Ban Phu Citadel – Hoang Cong Chat Temple

The Ban Phu Citadel relic, popularly known as Hoang Cong Chat Temple, lies in Noong Het commune, Dien Bien district, 8 km south of Dien Bien Phu city, amid the Muong Thanh valley — the great rice basket of the Northwest.

In the 18th century, after leading a peasant uprising against the Le–Trinh court in the Thai Binh region, general Hoang Cong Chat brought his troops to the Northwest, joined forces with the local commanders Ngai and Khanh, defeated the invading Phe forces and fully liberated Muong Thanh. From 1758 to 1762 he and the local ethnic communities built the Chieng Le citadel (Ban Phu Citadel) as a lasting base. The pentagon-shaped citadel covered some 80 mau, with earthen walls 5 m high and 10 m thick at the base, divided into inner and outer precincts. In 1981 it was ranked as a national historical-cultural relic.

Within the inner citadel the people erected a temple to Hoang Cong Chat in gratitude for driving out the Phe invaders and protecting the region. The temple festival is held on the 24th–25th days of the second lunar month each year and is a major festival of the ethnic communities of the Dien Bien basin.