Visiting ancient buildings is perhaps the main activity when traveling Hoi An. Overseas Chinese when coming somewhere usually set up assembly halls as common houses for community activities. Hoi An Ancient Town has 5 assembly halls including Trieu Chau Assembly Hall that is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Hoi An.
Trieu Chau Assembly Hall, also known as Ong Bon Pagoda is located at 147 Nguyen Duy Hieu Street. It was built by Overseas Chinese coming from Chaozhou (China) in 1845. According to history books, in 1636 Qing Dynasty started ruling in China. Not accepting Qing Dynasty’s rule, many Chinese people came countries nearby, in which there is Vietnam. At that time, in Viet Nam, Nguyen lords were expanding the land to the south, lords accepted the overseas Chinese to settle down. Hoi An is one of the destinations of the Chinese overseas. Like Jujian people, Cantonese people, Coming here, Teochew people set up their assembly hall to use for meeting the compatriots and worshiping their patron gods and ancestor.
Trieu Chau Assembly Hall is built according to the East Asian architecture style. The frame of the building is made of precious wood, and the roofs are covered with Yin Yang tiles. Inside the house, there are horizontal wood boards and vertical wood panel pairs with Chinese words carved skillfully. The most outstanding feature of the house is wooden patterns carved skillfully and beautiful patterns made of porcelain pieces. The main hall worships General Phuc Ba, the water mastering god. The two sides of Phuc Ba’s altar are for worshiping the gods of Wealth and Luck. The east-wing house is dedicated to former sages, chiefs and deputy-chiefs of the house. Every year, descendants of the Teochew people gather at the house from the 1st to the 16th of January of the lunar calendar to make offerings.
Visiting Trieu Chau Assembly Hall, you will get to admire the unique ancient decoration of Teochew people, you will also get to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere here. Although the assembly hall is not on the main street, you should not miss visiting this special place.
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