Trieu Chau (Chaozhou) Assembly Hall

Picture yourself walking down Trần Phú street in Hội An, starting at Chùa Cầu, and simply keeping on until the street runs out. Where it ends, the name changes to Nguyễn Duy Hiệu. Along the roadside runs a wall with two iron gates — something the other assembly halls in town do not have. Behind the gates lies a wide courtyard, and only then the building itself: Hội quán Triều Châu, the assembly hall of the Chaozhou Chinese community, known locally as Chùa Ông Bổn.

Where the old street ends, a house goes back to its old job

It was built in 1845 by Chaozhou merchants who came to trade and stayed. They needed a place to gather with people from their home region, and a place to pray. The main deity in the sanctuary is Phục Ba tướng quân, god of the sea swell, who rescues trading junks in trouble; the side bays hold Tài Bạch tinh quân and Phước Đức chánh thần. Are you curious who people who lived by the sea addressed their prayers to? The answer hangs on the wall, in a horizontal lacquered board, gold characters on red, reading Hải quốc ân ba, in place since 1886.

But this house has not held worship without a break for nearly two hundred years. For a stretch of the twentieth century it did other work: first as the office of the Sơn Phong ward people's committee, then from 1988 as a workshop of the 8/3 wool-carpet cooperative. Only in 1990 was it handed back to the Ban Trị sự Triều Châu, the board of trustees of the Chaozhou congregation — and that August the caretakers restored the East and West houses and set in relief the four characters Nguyên Viễn Lưu Trường. Today it is doing its old job again: every year on the 16th day of the first lunar month there is the Nguyên tiêu offering and the memorial rite for the founding ancestors, from early morning to late afternoon, with the community and visitors alike coming in to offer incense.

Walking in from the gate, the order goes: two iron gates, the courtyard, a three-bay front hall, an open sky-well, then three steps up flanked by two lions lying and facing the sanctuary. On the two sanctuary doors are painted door gods in military dress with weapons in hand — Tần Thúc Bảo with a tiger's beard and a black face, Uất Trì Kính Đức with a white one; among the five Chinese assembly halls in Hội An, door gods painted on the doors appear at only two, and this is one. What deserves the longest look, though, sits at the main altar: a wooden panel assembled from separate pieces and cut clean through in several layers, showing squirrels among bunches of grapes together with scenes of royal life from old legend. Look up and there is a tube-tile roof in the Huế court style, each tile end capped with a green-glazed ceramic disc carved with a chrysanthemum, and on the ridge two dragons flanking the moon, pieced together from fragments of porcelain. How many days did some carver spend cutting through those layers of wood, and what was he thinking as he made it for the house of people far from home?

Timeline

1. 1886in place since 1886
2. 1988then from 1988 as a workshop of the 8/3 wool-carpet cooperative
3. 1990Only in 1990 was it handed back to the Ban Trị sự Triều Châu
4. 2026entry is on the shared Old Town ticket (verified 2026-09-07)

Enough to decide whether to go

Where

Nguyễn Duy Hiệu, Hội An

What it is

Assembly hall of the Chaozhou Chinese community, known as Chùa Ông Bổn; still an active place of worship

Built

1845

Best thing to see

The carved wooden panel of squirrels and grapes at the main altar; the two door gods painted on the sanctuary doors

Admission

No separate ticket sold at the door; entry is on the shared Old Town ticket (verified 2026-09-07)

Main festival day

16th day of the first lunar month — the Nguyên tiêu offering and the memorial rite for the founding ancestors (verified 2026-09-07)