Sacred land of Ngoc Trung

(Baonghean) - Going up and down National Highway 46, visitors are invited to visit Ngoc Trung village, Nam Thai commune (Nam Dan) - an ancient countryside associated with the name of national liberation hero Mai Thuc Loan, where there are mountains, rivers, slopes, wells and many legendary places.

The village was originally a border of the ancient Dong Liet commune, bounded by “upper Da Dam, lower Cham bridge”; to the west, reflecting on the Gang river; to the north, resting on Trung mountain, Phuong Hoang mountain, looking towards the towering Hung Son (Dun mountain). Local people still pass down the song: “Who built Trung mountain so high/Who bends the Gang river to reach here?” According to the elders, in the past, Confucian scholars considered this place as “mountains gather water”, a place where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is forged.

Mai Thanh Mau Temple.

In the middle of the village is Chen Hill (Con Chen) about 30m high, located in the Northeast direction. The road up the hill is a bit steep so the ancients called it Con Chen Cave. On the top of the hill is a small mound, the locals call it "king's land", for generations, villagers have often come here to burn incense. Legend has it that Con Chen Cave is where Mai Thuc Loan's mother and son's house was when they left Mai Phu village, Thach Ha district (Ha Tinh) to live here. In this land, the mother and son worked hard day and night to catch crabs, snails, and firewood to feed themselves, nurturing their indomitable will to fight against foreign invaders. Then, in the second decade of the 8th century, the son led a widespread uprising in Hoan Chau, Dien Chau, Ai Chau... to overthrow the rule of the Tang Dynasty, build Van An (Sa Nam - Nam Dan) into the National Capital, maintaining independence and autonomy for the nation for nearly a decade (713 - 722).

For more than 1,300 years, the world has changed a lot, but on the top of Con Chen, there are still traces of the "king's land" associated with touching stories about the king's mother and Mai Hac De, preserved and passed down by word of mouth by the people of Ngoc Trung for many generations. With the spirit of remembering the source of water when drinking, in 2012, the local government and people built a temple on Con Chen cave - a "sacred land" location, to worship the mother of King Mai, called Mai Thanh Mau temple. Located in the middle of the hilltop, surrounded by houses, the temple consists of a main hall with 1 room and 2 wings and a spacious kitchen with 3 rooms. Behind the shrine is a small mound, an apricot tree and a stele marking the place where King Mai's mother's house used to be. From the temple door, you can see a large area of ​​Chua field, Cho field, Con Vai, Gang river, Dun mountain... The temple has become a place for spiritual and cultural activities of local people and tourists from all over the world; connecting relic sites in the relic system of King Mai Thuc Loan in Nam Dan land such as the king's mother's tomb in De mountain (Nam Thai), the king's temple (Nam Dan town), and the king's tomb in Dun mountain (Van Dien).

To the northwest of the village are Trung Mountain, Phuong Hoang Mountain, Ngu Ma Mountain, connecting a strip along the Gang River, which used to be a dense forest with many wild animals. Legend has it that Mai Thuc Loan and the village's hunting gangs often went hunting in these mountains. Adjacent to Trung Mountain are low hills running towards the village such as Chua Islet, Trai Islet, Vai Islet... Vai Islet is a large, flat area of ​​land, in the past there were lush lychee gardens. Legend has it that when Mai Thuc Loan was young, he had to work for a rich family. He and his friends often took buffaloes here to graze, bathed in the Gang River together, played mock battles, and wrestled on the flat land, so some people also called Vai Islet Vat Islet. The elders said: The ancient lychee trees here still existed until the second half of the 20th century. Now, on Vai Islet there are houses, the land around there are ponds, because at one time people dug ponds to make bricks. Below the Vai islet there is a high land, which was formerly the location of the Trung temple, worshiping the mother of King Mai.

The ancient village had two wells: Cho well and Dragon Eye well. Near the village, near the Cho field, there was a Cho well “as wide as a pond”, with clear water and “fish as many as leaves”. To draw water from the well, the ancients built a stone bridge, outside the bridge was a stone slab “as big as a table”. Every day, villagers often carried clay pots here to draw water for use. In the 60s of the last century, soldiers returning to the village also used water from this well; collaborating with young people to drain the well, scoop mud, catch fish… In Gang mountain, there is Dragon Eye well, a water source filtered from the Gang, Bai and Dun mountain systems. The well’s entrance is a small stone crevice like a dragon’s eye, but the cool water from that crevice flows all year round. Legend has it that when hunting or going to the forest to collect firewood, Mai Thuc Loan and his mother often came here to drink water. In 2009, the well was restored by neighboring households, with stone cobblestones, walls built, and an altar set up.

Visiting the “sacred land” by the Gang River and Dun Mountain, each place name is associated with ancient legends, after thousands of years, the beauty of Ngoc Trung still shines brightly. Each step on this land seems to engrave more pride and national self-esteem into the heart.

Huy Thu