Bảo tàng lịch sử Quốc gia

Beside the determination of the position, the extent and the structure of the 3 architectural layers at different dates in the excavation of the center of the site of Chua Dau (hamlet of Gia Phuc, commune of Nguyen Trai, huyen of Thuong Tin, Ha Tay) in 2006, we have discovered a great quantity of remains of construction materials having a certain value for research and exhibition, comprising construction materials of the Tran (XIII – XIV^th centuries), the Mac (XVI^th century), the restored Le (XVII-XVIII^th centuries), and the Nguyen (XIX-XX^th centuries)⁽¹⁾. It is to be noted the collection of construction materials of the Mac. They are in great quantity and are concentrated chiefly in the second layer and comprise stone materials and earthenware materials, the last ones being in majority.

1. Stone materials: comprising two main forms: the column pedestals and the balustrades. Both forms are in grey white limestone and are reused in later constructions.

- The column pedestals are square parallelipipedes, of dimensions 43×43×14cm. The surface of pedestals are generally decorated with lotus flowers having two layers of petals (diameter: 41cm). The upper layer has 16 petals, widely spreading, with slender body and highly turned-up extremity. The lower layer is smaller and is visible only in the extremity part, and is placed in the gaps of the upper layer. The pistil of the flower is at the center of the column and is in direct contact with the column. The pistils are round (diameter: 29cm) or octogonal (dimension 30×30cm).

- The stone balustrades are simply made, without decoration, and are divided into cases separated by small columns wrought by tour and ended by buds of lotus flower. The pieces of balustrade are all broken and have been reused for the fortification of the foundations of constructions dating from the XVII^th century. The balustrades are 40cm high, the columns are 90cm high, including the foot, and the thickness is 8cm.

2. Earthenware materials:

It is a rather solid material, found in great quantity in the pits and in the vestiges of construction. It comprises 4 main types: bricks, tiles, decoration borderings and statuettes of animals for decoration.

- Bricks: having the greatest quantity, participating in the composition of many parts of construction such as foundation borderings, floor borderings, veranda borderings, floor pavements and other parts of decoration, and comprising massive bricks, covering bricks and pavement bricks. The characteristic of bricks of this time is that they are made of earthenware colour dark red and brick yellow, their ossature is not compact and is mixed with many impurities.

+ the bricks of foundation borderings such as massive bricks (38×13×8,5cm) or of floor borderings such as covering bricks (30×18×5cm) on a large area, all have on the borders or on one extremity decorations with rich themes such as saddle-formed dragons, mice mounting guard for a lotus flower, carps being transformed into dragons, lotus flowers or sacred animals such as unicorns, lions…

The decorations are of a particular theme, but they can also form “open” decorations, i.e. they can form strips of decorations when they are combined with each other, such as floor bordering bricks. Decorations on such bricks are all made from readymade moulds. This shows that at this time the bricks for foundation and floor borderings are made specially, in order to decorate all the system of foundations uniformly. In this time, the production in series of materials is certainly a typical characteristic.

+ For pavement bricks, most have no decorations on a flat area and are of medium dimensions: 38×38×5,5cm or 45×45×5,5cm. In the sector Thuong Dien, many remains of pavement bricks have been discovered, carrying in relief decorations of coins. The bricks are of color brick yellow, of little compact ossature, mixed with impurities, and of dimensions 48×48×4,6cm, the upper area is decorated with close drawings forming a coin image. Combined with other similar bricks, they form a decoration with lemon-flowers with 4 petals. Maybe under the Mac, important constructions are paved with this type of bricks.

- Tiles: they are also in great quantity, and comprise 3 main types: the leaf tiles, the lotus flower tiles and the tube tiles.

+ The leaf tiles are of small dimensions, thin, of earthenware colour dark red, their ossature is gross and not compact; the 2/3 of the tile have the form of a large rectangle, the extremity is an equilateral triangle with average dimensions 23,5×17,5×1cm.

+ The lotus flower tiles are of many types, many dimensions and various decorations. They are of color dark red, of gross ossature, large dimension, and have a highly turned-up extremity. These tiles have two types, the simple winged tiles and the double winged ones. Some are decorated with a lotus flower in relief at the end of the tile, others have decorations with strings of flowers on the back of the tile. Many tiles have still traces of wedges permitting them to be linked to the lintels or to the roof borderings. The discovered tiles are all broken, their average dimensions are 28-31cm of length, 26-28cm of width, 2 – 3cm of thickness, the nose height is 5,5-8,5cm.

+ The tube tiles are of small quantity, in earthenware colour grey blue, their ossature is gross and not compact. Their dimensions are small: length 19,6 – 21cm, width 9,5 – 10,5cm, thickness 1,0 – 1,2cm, height 5 – 6cm, the neck is short (2cm).

- Borderings of decoration: The two main materials are the earthenware color grey blue and the earthenware color brick yellow, both have a gross ossature, not too compact, easily affected by erosion. The two main types are the corner borderings and the roof borderings.

+ The corner borderings are of two types, the borderings with flowers of kaki and the borderings with cloud decorations, the earthenware is color brick yellow, its ossature is gross and not very compact. The borderings with kaki flowers are hollow moulded, the two faces decorated with kaki flowers with 4 petals. This type of borderings are generally combined with each other to form strings of flowers covering the top of the roofs or the corners of the roofs. If this type of bordering is used, the roof needs no more corner covering tiles. For the borderings with cloud decoration, they are used also for the top or the corners of the roofs, but independently like the tiles ưith snowbell leaves. If the cloud borderings have been used, the kaki flower borderings will not be used. Because, when examining the cloud borderings, one sees that they all have holes for wedges to link with covering tiles. Therefore, the two types of borderings cannot coexist on a same roof.

+ the decorations of the roof borderings have much more variants. They have the double function of decoration of the roof and of guidance of rain water. Thus, the borderings vary according to the type of roofs. In general, roofs with tube tiles and with “am duong” tiles use borderings of the round or semi-round form or of the form of snowbell leaves. Roofs with lotus flower tiles or leaf tiles use borderings in T, in L. At the center of Chua Dau, one has discovered all the sus-mentioned types of borderings. That is a proof that, under the Mac, pagoda Dau has had many constructions, with various functions.

The themes of decorations on the borderings are essentially leaves and flowers and, in smaller quantity, dragons. The features of decorations are simple, hard and have more freedom than at times before and after the Mac.

- Statuettes of animals of decoration: They are in small quantity and are mainly remains of statuettes of dragons. Most of them are bas-reliefs, the remain are hollow statues. The statuettes are made of earthenware of color grey blue and brick yellow. The dragons have a big head, a round body, robust with many undulations, the mane and the beard widely spread, the ramified horns directed behind, the fins and the tail have the form of a fire-knives. Many specimens of dragons are simply made, the artist aiming at creating the global form rather than the details

3. Notices

One can affirm that through the collection of materials of construction of the Mac discovered at the center of the site Chua Dau, one obtains a sketch of the structure of the foundations and of the roofs of the construxctions under the Mac. This has a great meaning not only for the study of artistical characteristics of the Mac in the history of vietnamese architecture and art but also for the restoration of contemporary constructions, such as the constructions in the center of pagoda Dau.

With the flourishing discovery of materials of construction of the Mac in the pits and in the vestiges, we can have an image of the development of the site of Chua Dau in the XVI^th century. Though there are not so far documents reporting the restoration process under the Mac, the results of archaeological researches and the various types of materials discovered in great quantity in the pits have furnished live material proofs of a large restoration work of the pagoda at that time.

Moreover, the discovery of the collection of massive bricks color dark red carrying on the sides or on the end relief decorations having the mark of the Court such as dragons, unicorns, mice mounting guard for lotus flower, carps being transformed into dragons… has shown the position and the importance of the site Chua Dau for the Court of the Mac. This discovery help us to have a new understanding in the determination of the characteristics and of the date of massive bricks in particular and of materials of construction of the Mac in general.

With the characteristics of the collection of materials of construction of the Mac discovered in this excavation, we must reconsider the dating of the massive bricks color grey blue discovered in the foundations of the altar of bonze Vu Khac Minh at Chua Dau, published some years ago⁽²⁾. We think that there are distinct differences between the bricks discovered before and during this excavation. Besides differences of color and dimensions, there are differences of decorations. Thus, we must place the massive bricks discovered at the first time at Chua Dau at the beginning of the XVII^th century. This is suitable with the religious life of the bonze Vu Khac Minh, and with the date of restoration of the pagoda in 1636, as the stele Duong Hoa of the 5^th year (1639) under Le Than Tong (conserved at the pagoda) has reported.

Nguyen Ngoc Chat