Nho Lam, the village of scholars...

(Baonghean) - From each family, from each clan, from every countryside, learning has been preserved and passed down for generations by the people of Nghe An. Generation after generation writes the story of a poor but studious countryside, a land of mandarins, a land of top scholars, a land of talented people...

We came to Nho Lam village (Dien Tho, Dien Chau) because of the urge to return to an ancient village, a famous "mandarin" village that is comparable to many scholarly regions of the country such as Quynh Doi (Quynh Luu), Van Lam (Ninh Binh), Kim Bang (Nam Sach, Hai Duong). The clearest evidence is the ancient stone stele erected more than 300 years ago called the Nho Lam Association of Scholars' Literature Stele and is still solemnly placed in the main yard of the commune People's Committee. On the stele are clearly engraved the names of more than 300 children in the village who passed the exams under the Nguyen and Le dynasties. The stele has a passage: "Our village's culture has existed since ancient times. During the reign of Le Vinh Huu (1735 - 1740), the land was chosen and a temple was built here. The predecessors spent money to buy and build it. From then until now, the names of those who passed the exams have been continuously recorded, opening up the aspirations of the people in our region... engraving names on stone and passing them down to future generations so that they will never be lost...". According to the “Nho Lam Commune Literary Association” book, Nho Lam village had 1 person who passed the imperial examination (doctorate), 315 people passed the intermediate examination, including 6 people who passed the deputy examination, 19 people who passed the huong cong and cu nhan exams, and 290 people who passed the hieu sinh, sinh do, and tu tai exams. That is not to mention hundreds of other people who were well-educated, good at literature, worked as doctors, teachers, but did not take the exams or did not pass.

Giving gifts to students who won gold medals at the National Math Olympiad.

Nho Lam is the name of the village since the Nguyen Dynasty. According to the villagers' own understanding, Nho Lam means Nho forest (Nho character forest), implying that many people study and pass exams. Cultural researcher Dang Quang Lien, a son of Nho Lam village, explains that: The reason why Nho Lam village has many people who pass exams with high scores is because the people here have early access to two cultures, which are folk culture; scholarly culture and early awareness of studying.

When they were young, Nho Lam's children both herded buffalo and went to school. When they grew up, they both worked in the fields and went to school. On August 3rd, when there was famine, they had to struggle to make ends meet, eating porridge every day, but they still created conditions for their children to go to school. Education here is also of interest to the people because since ancient times, the village has had a type of school field (school field) with the purpose of encouraging the learning of children in the village. Families with many successful children will be given priority in good fields such as university and middle school fields. The village also reserved 9 acres of the best public fields to use as a benefit to worship Confucius (the teacher of all generations), called the field of worshiping saints...

Following teacher Hoang Anh, Vice President of the Association for Promoting Education in Dien Tho commune, we visited the family temples in the area. This is also a special feature of Nho Lam, because according to the old teacher, although Dien Tho is not large in area, the whole commune has more than 100 large and small family temples, of which 3 temples are recognized as National Historical Monuments. The first temple to be recognized as a relic is the Cao family temple, the family that used to have the most successful people in the commune, with 127 people named on the golden board.

He is proud: The most recent person who has made the Cao family and Dien Tho hometown proud is Cao Ngoc Thai, the "golden boy" of the 2014 International Physics Olympiad. At the Nguyen family temple, education is also of interest to descendants, as the temple has a solemn place for a bookcase of nearly 1,000 books, which are gifts from previous generations who passed exams and left for the next generations to use as research and study materials. Cao Ngoc Ha, father of Cao Ngoc Thai, shared: Although he moved from Dien Tho to Dien Cat to live for a long time, every year on the anniversary of his family's death, the family still returns to the Cao family temple in Nho Lam village to burn incense to their ancestors. It is the family tradition and the hometown tradition that has further nurtured Thai's talent, so that no matter where he is, no matter what the circumstances, he always tries his best...

Talking about Nghe An is talking about the land of learning, talking about Nghe An is talking about the land of mandarinate, the land of the top scorers, the valedictorians, the salutatorians, the talented people. And that tradition is still being continued, preserved and cultivated by the next generations: “Hoan Chau’s literary spirit is strong for a thousand years/ The righteous mind of learning will last forever”…

My Ha