Traveling to Bac Ninh, anyone who comes to Diem village is interested in the typical village scene of the North, where there are banyan trees, wells, communal roofs, a small river, and stretching fields. Not only that, but the village of Diem is also famous for the famous Banh Khuc dish introduced to the whole world. More specifically, Diem village is beautiful with the Cung Temple Ngoc Well full of mysterious charms.
Cung Temple located in Viem Xa village (also known as Diem village), Hoa Long commune, Bac Ninh province, is a place of spiritual, manifest worship of Mother Tam Phu from thousands of years ago. The model here is the incarnation of the mountains, the sky, the river, and the sea. He created and protected all life. The worship of the sacred Mother is a symbol of the spiritual beauty of Vietnamese people, expressing gratitude like a tree with roots, like a river with a source, like a fish returning to the water, like a child returning to his mother. The belief of worshiping Mother with all its sacredness and meaning has become the unique cultural identity of Vietnamese people for generations. "Whoever goes to the four directions. It is not as good as burning incense at Cung Temple".
Legend has it that the Queen dreamed of a pair of golden carp, then she became pregnant and gave birth to twin girls. King Ly Thanh Tong named his two children Ngoc Dung and Thuy Tien. The older, the more beautiful the two princesses. Despite being girls, both of them were as brave as a gentleman. Diem village has a mountain range, called Kim Linh mountain. At the foot of the mountain, there is a storehouse of grain and royal wealth. At that time, this area was still very wild. At night, wild beasts come to disturb the royal treasury, harass the good people. Hearing that, the two princesses asked the king to let them go back to Diem village to keep the villagers' lives and protect the dunes, called the treasury of the silver mountain.
In the presence of the two princesses of the martial arts, the court's storehouse was completely intact. Villagers enjoy peace and joy in production. But then for some reason, on the third day of March, the two girls went to the capital to bow down to the king and father, saying: "We will forever stay in this village to help the people". After saying that, the two girls turned into a pair of golden carp. In gratitude for the two, the villagers of Diem built a temple, called Cung Temple. They dug the lowland into an area to make a well, creating a source for the pair of angelfish to travel. That well is named Ngoc well.
With magical and sacred stories told for many generations, Cung Temple Ngoc Well is a spiritual destination that attracts visitors from all over the world, especially at the beginning of the new year.
That is the legend that adds to the mystery of Ngoc well. In fact, Ngoc wells have existed for a long time. It is the creation of nature from the bed of mountain rocks made up of layers of laterite covered with gold. According to the elders, a long time ago, there was a well. After years of war, soldiers stationed troops to help people remodel and re-plan. Now there are still stone tablets recorded.
The well is made up of large blocks of stone stacked on top of each other, creating a large cave on the deepest floor. No one knows the cave's depth or where it leads because it is dark and cold inside. This lowest floor is more than 2 meters deep and is graded by four large ironwood trees taken from the mountain of the village. The second floor of the well is made up of large rocks that are closed to form 3 steps. It's unclear what glued these rocks together, but they're very sturdy.
The top floor is made of bricks, forming only 9 steps to facilitate the people's access to water, the top is built into a bank about 1.2m high around.
The fresh and cool blue water of the mother rock well has been used in people's daily life. All the children of the village can drink this cool water. Some people believe that by drinking water from Ngoc well, the people of Diem village have a different voice from the people in the surrounding area. Anyone who has ever heard of Diem village, this is also the easiest way to recognize the people of Diem Village.
Although it is such cool and sweet water, not all creatures can adapt, except for 7 golden carp. There have been researchers who have tried releasing turtles and other fish. But within a few days, it was unable to adapt to this environment.
In addition, in the village, there is a story about the 7 fish-men, which is the incarnation of 7 fairies who asked to stay on earth. They transformed into golden carp to protect and help the villagers. In fact, after the historic flood, everyone worried about running away from the flood, but no one paid attention to the village well.
The strange thing that makes Ngoc well become mysterious and sacred as it is today is the presence of three "fish" gods. Asking the three god fish at Ngoc well, the old women who look after the temple with tears said, the last time they slapped Ngoc well on the 3rd day of the third lunar month, an unfortunate angelfish had gone to heaven, so now only two men left. His body was buried by the villagers right next to Ngoc well and set up an incense bowl to worship.
In Ngoc well, people see two angelfish who are always as gentle as two young girls. Until now, what kind of fish the remaining two magic fish in Ngoc well are, no one can explain.
Experiencing many ups and downs with the people of Diem village, however, the three god fish are still faithful to Ngoc well without ever leaving. There were historical floods in 1945, 1968, and 1971 that caused Diem village, including Ngoc well, to be submerged tens of meters deep, but of course, the three fishers remained in the well and did not move anywhere.
According to the old woman who looks after the temple, it is very strange that apart from the three gods, no animals can live in the Ngoc well. On the occasion of the full moon of January, many people from other places bring carp and turtles to Ngoc well, but after only a few hours, the new fish will float to the surface and die. Particularly, the turtles immediately crawled and ran straight to the nearby village pond. Also because of the sacredness, on the day of King Ba festival in Diem village, people take water from Ngoc well to worship.
The legend of Ngoc well and the three fishes is still a mystery that is difficult to explain, but that adds to the sacredness and attracts tourists from near and far to travel to Bac Ninh and enjoy Diem village.
However, according to the Management Board of Cung Temple, on the occasion of the 1,000-year celebration of Thang Long - Hanoi, 3 "divine fish" went to the fairy. The people of Diem village consider it very important because, on that occasion, the three "divine fish" also turned 1,000 years old. A solemn ceremony to bid farewell to the three "divine fish" was conducted with the full presence of the villagers.
Today, going back to the same temple, according to Bac Ninh tourism experience, everyone brings a small bottle to store god's water after sincerely lighting incense on the Mother's altar.
Source: https://alltours.vn/bac-ninh/ve-lang-diem-nghe-su-tich-den-cung-gieng-ngoc.html