Ancient houses in Central Vietnam

In the region from Quang Nam to Binh Dinh, there are still many houses that show the original material and spiritual life of local people in an original manner of each locality. For instance, because deal with streets in an urban area, houses in Hoi An are tightly close to each other. And due to the need of reserving space for shops, stores, gardens, the spatial arrangement of these houses is quite different from the houses of Vietnamese merchants. 

If the owner is Chinese, the garden certainly takes a space of one entire room in a 30 meters-long house, because the garden is considered, in their mind, as a place of rest for people who must work whole days. Different from the Vietnamese style of houses, where the garden is usually placed in front, the Chinese like to place it in the back of house in order to avoid the noisy, animated life of the streets.

This ancient house is entirely different from the Chinese houses. It is the house of a family, who is not so rich but has had a better-off life for generations in Quang Nam province. The owner worked only as a primary-school teacher under the French colonial administration. Nevertheless, the house combines the features of civilization and culture of our ancestors, of Cham people, of Chinese and the French in such a way that it both reflects a harmony and highlights its convenience for living. Such a combination is no longer observed. The house’s perimeter is around 80 meters. Its gate was constructed in the Chinese style from raw non-fired bricks with a roof covered by thatch. Under the of there are two eight-sign figures in round wood. The gate is usually opened by one leaf. The garden is located in the front, oriented in the north-east direction. It is covered with various flowers, not so rare or precious, but attracting the visitor’s attention by their discreet beauty. In the middle of yard, there are several big apricot trees with luxuriant leaves and branches. In a corner, there is a small trellis with wild orchids. There are flowers originally from areas of Cham people. Also west-originated flowers, of which the roses coming from the French town (Da Nang – Touraine) are most numerous, are carefully looked after. Particular flowers from Hoi An and Hue can be found here, too. Between the flower garden and the house itself, there is a yard. It is large enough for the owner to invite, from time to time, musicians from Hue or Hoi An to make a concert. And, of course, they do not forget to invite a girl-singer from Hue to add a voice following Nam Ai, Nam Binh melodies.

Behind a yard, about five meters wide, there is a group of houses, including "upper" house, 'lower' house, 'back' house and 'side' house (i.e. a house-bridge connecting the upper and lower houses). The upper house comprises five compartments; in the middle there are three altars in honor of the ancestors, and above there is a big altar to worship deities. The eastern lean-to is large enough to be arranged as a bedroom for the owner and his sons with small library. The western lean-to, equally large as the eastern one, is arranged as a bedroom for his mistress and daughters. In this lean-to there is a mobile trunk to store copper-made and other precious objects. It can be moved on four wooden wheels. The children can sleep on the trunk to protect the assets. Between the eastern and western lean-to, and behind the altars there is a small way. Two wooden camp beds, arranged in two sides of a coach before the central altar are reserved for male guests. The females rarely walk before the altars and if necessary, they must embrace their arms, bend their heads and hunch their backs. From the upper house to the lower one, it is necessary to walk through the 'house-bridge' - a place of birth and death for the family. When a baby is expected, a room for the mother is arranged in this house; and when somebody in the family is dying, a lich-house is arranged here. Also, this is arranged as a dining room for the family and reception room for unimportant guests. The lower house is placed across, normally higher for the case of floods. There is a boat, hung up at the roof, to be used if necessary. Here, the owner has arranged a number of looms and hired workers to weave different textiles, very well marketable at the time. In the lower house, there is a kitchen. This is also a place to mill rice, raise pigs. The owner had also some field areas. In the harvest time, the hired workers used to organize contests in singing for the full night. The owner reserved a plot to grow thatch trees, whose leaves are used to roof his houses. The houses are quite large and in several years their roofs should be repaired.

Behind the group of houses, there is a plot grown by various vegetables, papaya and different fruit trees, of which the most important are jack-fruit trees. They give both edible fruit and wood to replace pillars, if necessary. To enlarge the tree-trunk and to make them give more fruit, the owner hires people to carry soil from fields after ploughing.