Kien An Palace is an ancient pagoda of the Fujian (Chinese) community who settled in Sa Dec ward, Dong Thap province. The project started in 1924, and was completed in 1927, nearly a century ago.
Throughout that journey, this place has always been of interest and worship to local people and tourists from near and far. Because besides the very typical architecture of the Chinese community from the incense table, there is also a unique feature of the harmony between the festival hall and the temple. To be exact, Kien An Palace is a place for gathering to discuss the importance of the community ( ganh an) and worship the gods of folk religions (cung).
The project faces Cai Son canal, spanning the heart of Sa Dec city, and is built in the style of "domestic and foreign-people" according to the architectural artistic identity of the Chinese people, so from the outside it has both majesty and splendor, and hidden charm. Therefore, Kien An Palace attracts viewers at first sight.
Notably, the roof of the project is designed in the shape of a boat, with two points of the sword curved to the sky. It is more appealing when on the roof there are four towers shaped like a miniature shrine, inside are statues of fairy tales and sacred animals. Especially in the middle of the roof is a double dragon and the moon. All these shapes and patterns are made from beautiful and precious ceramic materials.
And like many Chinese shrines, under the porch roof there are a pair of stone monks. Inside, next to the murals depicting the themes of the landscape, the characters are painted in the style of water-culture paintings... are the bags of breeze, success, lien, dang, andanh phi that are elaborately carved.
In front of the main hall is a yard designed right next to the skylight (province) that is both enlightened and ventilated, reducing the smoke of those who come here to offer incense to wish. The two main sides of the palace are the association's activity areas, which Chinese people call the Winter and Westods.
In the main hall area, there are 3 temples, worshiping 3 lucky gods of the land that the Phuc Kien community brought on the migration route. In the middle of Quang Trach Ton Vuong worship, also known as Bao An Ton Vuong. This is the blessing god that the Phuc Kien community brought along on the migration journey. That is the reason why the pagoda's popular name is Ong Quach Pagoda.
According to historical documents, his real name is Quach Vi Trung, from Phuc Kien, during the Bac Tong Dynasty. He was once a Prime Minister of Wenzang, but because he was tired of the famous scenery, he returned to the mountains to raise his mother's goats. Both sides worship two fertility gods from Fujian, Bao Sanh Dai Tu and Thanh Thuy Dai Tu.
With that unique feature, in 1994, Kien An cung was ranked as a National Monument and contributed to creating more diversity for the tourist flower garden in Sa Dec to be more brilliant in the journey to attract domestic and foreign tourists.
