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Tay Ho - Hanoi’s (other) lake of myths and legends

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Sidney van Meenen • March 26, 2020

Tay Ho - Hanoi’s (other) lake of myths and legends

People visiting Hanoi can sometimes leave Vietnam’s capital with vastly different experiences. One traveller might return home with tales about colourful temples and rituals, while another may go home a bit dazed and confused, utterly overwhelmed by the frantic pace of life in Hanoi’s Old Quarter.

So much about your experience in Hanoi depends on where you decide to explore the city from. Don’t get us wrong, the Old Quarter is definitely a must-see when visiting this beautiful city, but it’s rather difficult to escape the chaotic beauty when you’ve booked a 4-night stay in said same chaotic beauty. That’s why more and more travellers are forsaking Hoan Kiem lake for it’s bigger, but lesser-known brother – Tay Ho. And at Friends Travel Vietnam we are always looking to enrich people’s journey through Vietnam.

That’s why we’ve gathered some of Tay Ho’s legends and myths for your reading pleasure – you know, just to give you something to think about while you’re watching a majestic Tay Ho sunset!

Where Dragons And Fairies Meet...

Tay Ho, or West Lake, can’t compare with its more famous brother when it comes to sheer tourist numbers, but it can easily compete, and sometimes even land a knockout punch when it comes to cultural and religious importance. Actually it’s a bit unfair to compare Tay Ho and the Old Quarter, they are, as the saying goes, just different sides of the same coin. The existence of one is vital to the existence of the other. However, it is important to highlight the differences between the two districts of Hanoi to know and understand what they have to offer to the traveller looking to explore Hanoi. To start with the Old Quarter, as the name might suggest, is rather old. Tay Ho, on the other hand, is a relatively new addition to the city of Hanoi, only becoming an official district of the city in 1995.

That’s not to say that Tay Ho district wasn’t considered as part of Hanoi pre-1995, on the contrary, it was an important part of agricultural, religious and cultural life. It was just so sparsely populated that no one went through the paperwork of incorporating it into Hanoi. This also serves to explain the difference in the pace of the two districts. Historically the Old Quarter was always Hanoi’s economic hub, while Tay Ho was a producer of goods sold in the Old Quarter, whether it be fish, noodles, or pottery. This means the natural pace of life in Tay Ho was more laid back – one cannot rush fish into biting, noodles into drying, or pots into hardening. Of course, the only constant in life is change, and the pace of living in Tay Ho is quickening, but it’s nowhere near that of the mercantile Old Quarter. 

One area where Tay Ho can compete with the Old Quarters is in the arena of cultural and religious importance. The Old Quarter’s Hoan Kiem Lake is famous for the legend of the “Returning of the Sword” a legend when a magical turtle gave the Emperor Le Loi a sword to vanquish Vietnam’s enemies with. When victory was achieved Le Loi returned the sword to the turtle and the lake, from whence it shall return in Vietnam’s hour of need. But Hoan Kiem is by no means the only mystical body of water in Vietnam’s capital… In fact, some academics may argue that the story of Hoan Kiem’s returned sword pales in importance when compared with Tay Ho’s myths, some of them reaching so far back that they serve to explain the creation of the Vietnamese people themselves.
Tay Ho produces some breathtaking vistas.
Source: Marcus Lacey www.marcuslacey.com
To understand the legends behind Tay Ho we must understand its origins. Tay Ho was formed somewhere during the 9th century owing to a change of course of the Red River. This was a difficult time in Vietnam’s history, having already suffered and endured almost a millennia of Chinese occupation and domination. In the 10th century, Vietnam would break free from her shackles and become its own sovereign nation. The close proximity in time between the formation of the lake and the liberation of the Vietnamese people ultimately caused the two events to become entangled in myth and legend. That’s why the one creation myth deals directly with the Legendary Vietnamese king, Lạc Long Quân.
Lạc Long Quân is still worshipped today
Lạc Long Quân is not only considered the first true king of Vietnam, but also a legendary warrior of mythical proportions. He sported impressive parentage, with both his grandfather and mother being sea dragons, his grandaddy being the, well, the grandaddy of dragons and going by the impressive title “Dragon Lord of The Sea.” His father, a humble mountain god, was not about to be outdone and himself sported the title of Heavenly Ruler of Xich Quy or “Land of the Red Demons…” With a lineage like that you cannot be anything else than a hero, right?

Lạc Long Quân got right down to the Hero business by defeating three vile and evil monsters – the first was a huge fish like monster, the second a magical fox with nine tails, and finally a nasty tree-dwelling genie. For the sake of our Tay Ho themed narrative the second monster is of interest. The legend goes that the site of the magical battle between our guy Quân and the magical nine-tailed fox was the area that today is Tay Ho. Apparently the amount of mystical fall out was so high that, after vanquishing the evil scavenger he filled the crater left behind with water, sealing the fox in a watery cave, you know, just in case. The legendary battle was remembered in the earliest name Tay Ho, Đầm Xác Cáo, or Fox Corpse Swamp. 

Lạc Long Quân is celebrated and remembered around Tay Ho with a temple dedicated to him and a street carrying his name. But it would be impossible to talk about Lạc Long Quân without mentioning his estranged wife, Au Co. She’s also immortalised in one of Tay Ho’s streets, a street separated from her husband’s street by the Lake itself. The reason for this will become clearer later on…
The temple in Tay Ho dedicated to Lạc Long Quân
The love story between Lạc Long Quân and Au Co begins with war. A northern tribe invaded Vietnam and imposed foreign rule upon its populous. During this time Lạc Long Quân was taking a brief sabbatical, presumably exhausted by his monster-slaying antics. When the new ruler turned out to be a rather nasty character the local people implored Lạc Long Quân to come and save them in their hour of need. He heeded their pleas and returned as a brilliantly handsome man causing the would-be ruler’s daughter, Au Co, to fall deeply in love with him.

He whisked her away with him, and when Au Co’s father tried to get her back destroyed his army with magic, causing him to retreat back north. Lạc Long Quân and Au Co continued their romance in his mountain fortress where Au Co gave birth to a 100 sons (the original 100 families of Vietnam according to legend), and the quaint family of 102 lived happily ever after, for a short while at least…

Lạc Long Quân and Au Co’s romance was doomed from the very start: she was a fairy princess and he was a dragon and that’s a bridge too far, even for the most magical of relationships. So after the boys reached adulthood they sat down and decided that, although they truly love each other, their habits and customs were too different. Plus she was fire (fairy) and he was water (dragon) and those two can’t mix.

So they did the only sensible thing and separated, with Au Co joining her faerie-kin in the mountains with 50 of the sons and Lạc Long Quân retiring to his underwater palace with the other 50 sons. From there they would be able to help each other out in times of need, while also guarding their respective realms: Au Co keeping an eye on her mountainous highlands while Lạc Long Quân protects the lowlands.
Lý Quốc Sư was once just a monk, but today he is revered as a saint
It’s quite extraordinary to note that the importance and poetry of this legend extends even to Tay Ho’s municipal planners, who decided to name two streets in honour of the lovers… In the northern Nhat Tan ward of the Tay Ho district you’ll find a literal fork in the road. The one road heads down the eastern side of West Lake and is called Au Co. The other one hugs the western shore of the lake and is called Lạc Long Quân. The two streets start at exactly the same point and they never meet again… And here I thought city and town planners were a boring and unimaginative bunch!

But that might all be bull…

A golden bull, that is. According to another legend, the formation of Tay Ho had nothing to do with Lạc Long Quân or his fairy wife Au Co. They point to the name the lake carried a couple of centuries later as a clue: Hồ Trâu Vàng or The Lake Of The Golden Buffalo.

The story centres around Vietnamese Buddhist monk named Lý Quốc Sư (Minh Khong in Chinese script), a clever and cunning fellow who made a name for himself as a healer – so much so that he is worshipped to this day as a Buddhist saint throughout Vietnam. After Lý Quốc Sư healed the king of Vietnam he was invited to China to see if he can save the Chinese Emperor.

Lý Quốc Sư travelled to China and healed the Chinese Emperor as well as a bunch of other people along the way. The Emperor was extremely grateful and offered Lý Quốc Sư any treasure his heart desired. Lý Quốc Sư was a wise man and instead of opting for gold or silver he decided that he would want to be rewarded with knowledge. He was impressed by the level of craftsmanship shown throughout the Middle Kingdom especially when it came to their metallurgy skills. Therefore he asked to be rewarded with this knowledge and some copper ore to take back to Vietnam. The Emperor duly agreed and Lý Quốc Sư returned to his native Vietnam. The place he returned to was Tran Quoc Pagoda, the oldest Buddhist Pagoda in all of Hanoi. The Pagoda is situated on the South-Eastern shore of Tay Ho, but presumably, back when Lý Quốc Sư returned there was no lake to speak of…
The young bull reunited with his mother
Once he arrived at the pagoda he started putting his newfound knowledge to the test. His efforts culminated in the casting of a giant copper bell. People gathered from far and wide to be present the very first time the bell was rung. Finally, the day arrived and Lý Quốc Sư rung the bell. The sound that emulated from the bell was so pure that it travelled over the mountains into the kingdom of China. In the Emperor’s garden the sound resonated with his prized possession, a young water buffalo bull statue, made entirely from gold.

The sound caused the buffalo to become alive. The buffalo believed the bell to be his mother calling him so he charged southwards until he came to Tran Quoc Pagoda. Distressed by the fact that he couldn’t find his mother even though she kept calling him he started milling around the pagoda. As his search became more frantic the ground around him became more tilled and muddy. Eventually, the golden buffalo bull got stuck in the mud, but he refused to stop struggling while his mother still called to him.

After a while the muddy hole that he found himself stuck in was so large and deep that he collapsed, exhausted and crying. The tears from the buffalo collected in this muddy hole and Tay Ho was formed. To this day the Golden Buffalo is worshipped and the statue dedicated to him shows him reunited with his mother, which is nice considering the teary and traumatic self-inflicted death he suffered.
Lý Quốc Sư was once just a monk, but today he is revered as a saint
Today the Golden Buffalo statue is not only an important religious icon, but it’s also a symbol of the wealth that West Lake generated throughout its existence. It’s not a coincidence that the formation of Tay Ho preceded the formation of Hanoi and it’s Old Quarter by a hundred years. Tay Ho was and is a bountiful natural resource for Hanoi and it’s people. The Golden Buffalo Statue serves to remind us of that fact. It also serves as a reminder that there are legends and folklore around every corner of Hanoi, and especially Tay Ho. 

Wishing you safe and unforgettable travels throughout Vietnam!
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