Nghè Keo

Nghè Keo (also called a temple) is named after the ancient village, also known as Nghè Giao Tất, in Kim Sơn commune, now Thuận An commune, Hà Nội city.

This is a special relic site, dedicated to the village tutelary gods who were national heroes in the early period of defending the country and gaining independence: Grand General of the Lý dynasty named Đào Phúc and his wife, Princess Tiên Anh; the village's later deity is Thiếu Bảo Quận Công of the Đỗ clan - who contributed funds to preserve and restore cultural works in the locality, and Mr. and Mrs. Đinh Dự - Mãn Đường Hoa - the founders who taught ca trù singing, a profession imbued with national character and an intangible cultural heritage recognized by the world.

The legends of the worshipped deities are recounted as follows:

Grand General Đào Phúc was from childhood handsome, intelligent, quick to learn, accomplished in both letters and martial arts, highly talented and ambitious, and admired throughout the region. When he grew up and took the exam, Đào Phúc passed as a doctoral laureate and was praised by the king as an outstanding talent, and the king married his daughter, Princess Tiên Anh, to him.

At the end of the Lý dynasty, when invaders came, Đào Phúc was appointed royal son-in-law by the king and given the post of grand general; he led a mighty army to suppress them. Lady Tiên Anh asked the king to assign her the task of supplying provisions to help her husband quickly eliminate the enemy from the distant sea. From early spring to early summer, the sea invaders were completely cleared. Grand General Đào Phúc and his soldiers returned to the capital to report victory.

Returning to his mother's homeland in the middle of heavy rain and strong wind, the general met Tiên Anh again and together they visited the ancestral hall in Giao Tất. That day was the 7th day of the 4th lunar month; heaven and earth shifted, thunder and lightning arose, and the space sank into a vast sea of water... Both of them passed away together, and afterward termites built up and sealed the place into a large tomb, which the people called “Núi Bi” (Tomb Mountain). When the news was known, the local people mourned them deeply; Giao Tất village sent people to petition the king, officials from the capital were sent to inspect, and then an order was given for the locality to build a temple and carve lifelike statues for worship.

The second figure worshipped at Nghè, conferred the title of Hậu thần, is Lord Đỗ, whose courtesy name was Như Triều and posthumous title Mẫn Đạt; he was originally a high-ranking minister of the Southern country and also a famous general in the North. Seeing the communal house and pagoda in the two villages of Giao Tất and Giao Tự in ruins, he was deeply troubled.

In the Ất Tỵ year, he spent his own money to build the village pagoda with three bays and two wings. In the Đinh Mùi year, he had the upper hall, front hall, rear hall, corridors, left and right sides, and the pagoda's three-entrance gate built. In the Bính Thìn year, he gave the two villages 200 ancient coins, 2 ingots of silver, and 6 mẫu of charitable fields, distributed to 10 giáp to cultivate and use for worship. In recognition of the Quận Công's merits, the people of the two villages elected him as Hậu thần to be worshipped for generations. In addition, Keo temple (nghè) also worships the founders of ca trù singing, Mr. Đinh Dự and Mrs. Mãn Đường Hoa. The annual festival is usually held on the 6th day of the 4th lunar month (main festival); the anniversary of their death on the 13th day of the 11th lunar month is the main day, and the taboo characters are Lỗ Châu, Dự, and Hoa. On these days, people from various places establish singing guilds and hold ca trù singing festivals to remember the merits of their professional founders.

Nghè Keo has been invested in by the Gia Lâm District People's Committee for restoration and embellishment of main items including the front worship building, the tube-shaped passage, and the rear sanctuary with an area of about 149.6m²; wooden structures are made of lim wood; the roof is covered with medium-sized mũi hài tiles, the lining tiles have the character 'thọ' pattern, the floor is paved with bát mạch bricks in the character 'công'; the door system uses the form of upper lattice and lower panel. Along with that, the people contributed to repairing auxiliary items such as the guest house and the nghi môn gate... Total cost about 14 billion đồng.

Nghè Keo not only has historical and cultural value but is also notable for its distinctive classes of statues; the statues here each have their own meaning, each with a natural artistic quality, such as the kneeling phỗng statue, the village tutelary god statue, and the Kim Đồng - Ngọc Nữ statues...

Existing to this day, the Nghè (temple) Giao Tất relic still preserves many valuable cultural artifacts in the nation's cultural heritage: the genealogy book about the ca trù professional founder compiled in the 7th year of Hồng Đức; this is a valuable document for research on traditional folk professions in folklore, sacrificial texts, royal edicts conferring titles on the village tutelary god, stone steles about the village's Hậu thần, and worship objects at the relic such as the dragon throne, memorial tablets, and worship cabinets....

The Keo Nghè relic has been issued a decision by the Ministry of Culture - Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) ranking it as a historical and architectural-artistic relic under Decision No. 774-QĐ/BT dated June 21, 1993.