Ky Cung and Ta Phu Temples

Here the story does not begin with a grand building. It begins with a river.

The Kỳ Cùng River flows through the center of Lạng Sơn. Lạng Sơn is a mountainous province in the northeast of Vietnam. On the left bank of the river, looking straight out over the water, stands the Kỳ Cùng Temple. It carries the river's name because it has been bound to this river since long ago. Its formal name in old characters is Kỳ Cùng đại vương từ. Inside hangs an inscribed horizontal board from the 44th year of the Cảnh Hưng reign, the year 1783. Going by that board, the temple honors the guardian spirits of the river itself. They are known as Ông Cộc and Ông Dài.

But ask the people of the region, and you will hear another story. In their belief, the temple also honors Quan Lớn Tuần Tranh. He is a deity in the worship of the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms, a traditional Vietnamese belief. Tradition says he once came up to guard Lạng Sơn. So the temple holds two layers of memory side by side. One is carved into its name and its old objects. The other lives in the faith of the community around it. Both deserve to be heard with respect.

Inside the temple, many objects mark the depth of time. There is the board from the Lê era, and a stele recording a restoration in 1931. There are bronze bells and bronze incense burners. There are statues for worship, and a shrine to the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms. It is a temple by a river, yet it holds many layers of memory within.

From the Kỳ Cùng Temple, an unhurried walk leads on into the market quarter, to the Tả Phủ Temple. These are two names and two separate temples, yet they are linked in one special way. Every year in early spring, people carry palanquins in procession from one temple to the other. That short walk, amid drums and gongs and crowds flowing together, is the heart of the festival shared by the two temples.

The Tả Phủ Temple honors a very specific historical figure. It was built in the fourth year of the Chính Hòa reign, the year 1683. It stands in the market quarter of Kỳ Lừa. The man honored here is Thân Công Tài, a general of the Later Lê dynasty. He held the military title of Tả Đô đốc. He helped open up trade, and he made room for the commerce of Lạng Sơn to grow. The busy market streets of Kỳ Lừa owe part of their roots to his good work.

Inside the Tả Phủ Temple stands a remarkable stele. It has four faces and is called Tôn sư phụ bi. It was raised at the same time as the temple, and it sets out the merits of Thân Công Tài. It reads less as an administrative record than as the market community's thanks to the man who opened up the economy, the trade and the cultural life of this frontier land.

The temple faces west and stands on high ground. It has two halls in a traditional layout, and the outer hall remains fairly intact. Standing before it, a visitor can sense a quiet space in the middle of the crowded market streets. It feels like a world of its own, set apart for a while from the trading all around it.

The festival of the Kỳ Cùng Temple and the Tả Phủ Temple takes place every year. It runs from the 22nd to the 27th day of the first lunar month. The festival includes offerings and rites, palanquin processions, and folk games and performances. In 2015, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism signed a decision about the festival. It added the festival to the national list of intangible cultural heritage. A festival does not reach that standing by chance. It has lived in the hearts of the people of Lạng Sơn for many generations. It binds the community together with ritual, with music, and with a procession through the streets that is both solemn and joyful.

What stands out is that the festival does not stay inside the temple courtyards. It spills into the streets and into the loads of the shoulder-pole vendors. It spills into call-and-response songs and into the laughter of the crowds. That is why the festival reaches beyond religion. It is a moment when all the streets of Lạng Sơn come alive to a different rhythm: the rhythm of spring, of memory, and of belonging to a community with deep roots in history.

This is a living place of faith. The bells, the statues and the stone steles do not sit behind protective glass. They are here with the people and with the incense smoke. They are here with the wishes of those who stop by, each leaving in this sacred space something only they know.