Thach Tho Family Temple

According to the accounts of the clan’s elders and the genealogy mentioned above: the ancestor of the Thach Tho clan came from Phu Ninh hamlet – Ninh Hiep commune. He was naturally quick-witted and intelligent, but because his family was poor, he had little opportunity for schooling and had to earn a living early. When he grew up, he married a woman from the Nguyen clan in Cong Dinh. Because his wife’s parents had only daughters, he moved in as a live-in son-in-law to fulfill his filial duties to his wife’s parents. Endowed with natural aptitude and diligence, he explored and learned many side occupations for the slack farming season, especially livestock husbandry. His family raised many pigs and chickens, so he found ways to prevent and treat diseases in livestock and poultry; when the villagers learned of this, they all came to him for help. In old age, he passed the trade on to his children and the villagers. His method of raising pigs to grow quickly helped livestock husbandry develop rapidly, so more and more young men in the village learned the trade he taught. Generation after generation passed it on; in the slack season they traveled throughout the regions of the North to practice the trade. As a result, most families with someone in this trade improved their living standards, and many became prosperous and wealthy.

The Thach Tho family temple is a three-bay wooden house made of lim wood, built with closed gable walls and ngai-style features. The two gable ends are connected to ornamental pillars by low walls; the tops are decorated with capital-shaped motifs, below are lantern panels, and the square pillar bodies have couplets in relief. The roof is covered with local tiles. In front is a system of panel doors in the upper lattice, lower panel style. The roof frame consists of four trusses. The architectural decoration is concentrated on the carved brackets with seal-script characters, images of the four sacred animals, the four noble plants, and so on, creating a solemn beauty with a strong imprint of traditional art. The structure measures about 6.8m x 5.2m; the inner worship area is about 2.7m wide, and the outer veranda is about 2.7m wide.

In the central bay of the temple are the incense table and the clan ancestor’s throne. The site still preserves many valuable artifacts, such as horizontal plaques, a pair of couplets, incense bowls, a pair of worship cranes, a pair of candlesticks, and an ornate curtain door decorated with a tiger emblem.

With the moral principle ‘When drinking water, remember the source,’ every year on the first day of the tenth lunar month, families in the village who follow the ancestral trade organize a memorial ceremony and bring offerings to the clan hall. The ancestor worship ceremony of the Thach Tho clan in Cong Dinh village is held solemnly; it is also an occasion for clan descendants to meet and review the old while learning the new, a fine tradition of the nation.