Hung Kings\u2019 Commemoration Day, which falls on the 10th day of the 3rd lunar month each year, is a national holiday honoring the 18 generations of the Hung dynasty, the founding ancestors of Vietnam. In 2026, that day falls on April 25. Many Vietnamese visit the main hall of the Hung Kings\u2019 temple in Phu Tho Province, but in fact, at 2 Nguyen Binh Khiem Street in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, stands a little-known Hung Kings\u2019 temple. Its origin is a World War I war-memorial monument\u2014a building erected in the French colonial era as the \u201cTemple du Souvenir Annamite.\u201d<\/p>\n
This building\u2019s history dates back to 1920. In World War I, over 92,000 Vietnamese were mobilized into the French army from French Indochina, and about 12,000 lost their lives. After the war, the Cochinchina (southern Vietnam) authorities decided to build a monument to mourn them, and in 1921 secured land adjacent to the Saigon Botanical Garden.<\/p>\n
The construction committee, established under the patronage of Governor Le Gallen, collected 48,000 piastres in donations from Saigon\u2019s wealthy class. In November 1927, the design was entrusted to architect Auguste Delaval, and a brick structure using timber frames from the Thu Dau Mot craft school was adopted. It was completed on January 1, 1929. The inauguration ceremony was held at the same time as the adjacent Blanchard de la Brosse Museum (now the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History).<\/p>\n
The design\u2019s motif is the Nguyen dynasty tombs of Hue. The three-tiered upswept roofs are decorated with dragons and phoenixes, and dragon statues are also placed on both sides of the stone steps. Inside stand 12 black wooden pillars representing the twelve zodiac signs, with motifs of sacred beasts\u2014dragon, crane, kirin, turtle, phoenix\u2014carved throughout.<\/p>\n
When it was built, the marble stele set in the center was engraved with the names of historical figures such as Le Van Duyet, Phan Thanh Gian, Nguyen Huynh Duc, Truong Vinh Ky, Paulus Cua, and Le Quang Hien, along with the names of the war dead. The newspaper of the time, \u2018Le Progr\u00e8s Annamite,\u2019 described it as \u201ca place uniting historical greats and the war dead of the Great War into one official rite,\u201d and praised it as both \u201ca place of meditation and pilgrimage\u201d and \u201ca cultural masterpiece for tourists.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1955, after the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), this building was rededicated as the \u201cTemple of the National Ancestors, the Hung Kings (Den Quoc to Hung Vuong),\u201d honoring the founding ancestor of the Hung dynasty. The French-colonial-era purpose of war remembrance disappeared, and its character transformed entirely into a place of Hung King worship, the roots of the Vietnamese people.<\/p>\n
However, among local people the old nickname \u201cDen Ky Niem (Memorial Temple)\u201d long remained. After the reunification of north and south in 1975, the monument\u2019s stele was also removed, and the building\u2019s \u201cformer life\u201d all but vanished from the official record. Through the research of historian Tim Doling, this structure\u2019s dual identity has again been brought to light.<\/p>\n
| Highlights<\/th>\n | Details<\/th>\n | Highlight<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|
| Hung Kings\u2019 altar<\/td>\n | Placed at the temple\u2019s center. Honors the 18 generations of the Hung dynasty<\/td>\n | A formal rite is held every year on the 10th day of the 3rd lunar month<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Lo Bo (ceremonial regalia)<\/td>\n | 8 ceremonial polearms with bronze tips<\/td>\n | Decorative items for court ceremonies. Arranged four on each side<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Dong Son drum replicas<\/td>\n | 2 pieces<\/td>\n | Replicas of bronze drums symbolizing the pre-Christian-era Dong Son culture<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Model of the Phu Tho main hall<\/td>\n | A miniature of the Hung Kings\u2019 temple main hall<\/td>\n | An alternative symbol for worshippers who can\u2019t visit the main hall<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Bronze elephant<\/td>\n | Weighing 3 tons, about 2 m tall<\/td>\n | Presented by King Rama VII of Siam (Thailand) on April 14, 1930<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Three-tiered roof<\/td>\n | Hue Nguyen-dynasty tomb style<\/td>\n | Dragon and phoenix decorations remain. Original from the 1929 construction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n \n |