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Duong Lam ancient village is known as “Hoi An ancient town on the Red River delta”. It is located on Son Tay town, about 60 km to the west of Hanoi Capital and here is the first ancient village recognized as a national relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information.

Duong Lam is the homeland of two Vietnam’s kings who giving the village its prestige. Both men led resistance wars against northern invasion and after winning national independence, were crowned kings. After their deaths, the local people built temples in their honour.

Duong Lam ancient village has a history of about 1,200 years with many houses dating back up to 400 years. One special thing about the village is that most of the buildings here are made of laterite and mud, two materials that are abundant in the area. Laterite is used on house walls, gates, wells, temple walls, and so forth. The mud is taken from ponds. Apart from its historical and tourism values, Duong Lam ancient village is an important place for scientists to study resident communities in ancient agriculture. The village gate, banyan, well, communal house are important factors in classifying Duong Lam ancient village.

For tangible culture relic, Duong Lam has 21 relic sites, consisting of temples, pagodas and tombs. For intangible cultural relic, Duong Lam has preserved various festivals, customs and literature on the people and land of Duong Lam through different period of time. For ecological environment, Duong Lam has many beautiful scenes linked with legendary stories such as Guom Hill, Ho Gam Hill and tales on the two kings Phung Hung and Ngo Quyen.

The construction of new cultural buildings which aims to honour the history, national heroes and boost tourism activity should be ensured the harmony between traditional and modern cultural values and the relations between preservation and development.

Nowadays, preserving, restoring and developing the value of Duong Lam ancient village are very important, since it contributes to preservation of the national cultural heritage.