Master Kieu and his passion for restoring Nguyen Bieu temple

(Baonghean) - Visiting the temple of the famous person Nguyen Bieu in Hung Lam commune (Hung Nguyen), hearing many stories about the Righteous King from the people of hamlet 2, we were especially impressed by the story: "The relic worshiping the Righteous King Nguyen Bieu, along with Lord Yen Quoc, is very sacred, a place for people to visit, burn incense, and pray for blessings for generations. Now, Yen Quoc pagoda has no trace left. Without Master Kieu, the relic worshiping Nguyen Bieu would hardly exist."

Coming to Master Kieu's house, his wife told him: He went to Vinh to place a stele for Nguyen Bieu temple. "He is very passionate about Nguyen Bieu temple, he has been working hard for two years, staying at the temple regardless of rain or shine," she said. She called to meet him at a cafe along Lam river.

In the mild August sun, Mr. Kieu recalled: "Nguyen Bieu Temple is associated with our childhood. In the past, the spiritual and cultural activities at the temple were very vibrant, but there was a period when it was abandoned. Around 2007, the temple was in danger of completely collapsing. As children of the homeland, each tile, pillar, and curve of the temple roof is deeply engraved in the memory of each of us.

Master Kieu at the restored Nguyen Bieu temple relic.

Unable to bear seeing the vestiges, pride, and traditions of my hometown gradually disappear over time, I was determined to find a way to restore the relic. I discussed with Mr. Pham Manh Cuong, former Head of the Education Department of Hung Nguyen District, Mr. Dang Thai Anh (Hamlet 1), Mr. Nguyen Van Tu (Hamlet 1 chief)... to establish a restoration committee.

First, we collected documents and researched the temple's royal decrees and tablets. I also knew a little Chinese, so the research was quite favorable." After many days and nights of hard work, traveling to museums, libraries, and institutes, the "research work" of Master Kieu and the restoration committee was basically completed with the following results: After Nguyen Bieu passed away, in recognition of his contributions and gratitude to the spirit of Righteous King Nguyen Bieu, the people built a temple to worship him on Lam Thanh mountain, located about 1 km from Yen Quoc pagoda. At first, it was just a small temple made of bamboo and thatch. It was not until the Later Le dynasty that it was built with bricks, tiles, and solid wood. In the 7th year of Duy Tan (1913), the temple was built with a worshiping house and two harems. Along with worshiping Nguyen Bieu, the temple also worships Phan Quoc Hoa, from La Son (Duc Tho), who passed the doctoral exam in 1535 under King Le Trang Tong, and died in a battle with the Mac army in 1557.

After the relic restoration policy was approved by the authorities at all levels, the restoration committee sent members to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other localities to mobilize the children of Hung Lam and Hung Nguyen to join hands in contributing merit. Teacher Kieu and his family members were the pioneers in contributing.

For 2 years, with a donation of about 200 million VND, Master Kieu and the members of the restoration committee have stuck with the relic, finding ways to restore the degraded items. The principle of the restoration committee is to try to the highest level to restore the original, in case there is no other way, it must be rebuilt. The temple's tile roof is almost damaged, the old tiles are no longer produced anywhere, and it is not suitable to cover them with new tiles. Master Kieu went to families and clans that previously had old tiles that were no longer used, looking to buy or exchange, asking for them back, and got more than 7,000 tiles, enough to re-roof the entire worshiping hall and the back palace. The two flower columns in front of the temple were leaning, many people suggested that they should be demolished to rebuild, but Master Kieu and the restoration committee were determined to find a way to restore them.

After many sleepless nights, Master Kieu came up with a way to use equipment to lift and pull the two flower columns back to their original positions. The construction site was muddy, the workers were very worried and only agreed to do the construction on one condition: Master Kieu would stand in command and control, because they believed that Master Kieu had a special spiritual power, and only if he stood by would the lifting and pulling of the columns be successful. Indeed, the lifting and pulling process was safe, the two flower columns and the front walls with the original patterns were rebuilt to everyone's surprise. Later, when restoring the Nguyen Bieu temple relic in Yen Ho commune, Duc Tho district officials also came to see Master Kieu to ask for advice on how to restore the flower columns.

After two years of working on the project, the efforts of Mr. Kieu and the members of the restoration committee were finally rewarded: Nguyen Bieu Temple was recognized as a provincial relic in 2009. To date, in the temple grounds of about 3,000 square meters, there are an ancient well, a three-door gate, two ancient walls, two elephants, two houses for burning votive papers, a worshiping house, two harems with tablets of Nguyen Bieu and Phan Quoc Hoa. In front of the worshiping house, there is a horizontal plaque "Ho quoc ty dan" (Protecting the country, protecting the people) and a pair of parallel sentences: "Thanh Lam tich co chung linh dia - Yen Viet song trung ky niem dai" (Thanh Lam where the sacred land is cast - Yen Viet is the memorial of two loyal ministers). On the left is a poem by King Trung Quang sending Nguyen Bieu off on his diplomatic mission, on the right is a poem "eating a feast with a head of a person" by Nguyen Bieu.

Talking about Mr. Kieu, parents and students of Hung Lam commune and neighboring areas proudly boast: Nguyen Bieu Secondary School, with Mr. Nguyen Van Kieu as Principal, is an advanced school of Hung Nguyen district. For 4 consecutive years, the school has been in the top 3 of the district in terms of education quality. The school also has many excellent students at all levels of the district. In the 2010-2011 school year, there was 1 excellent student at the national level. In the 2012-2013 school year, 2 students won second and third prizes at the provincial level in cultural subjects, many of them passed the entrance exam to Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted. Particularly, Mr. Nguyen Van Kieu has been recognized as a grassroots Emulation Fighter for 4 consecutive years.

Saying goodbye to Teacher Kieu, following the sturdy 42-meter dike beside the Lam River, heavy with alluvium from hundreds of streams and creeks of the Western Nghe An region, flowing to fertilize the corn fields and lush green rice fields, I kept thinking about the Teacher with the mission of preserving and cherishing every drop of the soul of the homeland and country for his children and descendants forever...

Tran Quang Dai