Miêng Hạ Temple (Thạch Temple, Miêng Hạ Temple)

Miêng Hạ Temple, also known as Thạch Temple, is located in Ứng Thiên Commune, Hà Nội City. It is a folk belief structure of typical value in history, artistic architecture, deity worship, and community memory. In the traditional cultural life of Miêng Hạ residents, the temple is the space for worshipping Cao Sơn Đại Vương - a patron deity revered by the people, associated with the legend of assisting Tản Viên Sơn Thánh in fighting invaders and protecting the borders of Văn Lang. Through its long process of formation, existence, and change, Miêng Hạ Temple not only preserves the imprint of village tutelary deity worship but also relatively intactly preserves the architectural system, worship objects, horizontal plaques, parallel sentences, scrolls, ritual vessels, and the stone-worship custom still recorded in the worship space.

With those typical values, Miêng Hạ Temple is an important component relic in the Miêng Hạ Communal House - Temple - Pagoda Relic Cluster and was ranked as a National Architectural and Artistic Relic in 1993 by the Ministry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism). This affirms the relic's outstanding value in the local cultural heritage system, while also setting requirements for continuing to preserve, document, manage, and promote the temple's value in the current context.