Hoang Gia Tomb of Go Cong

The main grave in this tomb complex rises in a cone-shaped crown, decorated with eight lotus flowers. It recalls the tombs of the royal court, and the place is called Lăng Hoàng Gia, the Hoàng Gia Tomb. Hoàng Gia means the royal family, so many people take it for the tomb of a king.

It is not. This is the burial ground and ancestral temple of the Phạm Đăng family. Its best known grave belongs to Đức Quốc Công Phạm Đăng Hưng. The story behind the name is better than the mistake.

Phạm Đăng Hưng was born in 1764 on the Sơn Quy ridge, in the Gò Công area. He served as an official under the Nguyễn dynasty, Vietnam's last royal dynasty, which reigned from 1802 to 1945. He held many important posts. But what tied his name to the court forever happened after his death.

His daughter became Empress Dowager Từ Dũ. That made him the father-in-law of Emperor Thiệu Trị and the maternal grandfather of Emperor Tự Đức. Because of this tie, the land and the tomb complex carry the name Hoàng Gia, meaning the royal family.

Phạm Đăng Hưng died in 1825. The next year, his eldest son had the tomb complex built in Gò Công, on the land where the family's line began. Craftsmen from Hue worked on it beside local craftsmen. The result blends the style of the royal court at Hue with the carving art of southern Vietnam.

The tomb stands at Gò Sơn Quy, in the old Gò Công area, which now belongs to Đồng Tháp province. In 1992 it was ranked as a national monument.

The name Gò Sơn Quy comes from the shape of the land. It is a high ridge of sand with the form of a turtle. The people here regard it as the place where the Phạm Đăng family began.

The complex has several main parts, and each keeps its own piece of the story.

The first is the temple of Đức Quốc Công and the Phạm Đăng family. Its architecture shows a meeting of styles. There are touches of an old southern house and the mark of the Hue royal court. There is carved wood, couplets and an altar. The motifs include tứ linh, the four sacred creatures, and bát bửu, the eight treasures, along with flowers and leaves.

In the ancestral hall, places of worship are set for five members of the family. The first is Phạm Đăng Hưng. Next come Phạm Đăng Long and Phạm Đăng Dinh. The last two are Phạm Đăng Tiên and Phạm Đăng Khoa.

Then comes the stele house. Emperor Tự Đức had the stone stele set up to record the merits of his maternal grandfather. It was once lost in the turmoil of war. It was later recognized and brought back to the tomb complex after more than a century. This is more than a slab of stone. It carries the restless history of southern Vietnam in the 19th century.

The grave of Đức Quốc Công is the center of the whole complex. That crown sets it apart from the ordinary graves of the delta. A royal tomb comes to mind, yet it sits in the setting of the south.

Around the main grave lie 13 more old graves of the Phạm Đăng family. They are not single graves scattered about. Together they form a place of worship for one family. To pass from grave to grave is to pass through several generations of a family that left a deep mark on the history of southern Vietnam.

Last, in the grounds, there is an old well built of brick. It is tied to the story of fresh water in Gò Công, a land that the salt of the sea often reaches. It is a small well. But for the people here it holds the memory of water and of the family's land.

Gò Công is not large, but it has stood at important crossroads of history. The Hoàng Gia Tomb tells that history through the eyes of one family and the Nguyễn court. Not far away are the house called Nhà Đốc phủ Hải and the temple of the national hero Trương Định. Each keeps another piece of this land.

Phạm Đăng Hưng, whose daughter became Empress Dowager, and the stele that his grandson, Emperor Tự Đức, set up, make one family story inside a larger current of history. At Gò Sơn Quy, those two stories meet.