Hoi An a prestigious port of olden times swelters in its heat. Built on the shores of the Thu Bon river, once a prominent Chinese settlement, the old town is a time travel device since all the houses, bridges and traditions are the same even today. The Unesco has deemed the whole town a heritage site. It is a living and breathing heritage site.

Starting from the 15th century Chinese immigrants settled and built a number of temples here which also functioned as community halls for people from the same region to meet, seek assistance and form alliances. These halls offer beautiful nuggets of history. It is apparently difficult to date the structures since multiple renovations by generations of descendants has taken place. The altars for Dao and the ancestors are most probably at least four centuries old.

There are a number of assembly halls built amongst the sloping roofed houses. Most of these houses are preserved intact and function as shops selling clothing, souvenir, food and importantly paper lanterns.

In one of the halls you can see these Lotus slippers, a long forgotten and painful beautification trend which lasted from the 10th century till 17th century. Little girl children had their four toes bent and tied down to the sole for years, to achieve a mere three inches in foot size by the time they were adults.

A female deity bedecked in silks and gold. These deities seem to offer protection and motherly grace. Some of the altars behind the main alter show a vast array of mothers holding cherubic babies. They might be fertility goddess’. Since there wasn’t a lot of information provided here(or on the internet) I am using my Art History background to draw some basic hypotheses’.

Hoi An old town also has an open air market and a moon festival every full moon that is celebrated with multitudes of lanterns. It makes for a beautiful night of going on the boat and offering lanterns to the river.

A formidable dharmapala or temple guardian, shows the influence of Buddhism which became an amalgam with Taoism and Confucianism.