History & Architecture of Tan Ky Old House

Tan Ky Old House was built in the 19th century, in a year between 1800 and 1820. This is a 23-meters-long and 5,5-meters-wide tube house or ‘horse bowel’ house that is typical to the Hoi An Ancient Town or Vietnam. It has brick walls, yin-yang tile roofs, and frame and furniture made of timber. The main entrance is on Nguyen Thai Hoc street (aka ‘the New road’ or ‘Cantonese road’). There is another entrance in its back that opens to the river (Hoai River) and the quay (Bach Dang street). Meaning that, this house owns a prime location that was so convenient to load and offload goods, and run the business. On two sides, other shophouses stand next to it tightly, to maximize the space to introduce products for sale.

During its life, Tan Ky Old House served as a shophouse selling silk and cinnamon, a residence for generations of Le family, and a chapel where ancestors of the family are worshipped. In Vietnamese language, Tan Ky means ‘flourishing’ because the family wanted it to bring good business and growth. It’s named by the great grandfather of the current owners. Under the ownership of the grandfather of the current owners, it’s changed to ‘Tan Buu’ which means ‘going forward and preciousness’.

About the architecture, the Old House of Tan Ky comprises 4 compartments (gian) and 1 courtyard in the 3rd compartment. Between Nguyen Thai Hoc street and the courtyard, there is the first hall, and between Bach Dang street and the courtyard, there is the second hall. A bridge-like house (nha cau) was built to connect the upper floor of two main halls. Each compartment has a 1,2-meters-wide walkway in the middle, and rooms at the sides. This layout is to adapt to local climate and purposes of the owner family (living, business, worshipping).

The ground storey of the front hall has the main door in the middle, with two ‘door eyes’ above it (decorated by yin-yang symbol and bodhi leaf, red fabrics). ‘Door eyes’ are found only in Hoi An Old Town world heritage area, and sometimes, referred to as ‘eyes of the door god’. Local inhabitants believe that they safeguard the house from bad spirits and bad luck. To flexibly close and open, two ‘side doors’ next to the main door, are assembled by long wooden panels. When these panels are fully removed, the family has two large spaces to show what they sell to customers walking on the street. When they are assembled again, it’s still very solid to protect the house. In town, wherever visitors find door eyes and the assembling doors, that building will be very old.

The upper storey of the front hall has a wooden door also, but there are two brick walls on both sides, instead of assembling doors. Here, owners store products, and lift them up and down by one pulley. Its roof has an influence from Japanese house architecture. Japanese people lived in Hoi An for a long time in the past.

After walking in the house, on the left side of the first compartment, visitors will see a model of sailing ship, antique ceramics collected by the family, and some photos about famous politicians who visited it. On the right hand side, there is the ticket check place. Above the door leading inside, the horizontal lacquered board has three Chinese words meaning ‘Le Family Chapel’.

The second compartment is the living room where owners meet up with customers and guests. A small, high space here is used to place an altar to worship the family’s ancestors. Interestingly, it looks to the back of the house, instead of the front. This arrangement may have originated from the family’s belief that business opportunities and good fortune will come from the river/harbour. Furthermore, the family also worships the Lord Buddha.

Additionally, in the living room, the family also put a couple of black-painted tables and chairs to welcome guests, featuring sophisticated and expensive mother-of-pearl inlay. In non-busy hours, family members will invite tourists a cup of hot tea and listen to their introduction and explanation about the house. On the walls, there are pictures of some members in older generations, and a set of 4 Chinese ink wash paintings depicting 4 seasons, each represented by a specific flower.

Columns here are timber (particularly merawan giaza), black, waterproof, and stand on a piece of stone with lotus carvings (to protect above wooden pillars from the flood water). Near the roof, there are structures to support it, proving a fusion between Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese styles. The horizontal bars of each structure represent different generations of the family, and the pillars represent fingers or members individually. Being joined tightly together, the roof-supporting structure symbolizes the solidarity power of the entire family that will make it more and more prosperous. Additionally, every house’s columns near the main path is decorated by vertical, long wooden boards on which one poem or good sentence is written by Chinese words and by cranes inlaid by mother-of-pearl pieces. In the past, the family had to make a private request to Kim Bong carpenters to make.

The 3rd compartment has a courtyard and a bridge-like house (nha cau). Its floor is lower than main halls, to contain rain water and sure, the houses won’t be wet by that. A well is built here, providing fresh water to cook, wash, or take a shower but now its mouth is covered for safety reasons. There is a protective screen (binh phong) on the nearby wall, to protect the family from the eastern side. On it, visitors can see an urn created by ceramic pieces, and on two sides, a vase of flowers and a plate of fruits. Some flowers and herbs are planted in the front of the screen. On the other side, there is a set of tables and chairs to have a seat.

In hot days, family members often sit around the courtyard to cool off. Because it is surrounded tightly by other houses, a ‘sky well’ is designed here to allow fresh air into the house, making its inner temperature lower. As a shop, Tan Ky House stores lots of products (like silk, spices), so thanks to this sky well, products and the house can avoid fire. Until today, it’s never burnt!

Above the door leading further inside, there are two other door eyes. To the left, the wooden wall has a carving to depict a rolling paper sheet, with a Chinese abacus-like window and two traditional decorative motifs: bat (symbling blessing, happiness) and two Chinese hairpins wrapped by a string of silk (symbolizing flexibility).

At the water well, a family member will introduce lucky coins on which a zodiac animal is carved, and the Confucius cup that is never filled fully by water. Visitors can follow her stories to understand better about them.

The fourth compartment has a kitchen, a water well, bed rooms, bathroom/toilet on the ground floor, and selling products, bed rooms on the upper floor. Ladders to go to the upper storey are private only and not for tourists. At night, a few family members still stay there to safeguard the house and everything in it.

In this room, visitors can see a wooden bed made by 1878, and belonging to a lady in the 3rd generation of the family. It’s covered by a bamboo mat. On the wall, there are 4 ink wash paintings about 4 seasons in the mountain. Nearby, visitors can see a hook and the pulley used to lift up or down the stuff, just above head.

One of the most interesting things to see in Tan Ky House is the water level of floods which happened many years ago in the town. The highest level was in 1964 when the water rose up to the top of the ground floor. Some photos about how the town and how the life of people and animals look are hung up nearby. To the right, tourists attacked their business cards without a clear reason. A small souvenir shop is in the same department, to let anybody have time to see and buy something.

The final space of the house is to show objects and manual old-fashioned machines used by the family in the past, including a rice mill to remove the rice hulls from seeds, a stone grinder to grind the rice into milk, bamboo trays to sun dry the rice, charcoal iron, lime pot (people eat lime, betel leaf and areca palm nut before), bowls,…  

Before 1878, in the back of Tan Ky House, that was the river but now a road. Its back wall is yellow, attracting many visitors to come to photograph, especially with ao dai dress. In the late afternoon, please look around carefully when walking across the road, because many cyclos move.