Door eye is a trait of housing architecture in
ancient city - Hoi An, this trait has been bringing about special,
unique, and distinctive value of culture to this land.
For
the past twenty years, researchers of culture and architecture of Hoi
An have been paying attention to a special detail of every house on
this ancient street - a pair of eyes which are thoroughly carved and
stuck onto the upper part of doors. These eyes are often carved with
the eight trigrams; or eight-petal flower with Heaven-and-Earth circle.
This is absolutely unique in Hoi An. Various articles written by
culture researchers state that door eye in Hoi An is a supernatural
symbol that has been influenced by either Oriental philosophy or Indian
civilization.
A house in Hoi An with door eyes
As
a matter of fact, custom of painting and sticking eyes to utensils is
not unfamiliar in spiritual life of South East Asian residents such as:
worshipping God of banian tree, God of mountain, God of river, and even
lime-pot, etc in worshipping habit of the Vietnamese; worshipping
animals ridden by Gods for instance: nasdin cows, garuda birds of Cham
(Chăm) residents. This custom originates from concept of "Vạn vật hữu
linh" (all things have their own souls). Beyond that, this custom is
not unusual to ordinary people, especially ethnic minorities. All boats
and vessels are painted or stuck with eyes.
Nevertheless,
according to explanation of the master of house number 61 in Tran Phu
(Trần Phú) street and a keeper of Ong Bon (Ông Bồn) pagoda in Hoi An
(Hội An), these eyes have to do with worshipping belief of the Chinese.
According to Chinese books, in ancient times, there grown a huge peach
tree on Do Soc (Độ Sóc) mountain at East sea. There are two Gods named
Thần Đồ (Than Do) and (Uat Luy) Uất Lũy at the foot of this tree, with
red faces, protruding blue eyes, and violent in order to control
devils. For unruly devils, these two Gods used rattan or reed string to
tie them up and left as foods for tigers. Hence, Emperor ordered to
sculpt statues of these two Gods (Than Do and Uat Luy), a tiger stuck
with a reed string. These were all left at the door of houses to drive
away evils, devils that were called "Môn thần". To the Vietnamese,
these two Gods (one Good, one Evil) are painted on main entrance at
pagodas, temples as keepers. Besides, to the belief of Chăm Pa, there
is another God named Dvarapalla that protects Taoism. This God always
stands at the entrance of any religious architecture works.
From
the belief of Chăm Pa people, the Chinese, colossi of the Vietnamese to
eyes on main entrance of any houses in Hoi An, they are all reasonably
similar to one another. Especially, Hoi An is a place that merges four
peoples: Chăm, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese. Nevertheless, being
either a symbol of a concept (all things have their own souls) or a
detail of architecture, eyes on doors have become an indispensable part
of spiritual life of people living in Hoi An. This is also the way
people in Hoi An live in harmony with nature to create depth of a
cultural heritage of human being.
