Who comes to drink water from Thang well?

(Baonghean) - Few people know that, just a few hundred meters from the intersection of Do Luong town, a bustling trading place of Luong land, there is still a 360-year-old village well. For more than 300 years, the people of Nghiem Thang village (Dong Son) have preserved and restored Thang well with immense pride, as if it were the heart, the blood vessel, and more than that, it is an eternal spiritual value of the homeland...

Thang Well is made from 8 30cm thick green stone slabs, with yin and yang joints (no mortar is used) to form a square, each side is 2 meters, about 40cm high. Over time, years, and human life, Thang Well water is still clear, still has the sweetness distilled from the earth, the river, the stone well wall is imprinted with the traces of the bucket rope when touching it, like touching a whole sky of memories, longing...

How many children from Dong Trung village, Nghiem Thang village, Phuong Lien village, Cam Ngoc village... grew up drinking that pure water. How many boys and girls made vows there and became couples. How many successful people went far away and one day "remembered their village when their hair turned white", returned, looked at the white reeds on that calm water's surface and their eyes filled with tears... Among those who looked at their hair to remember their childhood, there were Professor - Doctor Nguyen Nguyen Khoi, Professor - Doctor Nguyen Canh Toan, Major General Hoang Kien... And how many other villagers, throughout their childhood drank water from Thang well, until they closed their eyes and passed away, the rice bowls for offerings were also cooked with that well water. They peacefully returned to the earth, like nameless grains of dust, but their souls were entrusted to the sound of the bucket every moonlit night, to the traces of the bucket on the green stone steps. That is, they left a trace of themselves at the village well...

Thang Well in Nghiem Thang village.

According to the Tran Kim family genealogy and some documents at Thang Temple, Thang Well was created by the Holy Ancestor Tran Vinh. He was born around 1620 - 1625, in Noi village (later Dong Trung village) in Ve Kim, Dong Son. The Holy Ancestor's mother was called "Mrs. Lua", and together with her son recruited people and reclaimed many fields: Cho Trang, Dong Ho, Loi Sim... Because Noi village at that time was on a remote mountainside, far from the town, he brought people to establish a new village near Lam River. To provide water for the people, he invited a geomancer to find the dragon vein and dig a well, which lasted for 3 days and 3 nights. At first, the well was built of cobblestones. Because he was talented and virtuous, always looking for ways to make a living for the people, the most prestigious Thai Ngo family in the region married their daughter Thai Thi Chi (Thai Thi Ngoc The) to him.

In the early days, the well belonged to Dong Trung village, later, as the people developed Nghiem Thang village, the well gradually belonged to Nghiem Thang village. The village was named after the Nghiem Thang army of Uy Minh Vuong Ly Nhat Quang stationed here in 1044 to fight against the Lao Qua and Lam Ap invaders. The ancestor Tran Vinh not only founded the village, cleared land to open roads, dug wells for the people, but also donated 15 hectares of rice fields to the village with his wife on January 20, 1667. On February 10, 1668, the ancestor passed away. The villagers mourned him and built a temple to worship him and honored him as the village's tutelary god. Due to his great contributions, the ancestor was granted titles by many kings, the greatest being "Thuong Dang Than". Every year, on the anniversary of the ancestor's death, people in the clans hold a ceremony to worship at Thang temple.

At first, the well was called Thien well (Heaven's well), many people were afraid to go out to draw water at night because of the name, so it was later changed to Thang well to be closer. According to the villagers' legend, when the well was about 200 years old, Mrs. Tu Luong and her husband Nguyen Canh Tu went to the North to hire workers to chisel the stone and join the well. The green stone slabs and the way the well mouth was joined as it is today, originated from that day. Some time later, Mrs. Tu Luong and her husband went to Tan Ky to reclaim land, establish villages, and provide food for the Can Vuong army of Quan Lan Huong (Dr. Nguyen Nguyen Thanh) operating in the Yen My and Do Luong areas.

The strange thing is that the water level of Thang well is always 2m higher than the rice field level, the water level of Dao river and Lam river is also lower than the water of the well, so the people of Trung Dong village in the past did not understand where that magical water source came from. They only knew that in this countryside, the Lao wind blew through the bamboo banks, and sometimes the sun was so fierce that it dried up many wells, but Thang well was still abundant in water. How many buckets were pulled up, how many buckets were lowered, how much coolness Thang well offered, how many stories poured into the silent green stones. The voice of the countryside broke out from the clear water surface. The joy and sadness spread out by the well, connecting the love of the countryside... Thang well is like a testament to the good land, the descendants of many different families gathered here, this Dao Danh family, this Hoang Van family, this Nguyen Canh family... so that on festivals, on the 15th day of the lunar month, they all used water from Thang well to wash sacrificial objects, fruits to offer to the altars of ancestors, ancestors, and gods.

Sip cool water from Thang well.

In a large area, every household has a jar or jug ​​of water from Thang well to cook green tea. Gay tea and Thong Nhat tea (Dong Son) cooked with Thang well water have become "specialties". Many women with the "hands" to cook tea have become a source of nostalgia for many people from the countryside and visitors from far away, and have been passed down through the generations for their skillfulness, talent and courage. It is the simple tea with the contribution of Thang well water that many people remember this land. The tea shops of Mrs. Lac Hong and Mrs. Hoa Binh of Phuong Lien village, only serve green tea with a few peanut candies, and everyone near and far wants to stop by. Sitting leisurely, stretching their legs after a day of work, or after a long journey, the shop owner with a friendly, country accent brings out a bowl of shimmering, steaming golden tea. In winter, you can hear the sound of sighing, in summer, there is a cool breeze from the fan in the hand of the tea vendor, you can see the green bamboo shade, the white clouds above leaning over the bowl of water. Drink water, or drink the image, the soul of the countryside?

Secretary of the Do Luong District Party Committee, Mr. Truong Hong Phuc, said that his mother's tea shop (Mrs. Hoa Binh's shop) raised 11 children to adulthood, 10 of whom graduated from university. During the years 1973 - 1976, every day after school, he also carried 5 buckets of Thang well water home for his mother to make tea. Former Deputy Director of Nghe An Health Department, Mr. Hoang Ngoc Tuy (born in 1927) from Dong Trung village also said that since he was 5 years old, he often followed his mother to get water. From the age of 12, he carried a jar of Thang well water every day until he joined the revolution.

Many people in the area use Thang well water to brew bean sprouts, make wine, and water vegetables, all saying that the well water is very good. Mr. Nguyen Canh Vinh from Nghiem Thang village has used Thang well water to brew bean sprouts for nearly 20 years, and Mr. Nguyen Danh Hoe from Nghiem Thang village has also used this water to brew bean sprouts for the past 32 years. People in the area say that, next to Mr. Hoe's longan tree next to Thang well, the late Doi Van (father of Major General Hoang Kien) often sat and told the children herding buffaloes stories about Mr. Kien practicing martial arts, going to war, and about the communists planting hammer and sickle flags and distributing leaflets around the area in the years 1930-1945. There were dreams and love for the homeland that grew up next to this well like that...

Thang Well, together with Thong Well (dug in the early 18th century) and Thang Temple in the middle, form a complex of relics for the Dong Son land. Local people sometimes feel nostalgic and miss the banyan tree and the old communal house, but still feel lucky that the village well remains as a testament to time and history. Through the ups and downs of time, through the fierce fire of war, a part of the well was filled in, and then one day, in joy and emotion, the children of the homeland saw the village well still intact as the old saying goes: "Thang Well has a thousand years of flowing water, providing fresh water/ Heavenly intelligence, heroic people from the land originate from here".

On May 16, the groundbreaking ceremony for the renovation and upgrading of the well took place in Nghiem Thang village with the hope that "The Thang Well will become a cultural heritage, satisfying the spiritual needs of the villagers towards Thanh Hoang Tran Vinh". The Thang Well, or the bridge connecting the past, present and future, continuing to provide water for all eternity? So that many children who have wandered far away from home, still dream of the day they will return, touch the well stone, dip their faces in the clear water of their hometown well, and drink from this bucket of water, how cool it is.

Let me end this article with the nostalgia and pride of a villager about the "Village Well":

“I return to the clear village well/ I see the primitive water source. People search/ Who knows the machine penetrates the geological layers/ I pity the villagers, the water flows from the heart…/ When the Lao wind melts the ground/ The heart is cooled, the moonlit well rises/ Father carries firewood, tilting the mountain shadow/ The green tea water shines, mother waits/ Where the wooden fish bathe, the village well suddenly lights up/ The gong and drum beat to welcome the glorious return of the doctorate/ From this well, many soldiers leave/ The promise is sent to the shimmering golden moon/ I can never forget my childhood following my mother/ The palm-leaf bucket pours cool water endlessly/ Now with gray hair, I lean in the afternoon beside the well/ I see my mother's shadow somewhere among the green water” (Tran Huyen Nghiem).

Thuy Vinh - Huyen Nghiem