CUA LUY TEMPLE – ANH SON

In Hoa Son commune, Anh Son district, there is a temple nestled at the foot of a rocky mountain with a mossy and quiet appearance. In front of the temple is a rocky mountain range running along the west. Perhaps, located in the position connecting two mountain ranges like a natural heavenly rampart, so temple is called Cua Luy.

Not far from the district center is the provincial historical and cultural relic - Cua Luy temple in Hoa Son commune. The sacred temple was built more than 600 years ago, to worship those who have contributed to the people and country during the Lam Son Uprising. The locals proudly consider this as the best proof of the history of this land. Currently, the temple is being planned to expand into Cua Luy spiritual area, becoming a place of cultural and spiritual activities not only for locals, but also a destination can not be ignored whenever tourists have the opportunity to visit Anh Son.

According to documents recorded, Cua Luy temple was built by the people here in the 15^th century. During the Lam Son Uprising, after leading the insurgent army along the upper path into Nghe An and quickly knocking down Tra Lan citadel (Con Cuong District today), Le Loi sent a general surnamed Vuong to lead an army across Ca river to stop point to keep the Kim Nhan mountain area (Anh Son district today). This is a dangerous mountainous area with only a few doors, in which Cua Luy is the most important position.

Due to the arduous marching route, poor life, constant fighting with the enemy, and unsuitable for the water and soil here, the soldiers got sick a lot, and the barracks often had epidemics. Under the command of General Vuong, there was a medical woman who wholeheartedly loved the soldiers, tried her best to take care of them, and told them to keep healthy. In order to have enough medicine to cure everyone, many days, regardless of the rain and wind, the medical woman was willing to go through the forest alone to find precious medicinal plants. One day, the medical woman was alone in the forest looking for medicine. Due to be exhausted, she leaned against the old tree by the roadside to rest and then could never get up again. Not seeing her return, the soldiers scattered in all directions to search, she was brought back to the barracks, lying dormant in the hammock, still holding a medical leafs in her hand. Deeply mourning the devoted medical woman, General Vuong ordered her to be buried in a field in the region, since then, soldiers used to call it the princess's grave. Once, when General Vuong and his soldiers visited the grave, in the middle of the road, they met a white rabbit that jumped out from the stump of an ancient tree, run a few laps around the army of generals and then move forward, lean forward with your legs as if to prevent the way, after a while it disappeared. Seeing that this could be a bad omen, General Vuong ordered his soldiers to turn back and plan to patrol and guard carefully. The next morning, they caught a reconnaissance team of the Minh army, they said that they had received orders to assassinate General Vuong. The General Vuong thought that the white rabbit was the princess nurse who appeared to save his life, so he ordered the army to build a temple right under the ancient tree that the white rabbit appeared and named Luy Son temple (the people used to call it Cua Luy temple), soldiers and people now used to call her Princess nurse.

When General Vuong died, soldiers and people built a temple at a mound not far from Cua Luy temple and called it Duc Vuong temple (also known as Duc Ong temple). Later, because Duc Vuong Temple was surrounded by swamps, it was not convenient for people to carry incense, so people took this temple to worship at Cua Luy temple. According to the ancients, the woman was later conferred by King Minh Mang as the Holy Mother of Luy Son, in the reign of King Khai Dinh was conferred as Duc Bao Trung with Supreme God. Cua Luy Temple is very sacred, so it is full of incense all year round. In particular, those who have sick family members come to beg, they are saved by the Holy Mother.

In the years when the US Air Force escalated to ravage the North, Cua Luy temple was repeatedly destroyed and damaged by bombs. Ms. Tran Thi Chau, a native of Vinh Town, together with her husband to work as a power plant worker to evacuate here, and when she heard about the sacredness of the temple, she bought bamboo and hired someone to re-roof it. When peace was restored, Ms. Tran Thi Chau carried out the paperwork to ask the relevant authorities and branches to agree to restore Cua Luy temple. The main fees for the restoration is mainly from her family’s funding.

It is known that Anh Son district is currently planning to restore, embellish, upgrade and expand the scale of Cua Luy temple to be worthy of a historical-cultural relic and to meet the wishes of the people in the region.