Restoration projects have swept across Viet Nam, targeting old temples, pagodas and communal houses, but many of them actually strip the relics of their historic value. Trung Hieu explores the sites.

The restoration of old pagodas, temples and communal houses is usually embraced by the local community, but cases recently caught in the media spotlight have sparked public concern that actually many of these projects are doing more harm than good.

More than a dozen cases are spread all over the North and Centre: from the capital and nearby Son Tay town and Bac Ninh Province, to central Nghe An and Binh Dinh provinces.

Community problem

Mong Phu Communal House is a particular cause of public concern. The building in Duong Lam Commune, Son Tay Town, of Ha Noi, used to be the heart of the community, embodying its history and tradition. But a project to restore the building changed all that, says 73-year-old local man Kieu Van Trieu.

"A new building was constructed to replace the old one. It’s a disgrace," he says.

"First of all, the new building has been put up in a position rotated 15cm different from the old one. It now faces a slightly different direction. This defies traditional beliefs because the position of the house was chosen very carefully by our ancestors."

Trieu blames the builders for doing careless work.

"They tiled the main chamber time and again, but the floor was still uneven. Many wooden parts don’t fit together, so mortises are left open, they look like a tiger’s mouth. The workers linked the wooden details with glue to make them fit together."

He also complains that the builders were wasteful.

"Eleven columns from the main chamber in the original building were thrown away and replaced by new ones. Of the columns in the two side chambers, 15 of the original 28 were replaced."

Trieu says he doesn’t understand how the builders could construct a new house when they didn’t know or didn’t appreciate the traditional values of the old one.

"Maybe they were just thinking about the financial aspect," he says.

His scorn is shared by painter Thanh Chuong, famous for his research on old Vietnamese villages. Chuong describes the shoddy restoration work as "worse than destruction."

"People demolished Mong Phu Communal House in Duong Lam to build a new one," he says. "In Bac Ninh, they restored Dau Pagoda as a restaurant. How can people treat relics in this way?"

Carelessness in restoration can be glaringly obvious. At the temple for Trang Trinh (Nguyen Binh Khiem) in Vinh Bao District, Hai Phong City, builders working on the stone plaque on the front of the building made a toe-curling error. Instead of carving Trinh Quoc Cong, Nguyen Binh Khiem’s official title, in the stone, they carved "Trinh Cong Quoc", which has no meaning at all.

Writer Nguyen Ngoc says he does not feel like visiting old temples and pagodas, because he is "afraid to see the ‘products’ of restoration."

Ngoc says he has felt this way since restorers put two huge Chinese lions in front of the gate of Do Temple in the northern province of Bac Ninh, where eight kings of the Ly Dynasty (1009-1225) are worshipped.

"Anyone who has visited China knows that these big lions are often seen at the entrance to hotels. Sure, they are beautiful, but they are totally out of place in our traditional and religious site."

Ngoc says inside the temple’s inner chambers, the restorers have hung chandeliers "making it look like the Continental Hotel or Rex Hotel Sai Gon in HCM City."

"I think many priceless heritage sites are now under threat from the hands of restorers who have no kno