Architecture of Thai Hoa Palace in Hue

Thai Hoa Palace is the last surviving royal palace in the Hue Imperial City, and the whole of Vietnam. Its name means ‘supreme harmony’, a harmonization between human, heaven, and earth. This palace lies between the city’s main gate and Can Thanh Palace, and between The Mieu Temple and Thai Mieu Temple. It has no enclosed wall, unlike other temples and palaces.

As the foremost building of the country, Thai Hoa Palace has the finest architecture that was made by the highest quality materials and by most skilled artisans. It stands on a 2,35-meters-tall base, with a length of approx 45 meters, with a width of 35 meters, and a height of 11,8 meters. This palace features overlapping roofs that are covered by yellow ceramic tiles, indicating a place exclusive for kings. Their ridge is decorated by flying dragons and dragons fighting the sun. The middle door isn’t for visitors because it’s for emperors. Instead, it’s needed to walk in by the door to the left end.

In the front of Thai Hoa Palace, there is an open, stone-paved yard where mandarins stand on three different levels, according to their rank (higher step, higher rank). On both sides, there are small stone steles, indicating the specific rank between literature and military mandarins. Between this yard and the Meridian Gate (Ngo Mon), visitors can see a pave-stoned bridge (called ‘Trung Dao Kieu’) with two metal gates decorated by enameled bronze paintings and 4 chinese letters, at both ends. There are squared lakes on the left and right sides of this bridge (called ‘Thai Dich lakes’), all dug in 1833, and adorned with lotus, golden dishes, and champa flowers. The bridge is just for kings. The addition of lakes and gardens makes Thai Hoa Palace different from the larger one in the Beijing Forbidden City of China.

Inside Thai Hoa Palace, visitors will see 80 big columns of ironwood. All of them are red lacquered, and decorated by many dragons flying in clouds, to symbolize the harmonization between the king and his subjects. Some of these columns were replaced due to insect damage and humid climate (still exhibited in the palace).

The most precious artifact inside Thai Hoa Palace is the king throne (or golden throne), the most powerful symbol of the dynasty. Its dimensions are 1m tall, 0,72m wide, and 0,87m long. It’s placed on a base, under an exquisite canopy of golden lace embroidered with dragons. This throne has been here since it’s first used. In the Great meetings, the emperor would sit on it, and look outwards. Beside him, there are 4 most important mandarins. In 2016, the throne was recognized to be Vietnam’s national treasure.

Near the roof, the decoration of Thai Hoa Palace followed a rule ‘one poem, one picture’ (or ‘one word, one picture’) that is unique to Hue’s imperial architecture. The poems were mostly composed by the kings, praising the peacefulness, unification, and wealth of the country at that time. Between pictures, there is a panel showing a poem or a part of a poem, featuring yellow Chinese mandarin or Nom characters. Total panel with words is 248, more than anywhere in Hue. In 2016, ‘royal literature on Hue imperial architecture’ was recognized to be Unesco world documentary heritage.