About 50 km from the center of Thanh Hoa province, Lam Kinh relics have many works of history with hundreds of years old.
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Overview of ancient Lam Kinh Citadel
Historical area of Lam Kinh is 200 ha (Tho Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province) where the hero Le Loi organized the rebellion against the Ming invaders. After winning, in 1428, Le Loi took the name Le Thai To, he named the country is Dai Viet. The king built the capital in Thang Long (Hanoi) and built another citadel in his hometown (Lam Son) called Lam Kinh. This place is also known as the West Citadel (in order to distinguish it from The East Citadel – Hanoi). There are many temples and shrines to worship ancestors, final resting places of kings.
Campus of the ancient citadel
The entrance to the Imperial City has an artificial river named Ngoc River. This flow originates from the West Lake, flow around the citadel and Lam Kinh. According to the book Hoang Viet Du Dia Chi, water in the river is clear; the riverbed has many beautiful rounded pebbles.
On the Ngoc River, there is a bridge named Tien Loan Kieu with a bow shape, which is also called Bach Bridge. The bridge bends across the Ngoc River, located on the main road leading to the main center of Lam Kinh palace.
Crossing the bridge about 50 m to an ancient well, there was lotus inside the well in the past. Blue water of the well are not dry all year round, the north shore is paved with stone for steps up and down, supplying water for Lam Kinh palace.
Every year, there are many tourists visiting Lam Kinh place and taking picture the ancient well. This is one of the largest ancient wells in Vietnam today.
The beauty of Vietnamese space
To enter the main hall, guests have to go through the meridian gate. There are three rooms, the main chamber is 4.6 m wide, and the side room is 3.5 m wide. The yard of meridian gate are 11 meters wide, 14 meters long and have three doors. The middle of the door is 3.6 m wide, the side door is 2.74 m wide and there is the colonnade in the middle. The characteristic of the four middle columns are large, with a diameter of 78 cm.
Before the meridian gate has a stone statue of the Nghe animal like the guard. The back and bottom of Nghe animal are still in original shape, dating back hundreds of years. The head and front legs were recently reconstructed.
The relics also preserve the beauty of Vietnamese space with “banyan tree, wells, and communal yard”. On the right of the dragon yard (also known as the waiting yard) is a banyan tree hundreds of years old with a radius hugged by dozens of people.
Through the entrance of meridian gate, you will see the dragon yard. The courtyard spread out the front side of the main hall to the shores of two wood buildings with a total area of more than 3,500 square meters.
Great architectural value in the Le So Dynasty
Lam Kinh is arranged in the architectural style of “Noi cong, ngoai quoc” (the internal shape looks like the Chinese character “gong” and the external shape looks like the Chinese character “quo”). They consist of three large wood buildings on big area, namely Quang Duc, Sung Hieu and Dien Khanh. This is a wooden structure in big scale, with columns of all three palaces diameter up to 62 cm. Located behind the main hall is Thai Mieu Lam Kinh Temple, which consists of nine stately decorated buildings, place of worship ancestors, kings and royalty. Now there are five buildings restored.
The front building is called Quang Duc, the building in the middle is called Sung Hieu, the behind building is called Dien Khanh. Both Quang Duc and Dien Khanh have nine compartments, the middle compartment is widest, two side compartments just 2 m wide, forming the corridor surrounding all three buildings.
The north of Lam Kinh Citadel is based on Dau Mountain, the south of citadel overlooking the Chu River – there is Chua Mountain as the shielding; Phu Lam Forest is on the left; Huong Mountain and Ham Rong Mountain protect the west. In 1962, it was recognized as a national historical monument. By 2012, Lam Kinh remains a recognized national monument. In the beginning, the Lam Kinh festival began after the death of King Le Thai To and he was buried at Lam Kinh in 1433. Today, on the 21st (death anniversary of Le Lai) and the 22nd (death anniversary of King Le Loi) in August yearly lunar calendar, people in the region hold Lam Kinh festival to commemorate their predecessors.
