The tomb of Ngo Quyen and the temple of Phung Hung stand at the edge of Duong Lam, a short drive or a longer walk from the Mong Phu gate. They honour the two leaders born in the village: Phung Hung, who rose against Tang rule in the 8th century, and Ngo Quyen, victor at […]
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Mia Pagoda, officially Sung Nghiem pagoda, is the Buddhist pagoda of Duong Lam and holds 287 statues: 6 of bronze, 107 of wood and 174 of clay, most of them lacquered red and gold. It is one of the largest collections of statues in any pagoda in northern Vietnam. It takes about twenty to thirty […]
Duong Lam is called the land of two kings because it was the birthplace of Phung Hung, who rose against the Tang governors in the late 8th century, and of Ngo Quyen, whose victory on the Bach Dang river in 938 ended a thousand years of Chinese rule over Vietnam. Beyond those two names, it […]
Duong Lam has 956 old houses, and a handful receive visitors: the best known is the Nguyen Van Hung house in Mong Phu, built in 1649 and still lived in by the same family. Others, such as the houses of the Ha families, open for tea or lunch. They are family homes, not museums. You […]
Mong Phu communal house is the meeting hall and shrine of Mong Phu, the central hamlet of Duong Lam. It was built in 1684, in the reign of Emperor Le Hy Tong, and it is still where the hamlet worships its guardian spirit and holds its festival in the first ten days of the first […]
Duong Lam is built of laterite because the village sits on it. Laterite is an iron-rich layer of weathered soil found just under the fields around Son Tay; it is soft enough to cut into blocks while damp and hardens once it dries in the air, which made it the cheapest strong building stone for […]
You can visit Duong Lam on your own: the ticket is cheap, the lanes are public and a car from Hanoi is easy to book. What a private guide adds is access and meaning, the old houses opened for you, the stories behind the gate, the pagoda and the two kings, and a kitchen where […]
Duong Lam is worth visiting if you enjoy quiet villages, old houses and everyday rural life, and if someone can take you inside those houses and explain what you are seeing. It is the most complete old village near Hanoi and it is not a tourist set. It is not worth it if you want […]
The Duong Lam village ticket is for an adult, bought at the booth beside the Mong Phu village gate. It covers entry to the village and its public monuments, including the Mong Phu communal house and Mia Pagoda. The old family houses are private homes, so they do not sell tickets; visitors leave a small […]
The easiest way to Duong Lam is by car: about 1 hour 15 minutes from the Old Quarter along Thang Long Avenue and the road to Son Tay. A ride-hail or taxi one way costs roughly 350,000 to 550,000 VND; keeping the car waiting for a return trip brings the total to around 600,000 to […]