Phu Ung Temple

A famous general once rode along a country road. By the roadside sat a young man weaving a basket, so lost in his work that he never heard the horse coming. A soldier had to jab the point of a spear into the young man's thigh to wake him. The young man stayed calm. This is how people tell the first meeting between Phạm Ngũ Lão and the Great Prince Hưng Đạo. Trần Quốc Tuấn was a military strategist who defeated two Mongol invasions. And from that day, the young man's life turned in a completely different direction.

Phù Ủng Temple, also called Ủng Temple, is where his homeland worships him. It stands in the Phù Ủng area of Hưng Yên. Phạm Ngũ Lão was born in the village of Phù Ủng and became a general in the household of the Great Prince. Phạm Ngũ Lão won great credit in two wars of resistance against the Yuan Mongol armies, in 1285 and in 1288. The Yuan were the Mongol dynasty then ruling China. Those were two of the wars that decided the fate of the country in the 13th century.

The temple was built on the old site of the family home of Phạm Ngũ Lão. In 1948, French colonial forces wrecked it. Only traces of the foundations remained, with two bronze pillars standing on either side. In 1990, the temple was restored, with a front hall of five bays and an inner sanctuary of three bays. What stands today is the result of that restoration. It carries the story of being destroyed and raised again.

What sets this site apart is its scale. It is not a single temple. It is divided into an outer area and an inner area, and each has many parts of its own.

The outer area has eight parts. First come the Tam Quan Gate and the Trình Temple. Then comes the Main Temple, the heart of the site. It honors Phạm Ngũ Lão together with his wife, Princess Anh Nguyên. On its left is the Tomb of Phạm Tiên Công, which honors his father. On its right is the Mẫu Temple, also called the Nhũ Mẫu Temple, which honors his foster mother. The area also holds Khuê Văn Các and Tư Văn Lầu. The last part is the Chạ pond.

The inner area begins with Phủ Chúa, a shrine to his daughter, Tĩnh Huệ Cung Phi. Next is the Tomb of Vũ Hồng Lượng, an official under the Lê dynasty. Its architecture and stone carving belong to the Later Lê period, in the 17th century. To the right of the shrine to his daughter stand Tứ Phủ and the village pagoda, which is called Cảm Ân Tự.

So the story here does not run in a single line. It reaches out from the famous general to his father, his foster mother, his daughter, and even the local officials tied to this land. This is a complex that remembers a whole family and a whole region, not only one hero.

The main festival of the temple takes place in early spring, from the 12th to the 15th day of the first lunar month. It marks the day Phạm Ngũ Lão led his army out. The air is solemn, with incense smoke and the gongs and drums of the new year.

In the festival of old, there was also a folk game called vật cù, played outside the temple. The ball was round, made of wood and painted red. Two teams, east and west, struggled to win it. The cheering and the drums in the courtyard, that eager excitement, have belonged to this land for generations.

Phạm Ngũ Lão came from the small village of Phù Ủng, yet his name is tied to the wars that decided the fate of the country. And the people of Hưng Yên still carry their gratitude for that through every festival season.