Ngũ Xã Village bronze casters
VGP - Ngũ Xã now belongs to Trúc Bạch Ward in Ba Đình District, Hà Nội. In the 18th and 19th centuries bronze casters from five communes (Đông Mai, Châu Mỹ, Long Thượng, Đào Viên and Dien Tien) in Siêu Loại District (now Thuận Thành, Bắc Ninh Province) and Văn Lâm District, Hưng Yên Province came to Trúc Bạch Lake to set up business and establish the Ngũ Xã school for bronze-casting.
They opened
a foundry to make houseware, urns, statues, sacred objects and bronze money for
the royalty. They were very skillful and professional and bronze casting
flourished here up to the 18th century. They produced valuable
products favored by people all over the country, particularly statues and
religious objects. If you go to Trấn Vũ Temple, you can see a skillfully crafted
bronze lamp and a black bronze statue made in 1677 that is 3.72 meters high,
weighs four tons, and is considered a masterpiece of 17th century
bronze casting.
The
entrance gate of Ngũ Xã Communal House
In later
centuries, the artisans in this area created even greater masterpieces. They
cast a 13-ton Buddha statue and put it in the middle of their communal house.
It is highly polished with a meticulously carved lotus lamp support and was
made of bronze collected by Buddhists and pilgrims. Beside this giant statue
there is an incense burner in the shape of a dragon and a bronze censer almost
a meter high. All these are precious items representing traditional Vietnamese
popular artistry.
The founder
of the bronze casting trade was Nguyễn Minh Không who became a legend related
to
Once upon a
time there was a giant in Việt
Because of
his great virtue, the Lý King allowed Minh Không to build a monastery next to Báo
Thiên Pagoda (now Lý Quốc Sư Pagoda, number
Beside his
skill in casting statues and bronze bells, he was also famous for being a good
doctor. He was highly trusted and usually treated serious diseases for the king
and when the Sung prince in
-
I came from the South to cure people
for good luck, not for gold or silver. I only brought along this small bag. I
don’t want to take any gold, but I beg the king for a bag of bronze to cast a
bell, to educate people, save the good, and eliminate the bad.
The Sung
king smiled and said:
-
Oh, I see. One bag or one hundred
bags is alright.
The king
ordered the people to lead Minh Không to the storeroom and the guards left him
to fill his bag with bronze. After putting the whole store of bronze in his bag
it was still not full, so the giant hung it on one end of his stick and left turning
his head and bowing to thank the king. When the guards came back there was no
bronze left in the storeroom and the giant had disappeared and when they could
not find him, they submitted a petition to the king. At first, the king did not
believe the strange story, but when he asked the mandarin in charge of the
treasury and the storeroom keeper, they said it was true; the affair was over
so he did not question anybody.
Minh Không
used his conical hat as a boat to cross the