Ba Co Hy's Floor

Ba Dong Ba Co's Lau, also known by the shorter name Ba Ba Dong Lau and the official name is Co Hy Thuong Nuong Nuong Dong's Lau, is located in Ba Dong hamlet, Truong Long Hoa commune, Duyen town. Hai, 51 km southeast of Tra Vinh city and 12 km northeast of Duyen Hai town.

Ba Dong Ba Co's Lau, also known by the shorter name Ba Ba Dong Lau and the official name is Co Hy Thuong Nuong Nuong Dong's Lau, is located in Ba Dong hamlet, Truong Long Hoa commune, Duyen town. Hai, 51 km southeast of Tra Vinh city and 12 km northeast of Duyen Hai town.

Worshiping Mrs. Co Hy is a traditional folk belief of Vietnamese fishermen. This belief thrives in the Binh Thuan region, South Central region, and was carried by fishermen as a spiritual cultural baggage on their way to migrate to the South many centuries ago. Therefore, the custom of worshiping Mrs. Co Hy is considered a "certification" of the origin of local residents on their journey to the South. On the other hand, from the pre-uprising period until the two resistance wars against the French colonialists and the American imperialists, Ba Dong Co Hy's House and this religious community made important contributions to the cause of struggle. National Liberation.

On that basis, Co Hy Ba Dong's Lau was ranked as a provincial historical-cultural relic by the People's Committee of Tra Vinh province in 2015.

In the Mother Goddess belief of Central and Southern Vietnamese residents, Ms. Co Hy is a special type of goddess, both a blessing and an evil goddess. Legend has it that in the past, in a coastal village in Quang Nam, there was a beautiful orphan girl living with her gentle foster father. The cruel world rumored that the girl had committed adultery with her own father, so the village forced her to put her in a basket and drown her in the sea. The girl's body drifted to the Ca Na area, was buried by local people and set up a shrine on a hill. Carrying an indescribable injustice, the sacred girl's soul turned into a dragon and flew across the seas, rivers and lakes to help gentle people who were unfortunate enough to fall into fierce winds and waves, but was also ready to cruelly punish those who were treacherous and harmful. People. Binh Thuan beachgoers have been inspired by her many times, so they have built many shrines on high sand dunes along the coast in the name of Ba Co Hy. The oaths and curses "Mrs. Co Hy gouged out her eyes", "Mrs. Co Hy twisted her throat"... have been deeply imprinted in the minds and adjusted the behavior of many generations of fishermen to do good and avoid evil, to behave in harmony with nature. , with the village community.

During his time supporting Lord Nguyen Anh, General Le Van Duyet once stopped in front of the abandoned Ca Na temple, praying for her to support the army. After the victory day, King Gia Long bestowed the title with the beautiful title "Thuong Dong Co Hy Tien Phi" or "Thuong Dong Co Hy Princess". Since then, the custom of worshiping Mrs. Co Hy has become a popular folk belief among fishermen in the South Central region, especially in the sea area with three large sand dunes in Binh Thuan province.

On the way to migrate to the South, from the 17th to 19th centuries, a part of Binh Thuan fishermen stopped to establish hamlets in the coastal area of ​​Tra Vinh, bringing with them the belief of worshiping Mrs. Co Hy, with special features. The trick is to choose a high sand cave or build a high building to worship. The coastal area of ​​Tra Vinh used to have many religious establishments worshiping Mrs. Co Hy, the most typical being Lau Ba Ben Cat (now also known as Vam Lau, in My Long Bac commune, Cau Ngang district), Ba Cave (now transformed into Giac Linh Pagoda, a temple worshiping Buddha, also in My Long Bac commune, Cau Ngang) and Lau Ba Ba Dong. By the end of the 20th century, in Tra Vinh province, only Ba Dong's Lau remained, a religious facility to worship Ba Co Hy, spaciously built with a management board and well-organized traditional festivals. annual rules.

Co Hy Ba Dong's house was formed in association with the process of reclamation and establishment of the village by the people of Truong Long Hoa. Initially, this religious facility was only simple with a wooden frame and thatched with nipa palm leaves. At the beginning of the 20th century, the villagers joined hands to rebuild it with wooden spokes and tile roofs. During the resistance war against the US, Lau Ba was bombed by airplanes and was damaged and in 2008 it was rebuilt to its current state.

Mrs. Co Hy Ba Dong's floor was built on a 3,000 m2 campus. The main architecture is the worshiping tower connected to the singing shell used to perform shadow dance rituals as well as prepare offerings. In front of the yard is a small temple worshiping Marshal Dai Can or General Nam Hai Dai Can, or whale spirit. Behind is the kitchen, and on the left is a row of houses used to entertain guests from all over to attend the Via Ba ceremony.

Grandma's floor is a ground floor, one floor structure. The ground floor worships Lady Chua Xu, a popular form of mother worship in the Mekong Delta region, considered the goddess who governs the country both on land and at sea. The altar to worship Lady Chua Xu is placed in the middle. On the left is a shrine to worship the two boys "Tai" and "Qui" according to the Hokkien pronunciation, which are actually the two boys "Great" and "Tieu", said to be the two children and also the two people who serve the lady. Lord of the Land. On the right is an altar worshiping the National Nam Hai, the spirit of the whale, a sacred creature that, according to legend, was assigned by Buddha Avalokiteshvara to patrol the sea and save people in distress.

The upper floor is a fairly closed altar room with a corridor surrounding the outside. In the middle of the altar is an altar worshiping the statue of Mrs. Co Hy and the statues of Mrs. Thuy and Mrs. Hoa on both sides. The special thing about Lau Ba Ba Dong is that although Mrs. Co Hy is a form of mother worship with a clear theological genealogy, once popular from the South Central region to the Mekong Delta, generations of Truong Long Hoa residents identifies the image of this goddess with the historical figure Trieu Thi Trinh (also known as Ba Trieu), a famous female general in the early AD who was credited with fighting the enemy and saving the country. Legend has it that when the elders asked for permission to build Lau Ba, suddenly a red painted wooden box drifted in from somewhere and was blown away by a storm. People used boats to take them out to sea, but not long after, the box drifted back in. The elders respectfully picked it up. When they opened it, they found out that it was the two brothers Trieu Minh Cong (also known as Trieu Quoc Dat) and Trieu Thi Trinh. The elders understood that their village was honored to be chosen by God to live in, so they built a temple to worship the Ong form and brought the Ba form into the Lau to consort with Mrs. Co Hy.

The phenomenon of identifying the holy mother with historical figures has shown the patriotic spirit and national roots of the people of Truong Long Hoa through many historical ups and downs.

Truong Long Hoa is a land rich in patriotic tradition, revolutionary struggle and was a solid base of the Provincial Party Committee as well as agencies and revolutionary armed units of Tra Vinh province during the two resistance wars. In that common achievement, there is an important contribution from the Lau Ba faith base, the management board and the community of residents following this faith.

During the pre-uprising period, Lau Ba was the meeting place of the Party Cell and the Truong Long Hoa Pioneer Youth Organization, preparing for the uprising to seize local power in August 1945. Not long after, the French colonialists were about to invade Tra Vinh by sea, and Lau Ba was the garrison of the Provincial Republican Guard and the masses to set up a coastal defense line to block the enemy.

After invading Tra Vinh, the French colonialists established Ba Dong district, taking the Ba Dong area as the district capital. The army and people of Duyen Hai used Lau Ba as a fulcrum to attack and chase away the district palace in February 1947. In 1951, Lau Ba was also the launching point for our army and people to sink the evil train, destroying more than 200 enemies.

After Dong Khoi Day in September 1960, the resistance war against the US by the army and people of Tra Vinh increasingly developed. Lau Ba became an important base in the Tra Vinh Provincial Party Committee base system at Truong Long Hoa. It was here that the Provincial Team chose to open many military officer training courses for armed units at the province, district and commune levels. Typical examples are the military cadre class, the special forces soldier training class... Many adult students from here become talented leaders, commanders or heroes of the armed forces. After being damaged by American bombing, the Lau Ba management board donated a number of wooden poles to the Provincial Military Department to manufacture gun stocks, contributing to equipping the armed forces.

During the period 1963 - 1966, Truong Long Hoa was one of two important stations receiving weapons in Tra Vinh province from unnumbered trains on the Ho Chi Minh route at sea. Lau Ba became a transit place, temporarily hiding weapons and military equipment before being transported to the main units of the military region and Provincial Logistics Teams of the Mekong Delta provinces.

Under the mobilization of the local Party cell, many young men and women in the community following the belief of worshiping Mrs. Co Hy Ba Dong have left their families, joined the resistance, liberated their homeland, and contributed to the cause. liberate the South and unify the country.

The belief in worshiping the Mother Goddess is always associated with the Via Ba festival. Every year, Mrs. Co Hy at Lau Ba Ba Dong has two spring-autumn festivals, January 15-16 and July 15-16 of the lunar calendar, in which the main days are January 15 and 16. Because the Ba Dong Third Floor is a rare facility to worship Mrs. Co Hy that still exists in a spacious manner and is strictly maintained by the board of directors, Mrs. Co Hy's Day is not only a festival for local people but also attracts thousands of coastal people. from provinces from Tien Giang, Ben Tre to Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau attended. The main rituals of Ba Dong's Via Ba festival are as follows:

– Full moon day of the first lunar month: Tuc List ceremony (at 6:00 a.m., responsible people gather to review the preparations); Moc Duc (at 7:00 a.m., clean and change the crown of the statue of the Holy Mother); Nghinh Ong (at 9 o'clock, a group of elders in the village brought incense burners, drums, drums, and palanquins to invite him home. He here is understood to be the character Trieu Minh Cong, also known as Trieu Quoc Dat, the biological brother of the woman. General Trieu Thi Trinh. He is also known as Monsignor Nam Hai, meaning whale spirit); Ceremony opening - Adoration invitation (at 12 noon, the sound of planting sheep rang out, signaling the Holy Mother to return to the upstairs, witnessing all ritual activities of the villagers); Sacrificing the Past (at 4:00 p.m., offering ceremony to the wise ancestors and descendants who publicly announced the land to establish the village); Idle shadow dance - Dia Nang (at 7:00 p.m. and lasts until late at night, the shadows of aunts and uncles dance and sing to offer offerings to the Mother Goddess and is also a folk performing art to serve the viewing needs of the villagers. ); Chief Priest (at 23 - 24 o'clock, is the main sacrifice with full food, offerings and a Wish praising the merits of the Holy Mother, praying for the Holy Mother's grace to protect the people, especially those in command to the sea).

– January 16th: Song Wen Ceremony (at 10 o'clock, the shaman casts seals to expel evil spirits, evil spirits, and epidemics); Seeing him off (at 12 o'clock, a group of people neatly dressed and clothed brought his spirit back to its original place).

During the two days, along with performing the rituals, the Lau Ba management board entertained guests from all over, creating a happy and united atmosphere.

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Update day : 30/10/2023