Lady King temple – Quan Ho ancestor

Lady King temple – Quan Ho ancestor (Source: Internet).

The Lady King temple is an old building, located in the western-side of Viem Xa village, Hoa Long commune of Bac Ninh city. The temple was built long ago in order to worship Lady King of Quan Hp, aka “Nhu Nuong Nam Hai chieu ung dieu cam”.

In spite of having a small scale of structure, the temple carries a valuable history. In the forbidden-house of the temple, there are 3 wooden ball in red paint color, known to be used in choosing-husband competition of the Lady King-aka daughter of Hung King in Vietnamese history. In case of drought, the 3 red ball shall be used by the local people in a catch-the-ball-competition to pray for rain (cau dao). Many antiques in Le dynasty also are preserved in the temple.

As a regular, in 6^th and 7^th of Lunar February every year, the temple’s festival is held with formalities. It is said to be the spring days in the past that the Lady King travelled to Viem Xa village. At present, on these days, 49 Quan Ho groups and tourists get together in front of the Lady King Temple and sing Quan Ho songs to praise and honour her merits because this is the only place that has a temple for worshipping the Quan Ho ancestor.