The joint grave of two patriots in Hue

Located on Tu Hieu pine hill (Thuy Xuan commune), about 3 km from Hue city center is the common tomb of two patriots Thai Phien and Tran Cao Van.

They were the leaders of the Duy Tan uprising. When the uprising failed, they were arrested and beheaded at Cong Chem An Hoa (Hue) on May 17, 1916.

The joint grave of two patriots Thai Phien and Tran Cao Van in Hue. Photo: Vo Thanh

The story of two patriots being buried in the same grave is related to Ms. Truong Thi Duong, their female comrade in the Vietnam Restoration Association movement.

Early one summer morning in 1916, Thai Phien and Tran Cao Van were arrested on their way to the base. After being executed, the French colonialists buried them together.

Seeing the two comrades lying in the middle of a desolate field, Ms. Truong Thi Duong secretly brought the remains from An Hoa to bury near the tower of Monk Kiet Mao (Thuy Xuan commune, Hue city).

Ms. Truong Thi Duong buried the remains of her comrade in a grave to keep it a secret. Photo: Vo Thanh.

Mrs. Duong told her children and grandchildren that at 3:00 a.m. on May 5, At Suu year (June 25, 1925), she and a relative, Dang Khanh Di, and Mr. Nguyen Huu Canh (the administrator of Dai Trung pagoda) went straight to the remains of Thai Phien and Tran Cao Van.

According to Mrs. Duong, the person who kept the grave of the two elders was Thu Ty, whose son was sick, so she built a hut there to both guard the grave and look after her son. When she arrived, she said that this was her uncle's grave, then paid Thu Ty 6 dong, gave her sick son 3 dong, and hired 5 other people for a total of 24 dong to dig up the remains.

After receiving the remains, she paid in full and hired two carts, one to carry her and the two urns of remains, the other to carry Dang Khanh Di and Nguyen Huu Canh. Then she hired someone to carry water and personally washed the remains of the two men. "When he was beheaded, Mr. Tran Cao Van was wearing a cloth shirt, the cloth still stuck to his bones. I hired someone to dig a hole and build a tomb, it cost me 4 dong."

Eleven days later, the exhumation was at risk of being exposed, so Mrs. Duong took advantage of the night to hire four people to dig up and bury the remains of the two elders in a location in present-day Thuy Xuan commune. To avoid prying eyes, she buried the two sets of remains in one grave. At the old grave, she still had it rebuilt into a proper mound, fenced off carefully, "as if no one had ever touched it."

In 1956, Mrs. Duong erected a tombstone for the two men with the inscription "Tran Cao Quy Cong - Thai Duy Quy Cong's grave"

In 1992, after being recognized as a national historical relic by the Ministry of Culture, the common tomb of Thai Phien and Tran Cao Van was granted state funding for restoration and embellishment with a 4.3 m high memorial.

The ancient tomb is still preserved intact as a round gravel mound, in front of the tomb is a stele erected in 1956. The entire tomb and memorial are located in a rectangle measuring 7.2 m x 7.6 m, surrounded by a railing.

According to VNE