The ancient house where Dr Nguyen Dinh Tuan was born and raised.

The old house of Tuong family is still kept intact with Nguyen dynasty architecture, including seven compartments with five external ones and two cabin rooms covered with roof tile. The wooden frame is quite solid while four rows of the strong column are mounted by the roof bar system. 

Tuong said: "The house is nearly 200 years old, my great grandfather Nguyen Dinh Du (older brother of Nguyen Dinh Tuan) handed over the house to my grandfather Nguyen Dinh Dam and then my father Nguyen The Phung, who passed it to me. Six generations have been living here until now”.

The middle compartment is used for ancestors’ worship. On the altar, wooden frames with flower patterns hold pictures of Tuan and his two brothers while the next compartments are for Buddha worship and guest reception. On the right side hangs the portrait of Dr Nguyen Dinh Tuan in Nguyen Dynasty costume when he served as a mandarin. 

Documents, artifacts kept in the house are still various such as an altar, a set of eight weapons, an incense burner, and a pair of stone elephants on the altar, horizontal lacquered board engraved with Chinese characters, parallel sentences on coconut shells, two poems in Han scripts dated the third year of King Khai Dinh reign (1918) with historical and cultural values.

It was the ancient house where Tuan was born and grew up. Worship objects and artifacts such as stone elephants, a set of eight weapons and the poems were bought by himself. Born in 1867, Tuan was well-known for his superior intelligence. In 1897, he passed the baccalaureate examination. At the age of 35, he came first in the doctorate examination in 1901 and won the Dinh Nguyen title. Despite achieving glory, he still kept a humble heart and well treated all others. 

After winning Dinh Nguyen title, he was appointed as chief of Viet Yen district, then was elected as education leader of Yen Bai province, Ninh Binh province and Quy Thuc school in Hanoi. Tuan was famous as a literary person with many of his students later becoming successful. He was a virtuous and righteous person like a true Confucian scholar.

Pictures of Tuan and his two brothers.

Later, he resigned from all posts to work as a traditional medicine doctor and a teacher but under an order, he was appointed as Chief Judge of Bac Ninh province, later Chief Judge and Chief of Thai Nguyen province until retirement. While in Thai Nguyen, he founded Tan Cuong commune and brought tea seedlings to this land as well as define the direction for the construction of a communal house so that he was honoured as a living Tutelary God by local people.

Coming to Trau Lo to visit the ancient house, learn about the life and career of Dr Nguyen Dinh Tuan, and contemplate artifacts in the house has provided us with an insight into the land and people of Bac Giang now and then.

Dong Ngoc Duong