Located at 15 Ha Thi Than in Da Nang’s Son Tra District, a temple to worship the founders of the An Hai Village, and the late Vietnamese General Nguyen Van Thoai, also known as Thoai Ngoc Hau, is one of the city’s most popular historical and cultural sites.

The upgrade of the temple was conducted in March 2009 at a cost of around 7 billion VND (Photo: Ngoc Thuan)

In front of the temple are a large semicircular pond and an exuberant banyan tree (Photo: Ngoc Thuan)

The temple was officially recognised as a national-level relic site in 2007 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Photo: Ngoc Thuan)

Thoai Ngoc Hau was born on 26 November 1761 in An Hai Village, Dien Ban District, Quang Nam Province (now called An Hai Tay Ward, Son Tra District, Da Nang).  He was one of the meritorious officials during the reign of Emperor Gia Long of the Nguyen Dynasty.  The General became actively involved in founding new villages and building canals and embankments in the southern region.  He himself founded An Giang Province’s Thoai Son Village (now called Thoai Son District), and directed the digging of the over 100km of Thoai Ha and Vinh Te canals in the province, which assisted the trading activities of the residents.

A west-facing, 2m-high, 1.2m-wide white stone stele honours the great dedication of the late General towards the country (Photo: Ngoc Thuan)

Good mandarin Thoai Ngoc Hau visited his hometown in An Hai Village in 1827, 2 years before his death.  During his stay in the village, he directed the construction of the Ha Than market, and appealed for donations from the general public to restore places for ancestor worship.

An east-facing bust of the late General is 1.2m in height and nearly 1 tonne in weight (Photo: Ngoc Thuan)

The late General has always been highly praised and respected for his creativeness in reclaiming land, founding villages, and promoting economic development and border protection.

The sanctum of the temple shows off the time-honoured traditional Vietnamese architectural style (Photo: Ngoc Thuan)

An altar for the late General in the sanctum (Photo: Ngoc Thuan)

As a great example of the traditional Vietnamese architectural style, the 4,250m² temple aims to further educate the younger generations about the spirit of patriotism.  In addition, this site is very actractive to both locals and visitors, especially those who show keen interest in conducting their historical and cultural research activities.

The sacred inside of the temple (Photo: Ngoc Thuan)

An overview of the site (Photo: Ngoc Thuan)