Ha Long City owns 96/638 historical and cultural relics of the province. After many ups and downs, many relics have been degraded and lost. Although the city has allocated a budget for restoration work, it is not enough to restore, embellish and expand the relics. The city is planning to promote social mobilization, and at the same time has a roadmap to restore and embellish the relics in a reasonable and scientific manner.
Become a meeting place for festivals
According to the relic records, the temple of King Le Thai To (King Le Loi) was built in the late 15th century, located on a flat mound, surrounded by rivers. The temple today still preserves 5 royal decrees bestowed by the Nguyen Dynasty kings in 1821 and 1846. The content of the decrees clearly states: The gods Le Thai To, Le Lai, Nguyen Trai, the Mountain God, the River God... have contributed to helping the country and protecting the people, showing their spiritual response, now they are awarded the title of Upper-class Gods and are allowed to worship Tri Xuyen commune, Hoanh Bo district, Quang Yen province as before.
Over time and war, the temple of King Le Thai To has been destroyed many times. Through the traces of the foundation, researchers have confirmed that the temple has been renovated 5 times. Currently, the temple still has 1 statue of Le Lai, 12 pillars and tiles of the Le dynasty, 14 ceramics of the Mac dynasty and an ancient gate, which is enough to reflect the value of the temple. In 2003, the temple of King Le Thai To was granted a certificate of provincial-level historical and cultural relic by the Provincial People's Committee.
With both historical and spiritual values, the temple of King Le Thai To attracts many local people and people from neighboring areas to visit and worship. However, over the years, the temple has become increasingly degraded.
Mr. Pham Dang Khoa (An Bien 2 village, Le Loi commune) said: The temple of King Le Thai To has a small area, which greatly affects the implementation of festival activities. The road to the temple is degraded, and when a large number of vehicles come during the festival days and at the beginning of the year, it is often congested. The historical value of the temple is a heritage that our ancestors have built and built for thousands of years, and our responsibility is to preserve and promote the values of that heritage to educate the younger generation about the tradition of patriotism and national pride. Therefore, we, the people, really hope that the city will soon renovate and embellish the temple to create convenience for people and tourists from all over to visit and worship.
During a survey trip to Quang Ninh in 2024, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Ta Nhi, Institute of Han Nom Studies, a leading expert on Nom script, was extremely impressed with the temple of King Le Thai To in Le Loi commune. He said that after reading more historical data related to King Le Thai To, the survey team thought and proposed to build a plan to build a temple of King Le Thai To worthy of his stature as well as the current Ha Long City.
Many other relics have also been degraded, failing to meet the increasing demand for worship and belief of the people and tourists. This has led to a number of new traditional festivals being held on a small scale, not linked to tourism promotion and stimulation activities, and not contributing to the development of the tourism industry.
According to experts, cultural heritage is an invaluable asset, connecting the ethnic community, the core of national identity, the basis for creating new values and cultural exchange; playing a particularly important role as a resource for the socio-economic development of the community, nation and people. At the same time, it is the spiritual foundation, the endogenous factor that creates the character and mettle of the Vietnamese people, the driving force for innovation, integration and socio-economic development of the country and locality.
With efforts to develop heritage economy, in 2024 Ha Long City issued the Project "Ha Long - City of Festivals". To implement the Project, in addition to organizing the Ha Long Carnival Festival at the provincial level, the city will maintain the organization of existing festivals and events and especially adjust the time of organizing some festivals and events, build new cultural and tourism events so that there are festivals and events in all months and seasons of the year, especially in the low seasons of Ha Long tourism. It is expected that there will be 17 city-level cultural festivals and events; 14 commune-level tourism festivals.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Son, Vice Chairman of Ha Long City People's Committee, said: To organize these festivals, first of all, we must ensure the conditions of facilities, upgrade destinations, and restore relics. In 2024, Ha Long started construction of 4 cultural works: Bai Tho Mountain Cultural Complex, Duc Ong Tran Quoc Nghien Temple (Hong Gai Ward); Ba Chua Temple (Bach Dang Ward); King Le Thai To Temple (Le Loi Commune); Lang Bang Communal House (Thong Nhat Commune). All construction works must preserve the original values of the relics, ensuring harmony between cultural space, architectural identity and environmental landscape, creating a total and unique value of the relics and being a highlight connecting spiritual cultural tourism products. In particular, the city determined to implement in the direction of socialization, that is, promoting the role of the people - the subjects of cultural heritage, in mobilizing resources. In practice, relics are carefully preserved and their value is promoted only when there is participation and close connection of the local community. The total investment of the above 4 projects is about 1,220 billion VND, the city will mobilize about 354 billion VND from social resources.
Mobilizing social power
To realize the objectives of the Project, a Social Resource Mobilization Committee was established to call for and mobilize support from organizations, individuals, and philanthropists for this project, sending invitations to organizations, units, businesses, schools, and the Le family. At the same time, separate donation boxes were arranged at relic sites to receive support from people and tourists.
With determination and creative ways, in the first days of 2025, the city held a roof-raising ceremony for the front-of-house after 3 months of efforts to renovate the temple of King Le Thai To in Le Loi commune. Right at the roof-raising ceremony, the city received 83 billion VND from many organizations, individuals, and philanthropists inside and outside the province; a few days later, an individual donated over 10 billion VND...
Mr. Pham Tuan Nam, representative of 205 Ha Long Construction Joint Stock Company, said: King Le Loi Temple is a heritage with special historical and cultural value for the people of Quang Ninh. This is not only a place to commemorate one of the greatest kings of the nation, but also a vivid demonstration of the patriotism and gratitude of the people to the heroes who built and defended the country. With the responsibility of an enterprise located in the city, we hope to contribute a small part to join hands with the city to build and restore historical and cultural works.
Ms. Bui Minh Tram, General Director of Paddington Hotel HaLong BayView, affirmed: The conservation of relics cannot be measured effectively by material things. Paying attention to conservation will bring about high cultural efficiency as well as tourism development. We strongly support this policy of the city to make Ha Long increasingly become an attractive spiritual and cultural tourism destination on the domestic and world tourism map.
Along with the roof-raising ceremony of the front hall of King Le Thai To's temple, on January 19, the city held the inauguration ceremony of the restoration and embellishment of Ba Chua Temple (Tran Quoc Nghien Street, Bach Dang Ward), with a total investment of about 23.7 billion VND from socialization, and the interior part of about 2.18 billion VND is continuing to be mobilized from collectives, individuals, and visitors from all over the world.
According to the elders, at the end of the 19th century, there was a Ba Chua temple located at the foot of Bai Tho mountain, next to a small stream leading deep inland, where boats and ships were bustling back and forth. When it was formed, Ba Chua temple was just a small temple, about 2m2 in area, without a roof, the incense bowls were placed on the rocks. In order to meet spiritual needs, the local people built a small temple on the empty land in front of the rocks. Because it was built on the alluvial land at the cave entrance close to the sea, the temple area was very small. Up to now, after restoration, the temple has an area of about 132m2 ; with a stone gate, left and right service houses and other auxiliary items.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai (Ward 4, Bach Dang Ward) said: Mother Goddess worship is a need in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people, giving people strength, faith and contributing to protecting and promoting the cultural values of the Vietnamese people throughout the history of building and defending the country. From a small temple, the temple has now been restored by the city in a large-scale, methodical manner, worthy of the historical and cultural value of the temple, which is truly very meaningful.
Determining the role and significance of the Bai Tho Mountain Historical and Cultural Relic Complex in the economic, cultural and social development of the city, in April 2024, Ha Long organized the groundbreaking ceremony for the projects: Square, trees and technical infrastructure of Bai Tho Mountain cultural area; expansion, restoration and embellishment of Duc Ong Tran Quoc Nghien Temple (Hong Gai ward). In particular, the Square, trees and technical infrastructure project connecting Bai Tho Mountain cultural area has an area of nearly 1.2 hectares; including the main items: Architectural works (octagonal floor, underground toilet, service house); trees, embankment; yard, traffic roads, steps... with a total investment of about 213 billion VND from the city budget.
The project to expand, renovate and embellish the Tran Quoc Nghien Temple was carried out with donations and other legally mobilized social funds. Up to now, the Steering Committee has received about 1/3 of the estimated construction investment budget; of which, some units have donated up to 5 billion VND, many individuals have donated hundreds of millions of VND.
Regarding the project to renovate, embellish and restore Lang Bang communal house (Thong Nhat commune), the city started construction in December 2024. According to the design, the project area is 3,065m2 . The project will restore Dai Dinh (on the old communal house foundation) according to the architecture of the traditional Northern communal house and have other auxiliary items arranged in suitable locations in the overall relic site. At the same time, 100% of the socialized funding source will be used, with the People's Committee of Thong Nhat commune as the investor. Currently, the Steering Committee has received over 3 billion VND to implement the project.
Up to now, Ha Long City has received about 140 billion VND of socialized money to implement the above 4 projects. With the deep concern and the joint efforts of kind-hearted people, the city is reaping more "sweet fruits" in preserving and maintaining the heritage left by our ancestors.
Promoting the achieved results, in 2025 the city will continue to prioritize resources to plan the conservation of historical, cultural and relic works, thereby making a list of component investment projects, classifying and determining the implementation roadmap and investment capital sources, as a basis for allocating capital from the state budget, mobilizing social resources for conservation, restoration and renovation activities of architectural works.
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