Existing for hundreds of years, ancient houses have been still “living” as historic witnesses, invaluable presents offered by nature. For their owners, time is not counted by months...
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| An Ancient houses. |
Existing for hundreds of years, ancient houses have been still “living” as historic witnesses, invaluable presents offered by nature. For their owners, time is not counted by months, years but by generations. These old houses do not only keep happiness and sorrows of the life of one person, one family, but also maintain magnificent national cultural values, the slow steps of time, the ups and downs of history...presenting holy ancient souls of the Vietnamese land.
At present, houses of 100 years and upward with historical, cultural and scientific values are called ancient houses. To the extent of this writing, we only refer to ancient houses with specific Vietnamese architecture. They are not only the places for family get-togethers but also are skilful hand-made works of art that help to keep Vietnamese traditional culture.
According to the Eastern conception that a peaceful and settled life leads to prosperity, so a house plays an especially important role. Men build houses and women make home. “Buying buffaloes, getting married, building houses...” Building a house is a great pleasure in a man’s life. A house can show the owners’ fame, prosperity and taste of art.
According to researchers, Vietnamese old-aged houses are in boat-shaped architecture with solid structures. The frames of the remaining houses were mostly made of good kinds of wood such as iron wood, rosewood...together with wooden doors which create airy space. The original old houses are in quite unusual structural links whose parts and details are connected by mortises, bamboo nails of soaked male bamboo roots, very solid and tough, twisted and fastened by bamboo strings...All are made of natural materials without any hinges, iron nails but they are very firm showing craftsmen’s high hand skill. It is said that formerly, the owners used to check if the mortises could fit well by pouring water into the joints and then disassemble them. The mortises were thought to be fine if the insides stayed dry. Houses used to be roofed with double tiles or dragon’s scales or thatch. The floors used to be of baked bricks or special well-mixed materials. The houses are mostly of wood in linked structures creating currents of convection as air conditioning which is very good for health. Especially, ancient houses are sophisticatedly-carved bearing the Eastern philosophy such as the 4 sacred animals (long: dragon, ly: unicorn, qui: turtle, phuong: phoenix), the 4 seasons (fir-tree, phyllostachys, daisy, apricot) horizontal lacquered board and scrolls of parallel sentences... Over centuries, these old-aged houses with distinctive moss-covered features still exist with the time.
Together with the ancient city of Hanoi, old houses in the provinces of Bac Ninh, Ha Tay, garden houses in Hue City, in the Southwest part of Vietnam, thatched houses in the province of Binh Dinh... ancient houses in the province of Khanh Hoa add to the panoramic picture of ancient houses throughout the nation. Based on the data from the Center For Landscape and Vestige Management, after the general inventory (from May to June, 2003), it is estimated that 83 ancient houses are located in the provincial city of Nha Trang and the districts of Dien Khanh, Van Ninh, Ninh Hoa and Cam Ranh Town. Among them, at the top are Dien Khanh Dist. with 44 and Ninh Hoa with 21.
Khanh Hoa ancient houses still bear specific traditional characteristics: 3 compartments and 2 lean-tos, 1 compartment and 2 lean-tos, among which houses with 1 compartment and 2 lean-tos are the most popular. Most of the typical buildings recommended to be preserved are of this kind.
Most of the owners don’t know exactly the time when their houses were built. They were just told by their older generations. On the New Year’s Day or important events, only men have the privilege to tidy up and decorate worshipping objects, incense and candles. Several women who remain there as daughters-in-law all their lives said that from the day when they stepped over the door-sills, the houses stay the same.
Not as sophisticated as garden houses in Hue City or sizeable as ancient houses in the northern delta provinces, ancient houses in Khanh Hoa Province are very attractive for their modest and simple beauty in a peaceful village. In some skillfully-carved typical houses still remain colorful sacred boards of parallel sentences, old-aged furniture, tables, chairs, wardrobes,...Mr. Le Khai’ house in Ninh Phung, Ninh Hoa Dist. is a good example. This is among a small number of remaining eye-catching ancient houses worth visiting as it keeps most of its original architectural features thanks to the owner’s good desire of preservation. Built in the structure of 1 compartment and 2 lean-tos with double-tile roof, this house remains stable for a very long time. The pillars, wooden furniture and utensils become shiny. Most of them are skillfully-carved with abundant vivid images of a dragon’ head, bird, phoenix, bat, valuable horse, fine flower... The 91-year-old owner is an elegant person and a nature lover with gardens of various kinds of fine flowers, ornamental plants, areca palms, coconut-trees. The harmony of the structures, the space and the people there plays an unforgettable impression on the viewers. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hai’s house (Vinh Thanh Commune, Nha Trang City) has been a tourist destination for a long time as it is located hidden in a large 5,000m2 garden. Furniture sets of precious wood are so attractive beneath vast tree canopies together with fine cups made of baked soil, tea-pots of dry coconut shells remind us of the sight of the old Vietnamese countryside that tourists enjoy very much.
Preserving ancient houses-traditional values of the nation is an effective way of not only educating children about their older generations’ lives but also drawing foreign tourists’ attraction as they can find various interesting cultural differences provided that we have good methods of development and conservation.
N.T
