In July 2022, the Da Nang government issued a decision to recognise La Chau located in the Go Ha Village, Hoa Khuong Commune, Hoa Vang District as a municipal-level cultural relic. This becomes even more meaningful as this relic celebrated 170 years of existence this year.

La Chau located in Hoa Vang District is a cultural symbol with a double entendre: one of which reflects studious culture of the district, and the other showcases the local talents. Photo: XUAN DUNG

Evidence for studious culture

According to the Office for Cultural Heritage Management under the Da Nang of Museum, La Chau is a temple of literature at the district level. In the past, La Chau was the place of spiritualit where Confucian writers and scholars gathered together while playing an important role in promoting the cause of education and preserving the national culture.

The founder of La Chau Literature Site was Do Thuc Tinh who was born in 1818 and died in 1862. He was the first and only person in Hoa Vang District to receive doctoral degree at that time. In the third year under king Tu Duc's reign (1850), on occasion of his return to hometown, Mr Do Thuc Tinh discussed with the nobles and members of the District’s Literature Association to promote the construction of La Chau Literature Site, and its construction work was completed in the fifth year under king Tu Duc's reign (1852).

La Chau is a large-scale and typical cultural relic site while it is of great value to local people and the history of Hoa Vang District. La Chau with a history of over 100 years is the only one left to Da Nang.

For 170 years, La Chau has experienced ups and downs, and it has been almost completely destroyed, leaving only the brick foundation and 5 epitaphs. Fortunately, among the five epitaphs are two broken ones but inscriptions on these  epitaphs are still intact. One of the two broken epitaphs is being stored by the Da Nang of Museum.

The main inscriptions on the epitaphs are to record the process of building and re- building La Chau as well as contribution of money and efforts by local people and mandarins in the district.

In addition, the names of people in Hoa Vang district who passed exams under the Nguyen Dynasty were inscribed on the epitaphs. Thus, it can be said that the La Chau Cultural Relic site is a convincing evidence for studious culture of the Hoa Vang people, contributing to creating the endless cultural background of the land of Quang region. In other words, La Chau is a cultural symbol with a double entendre: one of which reflects studious culture of the district and the other showcases the local talents.

Maximizing the value of La Chau

Local people are extremely happy and excited about receiving recognition of La Chau as a city-level cultural relic site from the Da Nang government.

Mr. Tran Em, the Head of Go Ha village, Hoa Khuong Commune, said that it has always been the desire of local people to restore this relic site after it has been recognised as a municipal level cultural relic site. Over the past years, local people have showed great efforts in the conservation of this site.

In the past, rituals and religious ceremonies took place in La Chau in February and August each year, also known as Spring and Autumn rituals. In addition, La Chau also hosted ceremonies to honour local people who sucessfully passed exams under the Vietnamese dynasties, as well as worship activities of scholars and families in the district to pray for success in exams of their children.

“Although there are no longer any rituals and ceremonies taking place in La Chau every year, the government and local people of Hoa Vang District perform rituals and offer incense to commemorate the ancestors for having the merit of building this place on the fifteenth day of the third lunar month”, Mr. Em added.

Since its construction, La Chau has undergone 5 times of restoration. 2015 was the lastest time La Chau has been restored with a total cost of nearly VND 2 billion funded by Hoa Vang District’s budget.

Mr Nguyen Chi Tri, the Chairman of Hoa Khuong Commune People's Committee highlighted the significance of La Chau’s restoration in preserving the nation’s culture as well as creating a strong spiritual fulcrum for the cause of building and developing the homeland, especially cultivating studious culture in local people.

To mark the 170^th anniversary of La Chau Relic Site, local authorities have recently focussed on educating local people about their local cultural heritage and history as well as awarded 20 scholarships to poor studious students worth VND 10 million in total. Besides, prizes have been given to winners of a contest to learn about 170 years of history in La Chau Relic Site.

Hoa Vang District is now home to 27 out of Da Nang’s 67 municipal- level relic sites.

It its efforts to promote the value of La Chau Relic Site, authorities in Hoa Vang District are making a plan to create a guide map and signposts to the relic.

The heed will be paid to organising exciting events to encourage good study habits in school pupils across the district, as well as educate the younger generation about the culture and history of the locality, and Viet Nam at large.

Currently, La Chau is a relatively open place but its premises and garden are not large enough to accommodate large crowds. Therefore, the district is planning to expand La Chau’s garden, renovate its campus, build an entrance linking with the southern ring road for convenient travel. All these works are expected to carry out in 2023.  Authorities in Hoa Khuong Commune will hold a ceremony to receive the Certificate of Recognition for La Chau as a municipal-level cultural relic in an attempt to promote the value of this site.

Reporting by XUAN DUNG – translating by H.L