Le Hoan Temple of Tho Xuan

In the Thọ Xuân area of Thanh Hóa Province, local people speak of one place with special respect. It is the temple of Lê Hoàn. It stands in Trung Lập village, in Xuân Lập commune.

The temple honors Emperor Lê Đại Hành, the ruler also known as Lê Hoàn. He took the throne in 980 and began the Former Lê dynasty. In 981 he led the resistance against the Song, the dynasty then ruling China. In 2018 the Prime Minister signed a decision ranking the temple a Special National Monument of architecture and art. In 2023 the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism added the temple's festival to the national list of intangible cultural heritage.

Lê Hoàn was born in 941, on the land of today's Trung Lập. He served the Đinh dynasty through the years when the chaos of the 12 warlords was put down, and he was given the military title Thập đạo tướng quân. After the upheaval of 979, he took power as regent. In 980 he took the throne and chose the reign name Thiên Phúc. In 981 the Song invaded, and he led the campaign that won. In 982 he went to war in person against Champa, an ancient kingdom on the central and southern coast of what is now Vietnam. In 1005 he died in Trường Xuân Hall at Hoa Lư.

Inside the temple gate lies a space of its own.

The temple is laid out in the shape of the character công, under roofs built in the traditional temple style of the ancient Việt and Mường people. Its timber roof frame is assembled from several kinds of trusses and decorated with fine openwork and relief carving. The temple is also a work of architecture and art in its own right, and that is why it was ranked as a monument of architecture and art.

The temple has a front hall, a middle hall and a rear sanctuary. In the rear sanctuary stands a bronze statue of Emperor Lê Hoàn. Empress Dowager Đặng Thị is worshipped there too. So is Lê Mịch, titled Prince of Trường Hưng. So are Emperor Lê Long Đĩnh and Empress Dowager Dương Vân Nga.

The grounds hold two old steles from the early 17th century. The first was raised in 1602. It records a grant of land to Trung Lập village to pay for the temple's worship, made by Emperor Lê Thánh Tông. He ruled from 1460 to 1497. The second stele was raised in 1626. It records the legend, the origins and the deeds of Emperor Lê Hoàn.

The temple also keeps 14 royal decrees dated from 1674 to 1887. With them are orders, incense tables, jars, and old plates and bowls. There is also a stone plate said to have been a gift from the Song emperor to Emperor Lê Đại Hành.

People around the region also pass down tales of his origins. According to local legend, his mother, Đặng Thị, dreamed of lotus flowers blooming brilliantly before she gave birth. The legend adds that as a small child he was sheltered by a golden dragon, as if heaven and earth had already chosen a hero for the country.

By custom the festival of the temple lasts three days, from the 7th to the 9th of the third lunar month, with the main festival on the 8th. These are the days when the temple comes fully alive, with drums, incense smoke, and a line of people coming one after another to bow to a son of the Trung Lập land.

Standing in the grounds, among mossy tile roofs and rows of finely carved wooden columns, a visitor is close to more than a thousand years of history. The emperor who came from this soil drove back the Song army and kept the borders firm. Here, in the land he came from, he is remembered still. The small temple in Trung Lập village is where a whole countryside sends its gratitude, century after century.