The native homeland of the Duongs 'family was originally in Nha Man, Dong Thap province, however they moved to Binh Thuy, CanTho and put in themselves here over a hundred years ago. They're therefore considered as "creators of heaven and earth "in this region. By the top of XIX century, this family became rather rich. At that point, the head of family, called "Mr. Ba - council member" by modern people, determined to pay his cash and efforts in building a house "for nothing "(?), just for showing antiquities.

The construction was begun in 1870 on a region of approximately 8,000 sq. meters. According to Mr. Duong, at that point, a master with the name of Ba Nghia - however everyone used to call him by master Lo Ban - lived during this region, who was able to build beautiful houses. It was noteworthy that he had a strange physiognomy. His height accounted just for 1 meter and a few centimeters, whereas his backbone was so twisted that his silhouette sounded like a "question mark".

Throughout the years, he remained half-naked sporting only black satin breeches and wound a red silk turban around his head. The master Lo Ban had 2 inseparable things: a marker and an axe. With this "treasure", he completed an uncountable variety of perfectly around ironwood pillars.

The conditions that the council member Mr. Ba posed were quite serious – "You ought to build my house splendid far more than others', it's unquestionable; however the matter is to create it certain when the house is finished, I ought to become richer". The master Ba Nghia thought for a long while and said: "But, but, in my profession, if the client makes his fortune, i am going to immediately fall unlucky". "No, no, don’t worry. I guarantee that I am going to monthly give you with 3 pecks of rice and a few items of silver whenever you are alive".

Nobody knew precisely how this story went on, however native people blabbed that the master Lo Ban definitely used amulet or talisman, otherwise, the council member Mr. Ba could not become rich so fast. Letting aside these rumors, one should acknowledge that the master Ba Nghia was a top-ranking artisan-artist, when he was in a position, only with an axe, to build a 5-compartment house with all close-fitting joints. It absolutely was said that the construction lasted for 20 years.

In the house, there's a coach placed simply before the altar. It's a souvenir of the respected Mr. Duong's grandfather. It's said to create this set of ironwood chairs, a craftsman, native in southern provinces, had to carve dragon- and phoenix-shaped details as precise as in millimeters. One particularity is that whereas the chairs are so massive and heavy, their legs are thin the same as children's wrist.

Another craftsman named Dong Van Chiem, native in northern provinces, was charged of inlaying pearl vignettes. Nowadays, after over 100 years, these vignettes are still brilliantly shining with their "5 colors". As different houses of landlords in the "region of six provinces "(Mekong Delta), the owner of this house also employed craftsmen to create a balustrade, linking with the ironwood pillars in front of the altar. In this case, although the originality resides in the fact that the vignettes on this balustrade don't comprise any old Chinese classic references as others. Instead, all vignettes contained here represent daily well-liked scenes of the common people: from crabs, chickens until ivory bamboo branch or clump of trees. Is it true that the craftsmen’s inspiration was to glorify the peaceful atmosphere at that point domina

According to the respected Mr. Duong's stories, his grandfather was named Duong Chan Ky, whose souvenir is a portrayed image, at present, solemnly hanging simply within the middle room. An originality of the image is that it absolutely was created in enameled terra-cotta with details as veritable as that of gift images. It's said that such a way of creating footage was only known in France and China since the top of the eighteenth century. However, the writing in Chinese on the image confused me, whether or not the craftsmen from Ben Nghe knew this system. If it's true, the difficulty must be additional studied. the image has experienced such a large amount of events; there was a time when it absolutely was buried into mud to avoid bombing, however, it didn't suffer from any damage. This family still keeps various cups, bowls, plates; all of that have a noble origin. The oldest objects are a bowl from the Ming dynasty in China with an age of 572 years and a giant flower-vase with an age of nearly 533 years.