Bronze casting village of Ngũ Xã

Ngũ Xã village is located on the side of Trúc Bạch Lake in Ba Đình District nowadays, and it is known as the craft village with traditional bronze casting profession.

Legend has it that Zen Buddhist Grand Monk named Không Lộ who lived in the Lý Dynasty (1009-1225) was progenitor of the profession. He took best workers of five villages from the original Kinh Bắc area (Bắc Ninh Province today) to Thăng Long to establish a copper casting village called Ngũ Tràng Xã.

Since the 17th century, Ngũ Xã Village has become famous with many domestic appliances such as boilers, trays, and basins. Other famous products made by Ngũ Xã Village include Buddha statues, bells, incense burners, among which the greatest work is the bronze statue of Trấn Vũ God in the Quán Thánh Temple in Hà Nội.

The statue is 3.96 meters high, four tons in weight and was completed in 1677. In the temple of the village, there exists a Buddha statue with 5.5 meters high, weighting 14 tons, completed in 1952. In the 19th century, there were 90% of households in the village which ran the same copper casting job with some sophisticated technologies and know-how handed down from generation to generation.

Through many ups and downs of history, Ngũ Xã Village still preserves the traditional profession. Many high quality fine art products of Ngũ Xã have been exported, and many art works by famous artists have been made in the village.