Worship Of Hùng Kings In Phú Thọ

Phu Tho is a midland region more than 100km to the northwest of the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi. The Viet people in this region practice and transmit to younger generations the worship of Hung Kings. In Phu Tho stands the sacred Nghia Ling Mountain, also called Hung Mountain. On this mountain sit temples dedicated to the Hung Kings. Around Nghia Ling Mountain, more than 100 Hung Kings worshipping villages and communes create a worshipping space hundreds of square kilometres in area. According to legend, Nghia Ling Mountain is where Lac Long Quan and O Co gave birth to 100 sons. Their eldest son, the first Hung King founded the ancient country of Van Lang. From then on, the country's territory has been firmly established. During the dynasties of the Hung Kings over a period of several thousand years, families and communities lived and worked in peace, harmony and contentment. Over the centuries, legends have penetrated the consciousness of the Viet people and come to constitute a strongly held belief about the origins of the Vietnamese nation and country. This belief has been noted by Confucian scholars in the unofficial history section of Vietnamese history books. The imperial dynasties of Great Viet attached much importance to the worship of Hung Kings in folk life, giving imperial conferment to the Hung Kings. Every five years, imperial courts appointed Mandarins to play leading roles in the national commemoration on Nghia Ling Mountain. In the consciousness of the Viet people, the Hung Kings are seen as the progenitor of the nation as well as king-gods with supernatural powers. In Phu Tha, the Hung Kings are seen to be closely connected to the lives of peasants, who turn to them for spiritual support. They call the Hung Kings king-gods and worship them as the ancestral god of their communities. With all their worries and desires, they can come to pray in front of the Hung Kings altar and expect to be blessed. The worship of Hung Kings is the source of innumerable legends about wolves, rivers, fields, rice crops, land and other significant socio-economic and cultural elements. Many of these legends are re-enacted in annual rituals at communal halls, temples and shrines in villages and communes. People prepare for these rituals and the offerings made during them very carefully. Among the offerings made to the king-gods, square cakes, bang chung, and glutinous rice cakes, bang zai, are the most important. According to legend, Lang Leo VII Hung King created these two cakes which symbolize heaven and earth and the piety of children to their parents. They are indispensable offerings at the ritual dedicated to the Hung Kings. The rituals of worshipping the Hung Kings are carried out in villages and communes for several days. First, families make offerings at communal halls, temples or shrines. Then, all community members join a procession bearing the king-god's tablet through villages and fields so they can witness the lives of their descendants today and bestow their sacred power upon people, crops and domestic animals. At the centre of the ritual are the prayer ceremony and the offerings made at communal halls, temples and shrines. These are the most sacred moments when the veneration and gratitude of the people for the king-gods are expressed. Besides the annual ritual, some villages in Phu Thot customarily bring offerings to Nghia Ling Mountain to invite the king-gods to join them for the Lunar New Year. After reading the wish petition of his village, the elder head tosses two old coins and asks for the king-god's blessings. If one coin is heads and the other is tails, the king-god is happy to accept the village's wishes. At the New Year feast, the villagers feel more jovial if the hallowed spirit of the Hung Kings is with them. Because they taught people how to cultivate wet rice, the Hung Kings are revered as agricultural gods. Today, some villages near Nghia Ling Mountain still perform the ritual of starting a new harvest, a ritual dedicated to the agricultural gods where prayers for an abundant harvest are made. After the rituals in the fields, some village members impersonate imperial mandarins and carry rice crops away as villagers seize paddy for seeds and for good luck. The worship of Hung Kings also provides inspiration for artistic creativity and folk life. This dance represents a legend about one of the Hung Kings' triumphs over monsters. Swan singing is a form of folk singing performed in villages at the edge of Viet Thi city. Swan songs have served as worshipping songs sung at communal halls or temples dedicated to Hung Kings for many years. The largest commemoration of the Hung Kings is the ancestral anniversary held on the tenth day of the third lunar month on the sacred mountain of Nghia Ling. According to custom, a national commemoration is held every five years. Millions of people from all corners of the country go on pilgrimage to Nghia Ling Mountain to express their gratitude to the ancestors of the nation, to connect with their origins and to make their personal wishes. In recent decades, the Vietnamese government and authorities in Phu Thuoc province have initiated and supported many research projects on Hung Kings' worship. They have also worked to reconstruct the Hung Kings' worshipping space, which had been falling into ruin and on the brink of disappearance, and encouraged villages and communes to revitalize folk performances and rituals related to the Hung Kings. These efforts have provided opportunities for local people to preserve and promote the worship of Hung Kings. Happy Vietnam!