VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES NGUYEN THI LIEN

THE ANCIENT VILLAGE OF DONG SON FROM THE
EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY TO PRESENT MASTER THESIS
MAJOR: VIETNAMESE STUDIES
Hanoi, 2013
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This thesis is seen as the result from having studied at Institute of Viet
Nam studies & Development of Science – Hanoi National University along with
having spent most of the time on practical inspecting experience throughout the
studies.
The author would sincerely like to express the grateful to those beloved
lecturers who have directly lectured those Master classes for the year of 6
specialized in Viet Nam studies and beloved teachers who are in the
Management Board of Institute, Department of Education for offering all
necessary help under any conditions throughout the course of the studies so that
this highly-expected thesis was successful completed.
Especially, the author would like to thank so much to the professor Ngo
Duc Thich for his thoughtful in guiding and spending most of his valuable time
to exchange ideas and direct for the author. During the instruction time under his
close surveillance and instruction, the author has gained so much of both
theoretical and practical experience in terms of working style, planning skill and
serious attitude towards works.
Besides, in order for this thesis to be successfully completed, the author
would also like to thank to the local authority of Dong Son ancient village, local
council of Ham Rong street, the Management Board of vestiges and landscapes
of Thanh Hoa …furthermore thanks to the people of Dong Son ancient village
for providing a lot of useful information.
Last but not least, the author would like to thank to the Management
Board of Hong Duc University – Thanh Hoa; those beloved teachers in the Head
of Department of Social and Science, family members, close friends who have

7. Organization of the thesis 13
CHAPTER 1: APPEARANCE OF DONG SON ANCIENT VILLAGE
IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 15
1.1. Some basic concepts 15
1.1.1. The concept of village 15
1.1.2. The concept of ancient village 15
1.1.3. The concept of traditional village 16
1.2. Dong Son – riverside and half-mountain half-plain village 17
1.2.1. Geographic location 17
1.2.2 . Natural condition 17
1.2.3. Landscape 22
1.3. The long tradition of the Dong Son ancient village 26
1.3.1. The history and development of the Dong Son ancient village 26
1.3.2. Traditional economics 28
1.3.3. Traditional culture 31
1.3.3.1. Tangible culture 31
1.3.3.1.1. Resident organization, cuisine, apparel, travel 31
1.3.3.1.2. Historical relics 35
1.3.3.2. Intangible culture 37
CHAPTER 2: SOME TRANSFORMATIONS OF DONG SON
ANCIENT VILLAGE FROM AUGUST REVOLUTION TO PRESENT
51
2.1. The theory of social transformation 51
2.2. Transformations of Dong Son ancient village in the war against
America (1954 – 1975) 52
2.2.1. Context of the transformation 52
2.2.2. Expression of the transformations 53
2.3. Transformations of Dong Son ancient village from Doi Moi (1986)
to present 61
2.3.1. Context of the transformation 61

length of the country’s history. It is the process of continuous development,
not only improve and adapt to the natural world, but combat against also
foreign aggression and domination. In the process, the country has sometimes
lost, but the village has not lost. It still maintained and developed until today.
It not only plays an important role in the history of the country, but is
also home, active school, and closely connected place with everyone in
Vietnam. In the spiritual and deep concept of Vietnamese people, the village
represents the ancestral land, is also home to acknowledge success and
reputation of everyone. Thus, the research about Vietnamese village is
necessary to know about the process of formation, development, contribution,
location, and role of village in the local history.
There are many researches in and out country, which studied about
Vietnamese village. They provided a lot of documents and new information,
which contribute to better understanding of Vietnamese villages and society.
However, the results of these researches have still not fulfilled the demands of
Vietnamese village nowaday. Because of urban life, Vietnamese society as
well as village is changing rapidly. Therefore, it is necessary to have more
studies about Vietnamese village to find solutions for retaining the beauty of
the Vietnamese village before its changes in recent years.
Ever Dong Son ancient village has known as the first place that has
found out the Dong Son culture – a brilliant culture in the nation’s history.
9

Other subjects of the Dong Son ancient village is not actually known or
studies by people as well as researchers. The research into Dong Son village
will give us a comprehensive view of a village in its stature in the world.
Dong Son village as well as many other Vietnamese ancient village, is
a community of the residents, economics, culture, and society, appears very
early, and has a special position in the close relationship among family,
village, and state, which took place during the process of national

countryside nowadays.
Location: Focus on the Dong Son ancient village, and compare with
other villages.
Time: From early twentieth century (1900) to 2010.
3. The purpose of the thesis
Based on the appearance of the Dong Son ancient village in early
twentieth century, compare with the other ancient villages at later stages to
see its transformation.
Study about the awareness of local people and government about
cultural conservation as well as conservation status, cultural construction in
the Dong Son ancient village today. And then, give out recommendations to
preserve the Dong Son ancient village before infulences of urbanization
process now.
4. Research situation related to the thesis
There are many researches which studied about Vietnamese village
both internal and external country in recent years. And, there are many
valuable results of these researches, which helped a lot of Vietnamese people
to have a better understanding about their community in which they are
living. However, the Dong Son ancient village is not really attracted by many
11

scientists to participate in research. Hence, there are only a small number of
researches that related to the Dong Son ancient village such as.
“History of Ham Rong Ward Party (1945 – 2010)” – Thanh Hoa
publishing house, which refered to some aspects of the Dong Son ancient
village such as the process of establishment’s village, monuments and
landscapes, and traditional history of village.
“Folk games forum in the Dong Son area” – Postgraduation’s thesis of
Tran Thi Lien, which studied about basic characteristics of Dong Son folk
games in the common situation of folk games in Thanh Hoa province.

It is an omission in the history of issue if we do not refer to the book
“The ancient village of Dong Son” by Luong Dai Dung being the editor. The
book gave the readers information about daily life of its inhabitants. However,
there is no comparison between the earlier time and present time to see the
change in all aspects of the village.
In addition to above works, there are others ones such as “Pagodas of
Thanh region”, “Folk songs of Thanh Hoa”, “Monography of Dong Son”,
"Monography of Thanh Hoa, the episode 2, 3". These works mentioned some
aspects of the daily life of Dong Son villagers before.
5. Research methods
There are some methods of research, which was applied for this
research as below:
Retrospective study method: we can see that there are many aspects of
people’s life in the Dong Son ancient village, which were not mentioned in
the modern data.
Method of system – structure: Village is a separate system, so when we
use this method, we can see an interactive relationship between internal
13

elements of its and some aspects. Thanks to this method, the Dong Son
ancient village can be show up as a unified entity.
Interdisciplinary research method and study area: it helps researcher to
have a full view of social and cultural space of the Dong Son ancient village.
In addition, there are some research methods such as observation,
comparison, statistics, interviews, etc, which were also used in this research to
get a comprehensive and objective view of the Dong Son ancient village.
In the process of researching, the author delivered 150 questionnaires
and implemented 17 in-depth interviews in the ancient village of Dong Son,
which is in order to collect accurate and objective information for the
research. At the same time, it will give readers useful information of people


CHAPTER 1: APPEARANCE OF DONG SON ANCIENT VILLAGE
IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
1.1. Some basic concepts
1.1.1. The concept of village
There are many different concepts of village which is very familiar to
everyone. Some people considered villages as “living cells of Vietnamese
society, a natural product created by the process of settling and residing
together of Vietnamese people who cultivated” [69, pp. 11-12]. Some people
considered villages as “units possessing and distributing public land. It is also
the social unit of villagers gathering around the village temple, communal
house with religious of its gods to become the cultural unit (festival) and
sometimes/often the administrative unit of commune - local level (the
commune is the first and the village is the second)” [78, pp.16-20]. According
to Phan Huy Le, he said that village is “the settling community of small
farmers who cultivate rice and doing crafts and small businesses based on the
model of rural commune gradually turning into feudal system” [38, pp.3].
Thus, depending on the way of approach, each person recognizes the village
with different characteristics. However, it can be said that the village is “the
basic settling community in rural. Its inhabitants are mostly farmers engaging
agriculture, settling in alleys or cramped campus compared with cultivated
fields surrounding the village. There is autonomy expressed clearly by village
rules or village convention. There are rituals, customs and traditions called
village's culture”.
1.1.2. The concept of ancient village
The concept of “ancient village” is not popularly used as the concept
of “village”. A village considered as an ancient village must satisfy a number
of criteria as follows:
16


Thus, it can be seen that a traditional village must fully has above
criteria.
1.2. Dong Son – riverside and half-mountain half-plain village
1.2.1. Geographic location
The Dong Son ancient village “is located in the 22
0
6 north latitude,
114
0
93 east longtitude” [15, pp.12], belongs to Ham Rong ward, Thanh Hoa
city, about 4,5 km north-northeast of city center, on the bank of Ma river.
Thus, there are many different transport systems such as cars, motorcycles,
boats, which can help to transport quickly and rapidly.
The village is the central area of Thanh Hoa plain area in which is
accreted by alluvia of Ma and Chu rivers. However, in around the village is
surrounded by rocky and soil mountains that is a special feature of the village
compare with other villages in the northern delta in general and Thanh Hoa
plain in particular. The Ma rive locates in front of the village, and mountains
stay behind of the village, the feng shui of the village is very good.
Geographically, it is bordered by Thieu Duong, Nam Ngan and Dong
Tho ward, Dong Cuong commune, and Ma River in the North, South, West,
and East respectively.
1.2.2 . Natural condition
- Topography
Dong Son village is a peaceful idyllic village, but its landscape is
totally different from other villages. It has Ma River flow through, undulating
mountains from far, and fields between river and hills lead to spectacular
18

sight for this area. Therefore, it dominates among big plain of Ma River with

East in here is the Dong Son village, and also means Dong Son district before.
19

mountain – Long Hao mountain and in formerly Dong Son called Truong
Son. The mountain from Ngu Hoa in the Duong Xa commune leads to
consecutive flexibility as dragon, finally floating jumped a high mountain, the
rock pile, on the mountain in which has Long Quang cave. Under mountain
has a protruding rock on the river, which looks like the sucking sand and
absorb water dragon” [70, pp.222].
Ma River means Mother River follow Vietnamese language. Thus, we
can sure that it is a huge river. It starts from Dien Bien area through Son La
province, flows through the northern of Lao, and then comes to Thanh Hoa at
Tam Chung commune, Muong Lat district, and finally goes to East Beach via
Hoi gate (Sam Son beach) and two sub-gates include Len and Lach Tuong
gate. It has 3,5km length when it flows through Ham Rong ward include
Dong Son village. It is a big water source for cultivation and livestock as well
as supplies enough demand of fishing source for local people. In particular, it
has a big contribution to transport between the plain and mountain, between
upland and lowland areas.
“As northern delta, Thanh Hoa plain is created by modern alluvia that
spread out on the large surface, and slightly inclines toward the sea at the
side of the Southeast. In the edge of the North and North West is composed by
old alluvial of Ma and Chu River – from 2 to 15 m high” [58, pp.200]. Hence,
in the plain still remains a lot of various soil and rock. Dong Son village is not
an exception in the Thanh Hoa delta system. As a result, land area in the
Dong Son village not only uses for rice cultivation, but uses also for vegetable
crops and animal husbandry. Especilly alluvial soil, it is accreted regularly by
Ma River, so it brought many advantages for people in the village.
many advantages more than disadvantages.
In the Dong Son village is quite hot in the summer season due to
surrounding mountain systems, so it is difficult for wind come to inside lead
to lacking of air exchange between inside and outside of the village. In the
winter, the village is quite warm because there are mountain systems which
limit North and East-North wind.

2
.
21 - Natural resources
+ Land source
Land area of the Dong Son village is about “4000ha, and have only 1/5
for cultivation land, 4/5 land area left is mountainous area [15, pp.25]. It
means that cultivation land comprised 800ha of total land area in the Dong
Son village. Rice land is not only land for one crop, but also has land for two
crops. In the land for one crop, people can grow other crops such as
vegetables, corn, and so on to support people’s life. Besides, in the village
still has alluvial land in bank of river, garden land, and land in the hillside.
People can grow food crops such as maize, potatoes, cassava, and plant short-
term industrial tree such as mulberry, cotton, pineapples, beans, and so on. It
supplies demands of local people as exchange of goods with other villages.
+ Water source
In the early years of the twentieth century, there is lack of pond, lake,
and well system in the village. In whole village, there are only some ponds of

militia shot doen 116 American aircraft together” [15, pp.103]. Thus, C4 was
awarded the title of hero unit of the armed forces and the name of the Cua
Rong mountain loss intead of C4 hill. Results of war expressed deep gratitude
between C4 militia and people in the Dong Son village. Now, C4 hill has been
embellished with a convenient way to go to relic. Foothill is two large stone
tablet in which record victories and the list of soldiers who sacrificed here. In
the top of hill is a system of combat service includes 6 cannon tunnels (K1-
K6), 3 commander tunnels (2 D tunnels, 1C deputy), 1 tunnel for scouting
service, nurses, gas military, radiation machine. These works have been built
23

soild concrete. In 1994, C4 is one of relics of the national monument by
decision No.974 dated 07.20.1994 with a protected area of 9600m
2
.
- Canh Tien Mountain
Canh Tien mountain is one of two mountains that created the feng shui
“Dragon in the left side, white tiger in the the right side” for entire region.
This mountain is located in the south of the Dong Son village. Canh Tien was
named follow to the shape of the mountain, and according to the legend, it
involves white fairy and giant Vom spouses. After tricking white fairy came
to cave, the couple ripped one side of wing and buried with one side of wing
left in the Dong Son village. After some time, there sprang up a mountain
with the shape of fairy wings. Canh Tien Mountain progresses from high to
low in the East –West direction. This is one of the mountains in which people
in the Dong Son village planted crops and livestock to create delicious famous
products for region such as cassava, yam, taro, mountain goat, etc.
In the Vietnam war, Canh Tien Mountain was also known by another
name Quyet Thang because in the halfway up the mountain toward East has
put the word “Quyet Thang” by stone; it shows the will of Thanh Hoa

Cloud idle land flooded, do not sweep,
Regular line in the sky, sun up.
Beauty make forest, headline slot,
As defending invited to visit individual”.
(Hoang Tuan Pho)
- Tien Son Cave
“Plants such little dust
Entrance to not know that near or far
Beauty instead of interesting galaxy
Who onwer of peach garden is”
25

In Thanh Hoa, it seems that any mountains have magical traces. Tien
Mountain is a place for fairy excurse; Tien cave is a place for fairy practice
medicine; Tien Well is a place for fairy combs her hair and mirror. Tien cave
not only located in the midland (Ho Cong cave), coastal land (Tu Thuc cave),
but also in the delta (Tien Son cave).
Tien Son cave is located in inner of Muon mountain; the way goes to
the cave on the southwest of halfway up the mountain, and called with
different names such as Moi cave, Doi cave. According to the legen, Tien Son
cave is a place that a lovely fairy was detained by giant Vom spouses because
in the past, God sent his generals to beat these spouses. She tricked to take her
wings and locked into the cave. In her own world, she built house to stay,
seweed clothes to wear, created lake for bathing, digged well to use and
mirror while brushing hair by herself.
Tien Son cave is extremely deep, no one could dare claim that having a
full discovery. “Let every cell, every cell … suddenly open, dual suddenly,
through off the road, but the entrance is sometime wide, sometime narrowing
from this room to other rooms look like an endless world” [49, pp.61]. In
inner cave has a way to go to Ham Rong cave and go to other caves in the 99