Ba Chua Xu Temple in An Giang, Vietnam

The first tourist attraction you should choose in the traveling journey to An Giang is Ba Chua Xu Temple. The temple is located at the foot of Sam Mountain of Nui Sam Ward, Chau Doc City, An Giang Province.

Ba Chua Xu Temple is right next to the street, you are easy to see the three-entrance gate. The gate is covered with sapphire-blue colored tiles, on the top, there is the statue “Luong Long Tranh Chau” (Two dragons contend a gem).  Looking from the outside, Ba Chua Xu Temple is the same as a blooming lotus – 3 roof floors stacked over each other. The roof is also covered with sapphire-blue colored tiles very elegant.

The campus of Ba Chua Xu temple is rather large, enough place for millions of visitors coming to visit every year. Inside the Main Hall, there are horizontal lacquered boards and pairs of wood panels with Chinese words carved skillfully, painted with vermilion, stuck with gold. That makes the temple more ancient and mysterious. Especially, there is a woman statue in a very luxury long dress and gold stuck crown, with the gentle and kind round face – It is Ba Chua Xu statue.

Yearly, from the twenty-third to twenty-seventh of April on the Lunar calendar, on Ba Chua Xu festival, many tourists and pilgrims gather back Ba Chua Xu Temple to visit and pray. The number people attending the festival are up over 2 millions every year. Pilgrims believe that Ba Chua Xu would give them lucky in business. They bring money, offerings to offer the Lady. Some people come here, buy even roast pig to offer.

Ba Chua Xu is a goddess who is believed to have helped An Giang region people in breaking wild ground. Two hundred years ago, the Mekong Delta was still an uncultivated place where there were many wild beasts. An official controlling the region named Thoai Ngoc Hau ordered people to dig a channel called Vinh Te with the length of one hundred kilometers. Digging is very difficult, taught by a goddess, Mr. Thoai Ngoc Hau’s wife ordered nine chaste girls to go up the top of Sam Mountain to bring the statue of the goddess statue back to worship. People set up a temple at the foot of Sam Mountain in Nui Sam Ward, Chau Doc City, An Giang Province to worship the Lady and asked her for help. Digging Vinh Te Channel was carried out fluently, farmers went up and down conveniently, so more and more people believed her. People in other regions also have gathered more and more crowdedly to pray. The temple was first built very simply with bamboo and water coconut leaves but restored many times, the last time was in 1976. Since then, the temple has become spacious, enough place to welcome millions of visitors coming to visit every year.

Surrounding Ba Chua Xu Temple, along with the streets, many specialties of An Giang are displayed sold such as salted fish, dried fish, palmyra fruit, Palmyra sponge cakes, Palmyra jelly, Thai tamarinds, xay fruit and may gai. In Sam Mountain area, there are also famous tourist attractions like Thoai Ngoc Hau Tomb, Hang Pagoda, Tay An Pagoda.

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