According to the path you enter the Truc Lam Cultural Center, the Yen Tu Village is on the left side. The suitable slogan for Yen Tu Nương Village is “The Soul of Vietnam, the Tran legacy, and the spirit of Truc Lam Zen.”
Nương Village is a real village in Vietnamese history during the Trần Dynasty, located at the “forest spring” at the foot of Yên Tử Mountain. Historical records note that when King Trần Nhân Tông came to Yên Tử to practice, he “bid farewell to the concubines, allowing them to either leave or stay. Those who did not wish to return to their hometowns were given houses and land at the foot of the mountain to live on.”
In the book Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh by the Zen Master Chân Nguyên (1647 – 1726), the head of Long Động Pagoda (Yên Tử), the name “Làng Nương” is mentioned in a Nôm poem:
“Servants, midwives, concubines,
Their vows unfulfilled, moved by the virtue here,
The king, seeing this, felt compassion,
Decided to give them a place in the forest spring.
Thus, the legacy endures,
Nuong Village, Mu Village a blessing delayed.”
The name “Làng Nương Yên Tử” symbolically suggests that your journey to Yen Tu is a pilgrimage to the Source, the Homeland, the Sacred Land of Vietnamese Buddhism; to the Ancestral Hall of the Vietnamese people; and to your own true self.
Yên Tử Nương Village is truly a village for pilgrims who annually visit the Truc Lam Zen origin, the source of Vietnamese Buddhism, especially during the three months of the Spring Festival after the Vietnamese Lunar New Year.
At Yen Tu Nương Village, visitors will experience a cultural space full of colors that evokes memories of ancient Northern Vietnamese villages. The typical style of the village and the natural materials used in each house remind one of the rich cultural life and architecture of the 13th century Tran period.
The buildings here all follow traditional architectural styles and interior arrangements with many features of the Tran period, with 11 simple guest houses (equivalent to 3 stars) named after familiar herbal scents in Vietnamese rural life, such as Xả, Bưởi, Chanh, Cau… mixed with restaurants, souvenir shops, and venues for performances and folk games, located by the peaceful and poetic Giải Oan stream. The village seems to evoke memories of ancient villages that once existed in the Trần era in Yên Tử, connected to the story of Emperor Tran Nhan Tong coming to Yen Tu for meditation.
