Going to Nghe An

The village well...a piece of the village soul

Tien Dong • November 8, 2024 14:57

"So many have gone far away/So many remain/The well remains forever clear/Like the love of my homeland..." I keep humming these poignant lyrics from the late composer Thuan Yen's song "Homeland Well" whenever I come across a village well in the sun-drenched, windswept land of Nghe An...

1.

I have visited Sen village (Kim Lien commune, Nam Dan district) many times, and each time, familiar, simple, and deeply moving emotions wash over me as I sit beside Coc well, right next to the house of the late Deputy Scholar Nguyen Sinh Sac.

According to legend, this well was dug by Mr. Nguyen Danh Coc from Phu Dam village (also known as Phu Dam), Chung Cu commune, Lam Thinh district (now Sen 2 hamlet, Kim Lien commune) around 1708 to provide water for his family. Later, it became the village's communal well.

When Mr. Nguyen Sinh Sac passed the Pho Bang examination in 1901, his entire family moved from Hoang Tru village to Sen village to live in a house built for them by the village as a way of celebrating their high achievement and bringing honor to the village. The house is located about 100 meters to the right of Coc well.

When he was a child, President Ho Chi Minh and his siblings often went to the Coc well to fetch water for their family. On June 16, 1957, President Ho Chi Minh returned to his hometown for the first time. After walking from the house of the former high-ranking official to the village gate, reminiscing about the past, he asked the villagers: "Does the Coc well still exist? The water from the Coc well was clear and sweet, famous throughout the region for making delicious green tea and soy sauce!"

Right at the entrance to Sen 2 village, there is the ancient Phu Dam well (the old name of the village), which was restored in 2013. Phu Dam village is also the birthplace of the Nguyen Sinh family, and the restoration of the ancient well, along with the system of historical and scenic relics associated with the Kim Lien Historical Site, has contributed to enriching the cultural values ​​of this land.

In Kim Lien today, along with the movement to restore village gates, many traditional wells have also been renovated and preserved by the people, becoming anchors of memories. Currently, in all 12 hamlets of Kim Lien commune, almost every hamlet has an ancient well. Some hamlets have as many as two or three ancient wells, associated with the old village after the merger. These include the Phuong Doai well; the Dinh well; the Chua well; and the Trot Quan well, which was restored in 2021...

Besides Kim Lien commune, Trung Phuc Cuong commune is perhaps the locality that "possesses" the most ancient wells in Nam Dan district. This land is also the birthplace of many cultural families, with many people achieving high academic success during the feudal era. Coincidentally, the villages of Trung Can, Dong Chau (formerly Nam Trung) and Dong Vien (formerly Nam Phuc) have a nearly symmetrical location on the North-South axis with Sen village in Kim Lien commune, separated by the Lam River. This area also has many famous ancient wells, associated with the history of hundreds of years of village establishment, such as Vung well, Chua well, Duong Quan well...

I couldn't stop myself from seeking out Vung Well. It's one of the oldest wells in Vung hamlet, Trung Can village. It was dug by the locals long ago for daily water needs. In 2020, the well was restored by the villagers, becoming a symbol of community spirit and the bond between those who have left their homeland.

Mr. Nguyen Duy Son, a resident of Vung Chua hamlet (Trung Phuc Cuong commune), shared: "From ancient times, we have heard stories about Vung well. Previously, the well was made of earth with high earthen walls to prevent water from the fields from flooding in, and there was a wooden bridge on the bank for people to draw water. Now, restored, Vung well is built and assembled with many different types of stone and is quite large. The well's edges are lined with laterite stone from Ha Tay, while the well walls are made of green stone from Ninh Binh. The well wall diameter is 14m, the bottom diameter is over 7m, and the depth is 5.5m. The well has one entrance on the east side with many steps leading down, nestled beside an ancient banyan tree."

Since its restoration, Vung Well has become a cultural hub for the villagers, a gathering place for those who have left their hometown, and a place where fires are lit during the New Year's Eve transition between the old and new year.

2.

A friend who works in cultural affairs in Dien Chau district boasted to me that, when it comes to ancient wells, Dien Chau district probably has the most still standing. Of those, about 85 wells are still... countable. On average, each commune has 5 to 7 wells that are hundreds of years old. This means that some ancient wells only remain in memory after the vicissitudes of history, buried under layers of sediment from the passage of time.

I went to Trung Hau village, Dien Hoa commune (Dien Chau district), as a way to verify what my friend said. There are still ancient wells here.Dr. Thai Doan Nguyen built this well in the mid-18th century, when he came here to settle and establish a village. For nearly 300 years, the well has never run dry, becoming a source of cool water for the local people.

About 10 years ago, the villagers contributed their labor and resources to renovate the well. Many families still use the village well water for drinking, brewing rượu (rice wine), and making the famously delicious rice noodles of the region.Respecting the source of water passed down from their ancestors, every Tet holiday, people go to the well to fetch water to clean their ancestral altars, hoping to wash away all bad luck and welcome a peaceful new year.

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This ancient well is very sacred; it has never run dry, even on hot June afternoons. In the past, when the American invaders fiercely bombed North Vietnam, the area was riddled with bomb craters, but the village well remained untouched...

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Cuong - lives next to the village well in Trung Hau.

Today in Dien Hoa commune, Trung Hau village has merged with Truong Khe village, the birthplace of the multi-talented poet Nguyen Trong Tao, to form Trung Truong village. I'm not entirely sure whether the memories of moonlit nights spent by the village well inspired the poet Nguyen to write the dreamy verses in his poem "Moon," published in 1968.

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On the full moon night, I carry water.
The moon swims at the bottom of the well.
The moon smiles, shaking the blue water.
Nodding as if inviting

She carried two buckets of water.
Ah! Carrying the entire moon and sky!
Only one moon rises
Why are there two stars in the box?

Poet Nguyen Trong Tao

Surprisingly, in the Dien Chau region, in the rural areas with many ancient wells that I visited, there were glimpses of literary giants. Not far southwest of Dien Hoa commune is Trung Phuong village, formerly Dien Minh commune, now Minh Chau commune, the birthplace of the poet Tran Huu Thung, known for his poem "Visiting the Rice Fields".

Right from the entrance to Trung Phuong village, I saw an ancient well called Vang Well, which had recently been renovated. The well has a mouth more than 20 meters wide, and next to it is a smaller well that helps the water settle, making it more convenient for the villagers when they go to fetch water.

From above, Vang Well, along with Hai Vai Hill and Ho Linh Hill (where Co Am Pagoda is located), forms a symmetrical triangle. The "old" Dien Minh commune had two villages, Trung Phuong and Phu Lam, located on either side of Ho Linh Hill.

The villagers of Trung Phuong also recount that, according to legend, long ago, two men from the North came to this land to settle and build a prosperous and thriving village. After establishing the village, they contributed their labor and resources to dig a well right on the road leading into the village, both for daily water use and to ward off evil spirits. Later, the two men were revered as the village's guardian deities. They showed mutual affection and solidarity with the villagers in fighting against internal enemies and external invaders, hence the name "Tuong Phung" (Meeting Again), which later became "Trung Phuong" (Trung Phuong). Some believe that the area used to have the Len Market, a trading center of the region, where many guilds and trading associations gathered, hence the name "Trung Phuong".

Mr. Thai Huy Toan, Head of the Front Committee of Trung Phuong village, said: According to the elders in the village, the Vang well in Trung Phuong village dates back more than 700 years. The water here is always crystal clear and full regardless of the season. Because it is located at the beginning of the village, children who live far away or local people returning from working in the fields often come to the well to scoop water with a bucket to wash their faces.

"As society developed, the movement to build wells and boreholes for individual households boomed, and the village well faded into the past, sometimes even becoming damaged or silted up. Five years ago, along with the new rural development movement, local people contributed money to restore the Vang well. This helped the Vang well become a symbol of the village, so that anyone who leaves will always remember it," Mr. Toan shared.

3.

In the past, my village also had a communal well. Initially, the well was dug and built with earth, shaped like a basin, located near the edge of the field, where the cleanest water source was found. Later, the villagers contributed stones to build a wall around the well to prevent erosion and make it easier to "inspect the well"—to clean it out—every few years. When I was little, every afternoon I would follow my grandmother and mother to the well to fetch water. Beside the steel hooks were two aluminum buckets, crafted from the casings of flares dropped by the American enemy. Each afternoon, we would fill two jars, enough for a day's use. Gradually, each house dug its own well, then drilled wells, and some even had clean water pipes connected to their homes. Even so, the village well water remains the sweet, cool water that flows in my memory.

Ancient people believed that digging a well meant digging into a dragon vein, so each well was guarded by a deity who protected the peace of the villagers. Many village wells were even placed next to incense burners and altars to worship the village guardian deity and the earth god. Usually, on the first day of the month, the full moon, or whenever the village needed to pray, villagers would come to light incense and offer gifts at these altars. Aware of the sacredness of the wells and the source of life left by their ancestors, generations of villagers have always been conscious of preserving the village wells.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Sau (86 years old), from Trung Phuong village, Minh Chau commune (Dien Chau district), shared: "The ancients believed that each well had a different shape. Square wells symbolized Mother Earth, round wells symbolized Heaven, and oval wells symbolized humanity. In the past, to dig village wells, village officials would mobilize the villagers. Those chosen to dig the well had to be strong young men from harmonious families. The location for digging the well also had to be in accordance with feng shui principles and the flow of energy."

Along with the banyan tree and the village communal house, the village well has become a cultural symbol of every village, not only in Nghe An province but also throughout Vietnam. The village well is a place of cultural activity for the local people. It is where young men and women get married. It has witnessed countless memories, both happy and sad, the ups and downs of the villagers from generation to generation. It is a testament to history and culture.

Returning to the ancient wells of Nghe An province, one can truly understand the sentiments of poet Nguyen Trong Tao in "A Fragment of the Village Soul": "I call the well a fragment of the village soul. This fragment of the village soul never runs dry; it is always full, ready to share with every household during the dry season. I wish my soul would always be cool, sweet, and full like the water in my village well..."