The Big House of Long Son – Vung Tau

Located on Long Son island about 30 km from Vung Tau city, The Big House of Long Son was built at the beginning of the 20th century by Sir Tran whose real name was Le van Muu. In 1900, Sir Tran, a believer of the Tu An Hieu Nghia religion (originating from the Seven Mountains, An giang province) led 20 followers to come and settle on Long Son island. With their intelligence and diligence, the land of Long Son soon became rich soil on which various fruit trees, crops were cultivated. The good reputation of Sir Tran and his men had drawn more and more people to the island.

Coming to the Big House, visitors will be amazed by its group of unique wooden architectures including a temple, a meeting hall, a school, a market, Sir Tran’s tomb and a house to preserve Sir Tran’s boat which he used to come to the island. Another interesting thing of the Big House of Long Son is the wide collection of many antiques from ordinary tools such as knives, hoes, spades, hammers and sickles to a 200 year old set of table and chairs beautifully carved with a dragon head, the famous Luc Van Tien painting made by an artist in Ben Tre province, a collection of 33 wooden worship cabinets with silver inlay and hundreds of other valuable antiques made out of gold, silver, wood, pottery( clay) and copper.

Every year, on his birthday ( 20/2 of the lunar month), and on Trung Cuu day (9/9 of the lunar month), thousands of people from the Mekong River Delta and neighbouring localities come to the Big House of Long Son to join in big celebrations.

In addition to the architectural design of the Big House which features an impressive combination between the local religion with Confucianism and Taoism, the Big House of Long Son keeps and further develops indigenous festivals, traditions and cultures of ancient Vietnamese people. In 1991, the Big House was recognized by the Ministry of Culture and Information as a historical heritage and has since then become an interesting tourist attraction of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.