Mau temple or Dao Nuong temple is one of 17 National historical and cultural relics of Tien Lu district, located on 39B road, 6 kilometers from Hung Yen city. Dao Nuong temple lies in the middle of a small valley in Dao Dang village, Trung Nghia commune, Hung Yen city. Legend has it that in 15th century, this was the “luxurious market street” with bustling life where Dao Nuong started her singing career....
Dao Nuong had the real name of Dao Thi Hue who lived at the end of 15th century. She was beautiful, good at singing and dancing whose reputation was widespread everywhere. When A Dao was 18 years old, on the pretext of supporting Tran dynasty to kill Ho dynasty, Minh dynasty invaded our country and encamped in villages to rob all properties and kill kind people. Men were forced to be servants; women were caught to be maids. They flocked to Dao Dang village, people there ran away. Dao Nuong and her sisters could not escape. They forced her to sing and serve them in feasts. Thanks to her talents, she made them trust her and consider her house the place for resting and entertaining.
Dao Thi pampered soldiers so much that they did not take any cautions. They flocked to her place to drink and eat. Getting drunk, they felt asleep. To avoid cold and mosquitoes, (this place used to be the lush reeds and had many mosquitoes), they got an idea of making the sacks to sleep in, tie up and untie in the following morning. Dao Thi helped them tie and untie the sack. Accordingly, she thought of a plan to kill enemies.
They secretly asked the old and men in the village to take the sacks to throw into the rivers as enemies slept tight. They tie more rocks to the sacks to make sure that in case enemies woke up, they could not get out. Gradually, the number of enemies dropped with no clues. Then they believed that this place was so turbulent, cruel and sacred that they could not stay. They were scared getting away. Since then, Dao Dang villagers could live peacefully.
As Dao Dang passed away, in order to commemorate her contribution, villagers built her temple. When the country was peaceful, Le Thai To King conferred her with ‘Phuc than’, repaired the worship house and recalled her every year. A Dao temple now was still in Dao Xa village and became a famous historical and cultural relic as well as fame of locals.
According to records kept in the relic, the temple was built in 1433 with square structure outside and I-shaped inside (Noi cong ngoai quoc) including 3 buildings and 19 rooms decorated with four holy beasts and four holy trees. In 1951, French colonials destroyed it all to build their posts. Later on, locals recovered the temple on the I-shaped old ground.
According to locals, the old temple kept remains of Dao Nuong but French colonials destroyed them and robbed of precious things. Currently, there are such remains as thrones, plaques, bells, bronze, and statues.
Especially, the collection of antiques close to her singing career are preserved in the temple such as jewelry box, bangles, ear rings, ivory fans, ivory combs, hairpins, ivory cups and ancient parallel sentences.
Given Dao Thi Hue was praised as one of the Founders of Traditional Opera in Vietnam, in village festivals, it is indispensable to perform traditional pieces of opera on the background of drum rhythms.
Annual festival is held jubilantly from February 1 to February 6 on the Lunar calendar. Villagers join in such games as wrestling, hoopla, especially cockfighting and traditional opera singing competition.
