bank of the Cầu River. The store lay around Cổ Mễ village and Cầu Gạo. Bà Chúa Kho was a capable woman who ran the food supply. She managed the work of production and sent provisions to the troops, and she gave her life on one of those supply runs. The people built a temple to remember her.

This is a legend of popular belief, recorded by a local source. The Như Nguyệt front of 1077 is a real historical event, and so is the role of Lý Thường Kiệt in it. But the figure of Bà Chúa Kho in the story is the part of the legend that the community built and handed down. It is not a historical record that has been independently checked.

The temple began in the Lý period as a small shrine called the Cô Tiên shrine. In the Lê period, the court granted Bà Chúa Kho a royal decree that made her a guardian spirit. Her title was "Chủ khố linh từ", which means the sacred spirit who keeps the storehouse. Under Emperor Tự Đức of the Nguyễn dynasty, the temple was restored and enlarged, and the work was finished in 1859. During the resistance against the French, the temple was completely destroyed. It was then rebuilt in stages. The most recent is a conservation project of nearly 55 billion dong, approved by Bắc Ninh province for the years from 2016 to 2018.

Today the temple has several main parts. They are the Tam Môn gate and three temples, called the Lower, Middle and Upper Temples. There is also a building called Sơn Trang. Two pavilions, Lầu Cô and Lầu Cậu, complete the list. Inside are three large inscribed boards and three pairs of couplets, lacquered red and gilded. The wooden statue of Bà Chúa Kho dates from the Nguyễn period in the 19th century. It is now displayed in the Bắc Ninh Museum.

Every year, the 12th day of the first lunar month is the anniversary of her death. The people of Cổ Mễ village and visitors from everywhere hold the incense ceremony, arrange their offerings and pray. It is the busiest time of the year.

The place is famous for a folk custom called borrowing money from Bà Chúa Kho at the start of the year and returning the offering at the end of the year. Many people believe that praying here and asking for her blessing will make their work and trade go smoothly through the year. This is a folk religious practice that has lasted a long time in the Kinh Bắc region. It rests on the idea that the keeper of the storehouse long ago can still hear the prayers of people today.

Each year, by the morning of the 12th day of the first lunar month, smoke from the incense spreads over the whole slope of Kho Mountain. Bells and drums sound, and the scent of agarwood incense mixes with the murmur of people praying. In the rear sanctuary, the three pairs of gilded red couplets are still there. They look down quietly on one generation after another, each coming to find a little peace and hope.

Kho Mountain, Cổ Mễ village and the temple of this legendary woman are among the few places in Vietnam where history, legend and the spiritual life of the people blend so closely that they are hard to tell apart.