Bạch Mã or Đông gate is one of the four gates of Thang Long Royal Citadel. It now belongs to Hàng Buồm street, Hoàn Kiếm district, Hà Nội. Bạch Mã temple was recognized as a natural historical monument in 1986 by the Ministry of Culture and Information (now called the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism).

Bạch Mã temple - Photo: Đức Minh

The temple, built in the 9^th century, worships Long Đỗ, the deity who protected the Thăng Long Royal Citadel. In 1010, Lý Thái Tổ king moved the citadel from Hoa Lư (Ninh Bình) to Thăng Long and wanted to expand it. The king asked the troops to build the citadel higher, but whenever they did that, the citadel collapsed. The king asked people for the reason and knew that this place was awe-inspiringly powerful earlier. Then he ordered to make offerings. At that night, in his dream, he met the deity who congratulated and told the king to follow the traces of horse hooves to build the citadel. Then the king saw a white horse galloping at full speed and then disappeared. On the next day, the king saw the traces of horse hooves on the ground in a circle and instructed the troops to follow them for the construction. The citadel was built very firm. To express the gratefulness to the deity, the king asked for carving a white horse for worshiping and conferred the title of “Thăng Long tutelary god”. From that, the white horse has become a sacred symbol and Bạch Mã temple (or white horse temple) has been known from that.

The temple now still keeps lots of old valuable relics such as stone steles, palanquin, cranes and pairs of toy earthen statue for worship.

Every year, to honor Long Đỗ deity, the People’s Committee of Hoàn Kiếm district holds Bạch Mã temple festival on lunar February 12 and 13. The event includes many offerings and cultural activities like ceremonial songs (ca trù), Vietnamese popular opera (hát chèo), poem recitation and fencing.

Being one of the gates of “Thăng Long four gates” and located in favorable location for cultural tourism development, Bạch Mã temple is not only meaningful to Hà Nội people and visitors but also provides valuable sources of documents for studying the thousand-year history of Thăng Long - Hà Nội.

Source: VTR