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General information
| Address | 710 Nguyen Trai Street, Ward 11, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City |
| Opening hours | 6:15 am – 5:00 pm daily |
| Level of Monument | Ministry of Culture and Information in 1993 |
General introduction
Tue Thanh GuildHall (also known as Thien Hau Pagoda or Cho Lon Pagoda) is currently located at 710 Nguyen Trai Street, Ward 11, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City. It was recognized as the Relic of Architectural and Artistic at national level by the Ministry of Culture and Information in 1993.
Tue Thanh means a city of abundant rice, originating from the legend of a fairy man who gave a magical branch of rice to the people of Guangzhou, thereby helping Guangzhou became prosperous and wealthy.
Because there was so old and no specific documents, thereby not specified exactly when the Guildhall was built. There was only known that in the central area of old Saigon – Cho Lon area today, Chinese people – from Guangzhou, Guangdong province – built Tue Thanh GuildHall as a meeting place, to manage immigration, to help their countrymen, and also a place to worship Thien Hau, to express their deep gratitude to Her for blessing them with peace during their days at sea so that they could come to Vietnam to trade, settle.
At the GuildHall, there was still a large-pink bell, in front of GuildHall, on the other side of the road, there was also a released-fish pond to gather energy, calm meridians, a stone stele at the front hall was recorded the restoration milestone in 1830. And there was restored in 1828, 1841, 1859, 1908, 1972, 1998.
Tue Thanh GuildHall had a wooden frame house, load-bearing walls, and its roof was covered with tiles of yin and yang.
The layout of the Tue Thanh GuildHall was included a small yard in front, from the main entrance were the front hall, the skylight, the central hall, the incense house and the main hall. In the East, there was included the meeting room, the living room and shrine of Wealth God, which were at the end, parallel to the main hall. In the West along both sides, including the living room and the shrine of Wealth God.
The right of the GuildHall was Mach Kiem Hung Secondary School, which was built in 1911 and formerly Tue Thanh Primary School, extending from the front hall to the main hall and separated by a corridor.
Tue Thanh GuildHall was truly “eye-catching” with ceramic reliefs decorated on the walls and on the tiled roof. The upper floors of the reliefs were all decorated with the theme of “Two dragons competing for a fire-pearl”, while most of the lower floors were different with the stories of “Journey to the West”, “Iron Fan Palace”, “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea”, “The Jade Emperor”, “Bao Gong Trial”, “Han-So Competition”…interspersed with flowers, leaves, dragons, qilins, turtles, phoenixes…
The wall below the ceramic reliefs was embossed a herd of deer, a pair of roosters and hens standing beside a peony branch, a fish transforming into a dragon, a horse-dragon, a lion… At the head of the blades were token the ceramic statues of Mr. Sun, Mrs. Moon, a dragon with wings, Vo Tong fighting a tiger… In the front yard of the GuildHall, in addition to the two stone-lion statues standing on both sides, there were also ceramic reliefs and statues which were embossed of mangrove tree and famous Duong’s poems decorated on the walls along both sides of the yard.
The entrance to the GuildHall was engraved with four Chinese characters “Tue Thanh Guild-Hall”. On the front’s wall was a painting of “Truc Lam That Hien”. The lower of the porch was decorated with a qilin statue and carved with flower strings, qilins, phoenixes… In particular, the wooden relief was hang under the porch, in front of the main door, there was carved on both sides and written the following lines: “Tay Lieu country”, “To Loc crown-prince”, “Phu Tang”, “That Dat royal-uncle”, “Dong Hai Long Vuong flag” next to the image “Eight Immortals crossing sea”, “Hai Long Vuong soliders” …
At the central of the view from the outside was a central gate that was designed like a door-frame with two doors, placed near the end of the front hall.
The front hall had two shrines close to the two corners of the wall and facing each other. On the left was the altar of the Gate God (meaning “Huu Duc Ty Chuyen God”), while on the right was the altar of Phuc Duc Chinh God (meaning “Tho Dia God”).
The central hall had a quite large area. Outside was a large altar table, the front of which was carved with the relief “Six countries appointed General”. On the altar table was a set of five enamel objects that was molded in the 12th year of Quang Tu (1886). Above the altar table was a horizontal lacquered board “Ham hoang quang dai” (Great Grace). There were also two glass cabinets, one to display the wooden palanquin used to carry Thien Hau on Her anniversary and another to display the bronze fire sprinklers made by Tue Thanh GuildHall in Viet Dong province, China.
Next to the central hall was the incense house. The middle room of this incense house had three parallel incense tables. The outermost incense table had five incense burners to worship to Thien Hau Nguyen Quan, Long Mau Nuong Nuong and Kim Hoa Nuong Nuong. Under the roof of the incense house was hang many coils of incense, which were continuously shined to pray for peace and luck.
The main hall was built higher than other shrines, there was divided into three shrines by round columns. The middle shrine of Thien Hau Thanh Mau was solemnly decorated. Along the two sides of her altar were two sets of eight treasures, each set included eight types of weapons with wooden handles and bronze blades, each weapon was molded with one of the eight objects symbolizing swell, elegance and intellectuality such as gourds, scrolls, flower baskets, pen towers…
Inside, there was deeply another incense table placed in front of the altar of Thien Hau to worship. The altar of Thien Hau was delicately carved with dragons, phoenixes, plum-birds, flower vines… There were three statues of Thien Hau placed in a vertical row from low to high, with two jade girls standing to attend. To the left was the tablet “Greatly appoint Thien Hau Nguyen Quan Country-Guard God’s tablet”.
Two small statues of Thien Ly Nhan and Thuan Phong Nhi standed in front of the Chinese characters carved on the front of this altar:
“Hau duc du thien, sung dien cac, Thanh an tuy dia, tinh phong trieu”
(Her virtue was as high as the heaven, worshiped with temples, Her grace was spreaded everywhere, everywhere that the wind and wave would be fine).
Lower on the left of her altar was the incense table of Tho Dia.
The left altar was worshiped Long Mau Nuong Nuong, with simple carvings, a statue of Long Mau Nuong Nuong and two jade girls, along with a tablet “Greatly appoint Thong Thien Country-Guard giving to Hien Duc Long Mau Nuong Nuong”, on the front, above was a set of five bronze objects made in 1877.
Kim Hoa Nuong Nuong, meaning Mother of Birth was the Goddess who protected childbirth and raises children, was worshiped in the right side of the main hall, decorated and carved like the shrine and altar of Long Mau Nuong Nuong, but the set of five objects dates from 1860.
In addition to the statue of Kim Hoa Nuong Nuong and the statue of two jade girls, there was also a tablet “Kim Hoa Pho Chu Hue Phuoc Phu Nhan”. In the next, there was a large-pink bell cast in the 60th year of Can Long, meaning 1795, and a large-pink bell cast in the year Mau Ngo, meaning 1878.
From the main hall, there was an exit on the left to enter the Quan De shrine and an exit on the right to enter the Than Tai shrine, including of two altars:
The altar of Quan De (Quan Thanh De Quan) was placed on a brick pedestal, carved with two dragons facing the sun, blossoms of apricot and chrysanthemums, flower vines… The statue of Quan De was sit on a throne with Quan Binh and Chau Xuong standing in attendance.
The altar of Than Tai (Tai Bach Tinh Quan) was also placed on a brick pedestal, carved with dragons, phoenixes, blossoms of lotus and orchids… The statue of Than Tai was presented an old man with a black face and long beard sitting on a throne.
In general, these two shrines were simply decorated but still solemnly.
After more than two centuries, Tue Thanh GuildHall has always preserved the beauty of an ancient architectural relic, the sophistication and ingenuity of wooden carving art on incense burners, panels, altars, parallel sentences; the art of painting and calligraphy on murals and especially the art and technique of making ceramic reliefs; despite spending hundreds of years of rainy and sunny, there was still retained almost intact the lines and colors of every single detail.
In 2012, the HCMC’s Department of Culture – Sports & Tourism, HCMC’s Tourism Association and the Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Trading Joint Stock Company – VEC has announced the program “Ho Chi Minh City with 100 interesting things”, therein having voted Tue Thanh GuildHall as “The typical architectural and artistic relic”.
