BAT THAP PAGODA AND DAI YEN VILLAGE

A tower whose base marries the shape of a bowl, hence the name of the pagoda (Bat Thap means "the tower of the bowl"). In a vast area, the pagoda offers a haven of peace from urban unrest. Its refined garden is particularly pleasant and exudes serenity.

Behind the pagoda begins a maze of lanes that leads to the village of Dai Yên (village of «the Great Peace»). Dai Yên is one of the 13 former «camp villages» of Thang Long, which refers to a period of decline of the imperial city in the th century under the Amani dynasty. At the gates of the city, the «camps-camps», types of agricultural settlements, included migrants who came to clearing and highlight the lands located in the west of the capital. A Dai Yên, they harvested the grass for the horses of the Court. Legends evoke a much older origin and the villagers honour the memory of a young girl, Trân Ngoc Tuong, who lived in the th century, becoming Princess Ngoc Ha, thanks to her knowledge of medicinal herbs, which allowed him to heal the army soldiers led by the hero Ly Thuong Kiêt in fighting the Chinese aggressor.

Even today, Dai Yên is known to residents of Hanoi as the village of herbal cultivation, which even supplied the National Institute of Traditional Medicine and the University of Pharmacy in Hanoi. A few years ago, a walk to Dai Yên was an enchantment. On foot or by bicycle, we lost ourselves in a maze strewn with beautiful storey, carefully maintained and rich in a wide variety of species. Dai Yên, around its beautiful communal house, was a rural enclave in the heart of the city, with traditional village residences.

Today, the walk has lost nothing of its interest and to go to this maze, which is still confusing, we discover unknown aspects of the capital, very old gestures originating in its millennium past. Above all, the brutality with which Hanoi entered another era is being feared. Indeed, the environment has deteriorated considerably and land speculation has removed many of the traditional houses and small gardens. Those remaining are vestiges and fear that the identity of Dai Yên will disappear permanently, engulfed in the capital frenzy that seized the capital. Unless the concept of urban agriculture promoted by international institutions offers a new opportunity for herbalists…