Traditional carpentry features retained at Moc To Temple

Carpentry is one of the traditional handicraft careers of longest development in Binh Duong province. Moc To Temple (God of Carpentry Temple) in Thuan An city was constructed by local carpenters to worship the carpentry ancestors while retaining traditional features of the career as a province approved relics.

Following cultural officers of Thuan An city, we visited Moc To Temple which is located at the site accessible by following Phan Dinh Phung Road and passing a bridge to the left side of the road. The relic is humbly located near the high-rising building at Long Thoi quarter of Lai Thieu ward, identical of special features.

The front gate of Moc To Temple

The main chamber of worshiping inside the temple

Nguyen Van Dam, Deputy Head of Culture and Information Division of Thuan An city, informed that Moc To Temple was constructed in 1944 by local carpenters who contributed funds and efforts of construction in a bid to worship Lo Ban God of Carpentry. Aside from being a worshiping space, the temple has been the unity of local carpenters throughout their living and working in the locality. 

The temple was constructed by folklore house of 3 chambers, 2 kitchens, wooden beams and pillars, brick walls, fish-scale brick roof, and Chinese brick floor. The temple is within 85 square meters of flooring with relatively simple arrangement for worshiping.  The main chamber is for worshiping Lo Ban God of Carpentry while the two chambers are for worshiping of his left and right officials. The major altar is made of wood with sophisticated sculpture, showing highly skillful workmanship of old-time carpenters in Lai Thieu. The main altar is sculpture with the name of Lo Ba and the two pillars are decorated by parallel rhyme of Viet-Chinese letters, calling for worshiping and maintaining the career after the predecessors had started up the career. 

Moc To Temple is a place of worshiping career god; thus, the parallel decoration is not much. The contents of writings are only for stating merits of the fathers of the long-term career and gratitude to career gods. Despite the quantity, decoration has been plated and sculptured in a very eye-catching way.

On annual twentieth of lunar December at the temple is the ceremony showing gratitude to the career contribution and wishes for protection from the god in terms of health for favorable business and development. Aside from carpenters, local authority and people have also joined in the ceremony at Moc To Temple. On the special day, organizers hire performers of Tai Tu Music to service participants. Dam added that the temple is a place of remembering traditional craft career of Thuan An. The temple is also considered as a place of preserving the annual offering to ancestors of carpentry in various cultural and art actvities, contributing to the prosperous lives of locals. 

In its existence, the temple had been impressive as a milestone of carpentry development. In Binh Duong province, carpentry is one of the three craft industries contributing to the local growth. Moc To Temple was on June 2, 2004 certified by Binh Duong provincial People’s Committee as a provincial relics of carpentry in a bid to improve unity of the career within annual community activities.

Reported by Cam Ly – Translated by Vi Bao