Temple of Lady Trieu

The year is 248 of the Common Era. A woman of 23 leads an army down from the mountains of Ngàn Nưa. The mountains lie in the province of Thanh Hóa. Her fighters pour down to attack the strongholds of the Eastern Wu forces. The Eastern Wu was a Chinese kingdom of that time, and it ruled this land.

The woman's name was Triệu Thị Trinh. More than 1,700 years later, the people of Thanh Hóa still keep her memory at this historic site.

Triệu Thị Trinh was born in 226, in the mountains of Quân Yên. The area was part of old Cửu Chân. Today it lies in the Yên Định area of Thanh Hóa. She was the younger sister of Triệu Quốc Đạt, a powerful local chieftain. Brother and sister built a base together in the mountains of Ngàn Nưa to prepare an uprising. When her brother died of illness, the fighters raised Triệu Thị Trinh to be their commander. She was then barely into her twenties.

From the base at Ngàn Nưa, the army marched down and attacked the citadel of Tư Phố. Then it took the districts around it. In the village of Bồ Điền, three brothers of the Lý family rose to join her. The village is now the commune of Triệu Lộc. One brother was Lý Công Thành. The other two were Lý Công Hoằng and Lý Công Mỹ. Within the grounds of the site today stands Miếu Bàn Thề, the shrine of the oath. Tradition says this is where the three brothers swore to follow her army. People honor her as Lady Triệu. The uprising shook the foreign rulers and spread across Giao Châu, an old name for a region that included northern Vietnam.

The Eastern Wu answered by sending Lục Dận, the governor of Giao Châu, with 8,000 troops to put down the uprising. After more than two months of siege, her fighters suffered heavy losses. They were outmatched in weapons and in numbers. The end came on the 22nd day of the second lunar month of the year Mậu Thìn, which was the year 248. Triệu Thị Trinh died on the summit of Mount Tùng. She was 23 years old. The three Lý generals fought on to the last man.

The historic site covers 3.8 hectares in the hamlet of Phú Điền. It lies in the commune of Triệu Lộc, in the province of Thanh Hóa. At the front stands the outer ceremonial gate, made of four pillars, each cut from a single block of stone. They are carved with phoenixes and with guardian beasts that face inward in attendance. Much of the stone here came from Mount Nhồi. It is the famous blue stone of Thanh Hóa, prized for being both durable and beautiful.

Beyond the gate lies a rectangular lotus pond. Its placement follows traditional feng shui. It is meant to gather good energy and to lead worshippers into the sacred space. Temples and communal houses in northern Vietnam have used this kind of layout for hundreds of years.

Inside, the temple has three main parts. The front hall has 12 pillars of stone from Mount Nhồi. It honors the people of every clan. The middle hall is where Lady Triệu is worshipped. It holds great inscribed boards, and its roof beams are finely carved. The inner sanctuary honors her whole family. Her altar stands in the middle, and the two side bays honor her father and her mother. The site keeps 297 antiques, dating from the late 17th century to the early 20th. Among them are 10 books of sacred chronicles, written in Chinese characters. There are also 65 royal decrees, issued by emperors over many dynasties.

Sixty-five royal decrees. They mean that the royal courts of Vietnam kept remembering Lady Triệu, and kept granting her titles, for century after century.

The climb to the top of Mount Tùng follows more than 300 stone steps, and they are fairly steep. At the foot of the mountain, on the way up, the path passes the tombs of the three Lý generals.

At the summit stands the tomb of Lady Triệu. It is a four-sided upright pillar with two tiers of roof, 5.8 meters tall from the ground. It is made entirely of solid blue stone, and it was restored in 2005. This is the most solemn place in the whole complex, where the woman of 23 came to the end of her road, more than 1,700 years ago.

From the summit of Mount Tùng, the view takes in the whole of the Hậu Lộc area below. In 248 there were no modern means of communication and no regular army. Yet a young woman rallied a whole resistance movement that spread across Giao Châu. She forced the Eastern Wu to send 8,000 troops against it.

Within the grounds also stands the communal house of Phú Điền, built in 1772. It still keeps some wood carvings from the Lê era.

In 2014 the site was recognized as a special national monument. In 2022 the Lady Triệu Temple Festival was recognized as National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Two national honors, a story more than 1,700 years old, and a woman of 23 whose name people still speak every day.