In repose: President Ho Chi Minh works under the colorful pergola, his favourite place to meet foreign visitors and children.

The small stilt-house built for President Ho Chi Minh reflects the beloved leader’s desire for a simple life devoted to offering his unconditional service to the Vietnamese people. Cam Giang reports.

The preservation room in the Presidential area holds a precious document about a special work of architecture in the heart of Hanoi. The building appears to have a simple design, but inside is a great history: it is the house-on-stilts of late President Ho Chi Minh, the beloved leader of the Vietnamese.

Each day, dozens of visitors come to see the stilt-house, and on a bright sunny morning I also joined the seemingly endless line of people eager to see it.

The atmosphere here was so relaxing compared to the teeming streets outside. The entrance among the garden was covered with endless green foliage and the cool breeze made me suddenly think of two sentences in a To Huu’s poem: "I take you to once the Uncle’s world / On the path of bouncing white mango flowers and sunlight." [Translated by Tran Viet Hoan]

At the end of the entrance, the stilt-house sat peacefully on the bank of a blue pond. When was the house built? Why was it a stilt-house and not something else? How could the President feel safe living in such a house during numerous American bombardments? The story was revealed completely in a special document I was lucky enough to read during my visit to the Presidential area.

The history of the house began on March 2, 1958, when Uncle Ho accompanied by his personal secretary Vu Ky and some other people came to visit several localities of northern Thai Nguyen province. Their itinerary included seeing houses-on-silts, which reminded the President of his time in the Northern-most Viet Nam base. At that time, the President’s assistants were seeking a suitable house for him.

Since the Vietnamese war of resistance winning in the North in December, 1954, the President came back to Hanoi. However, he refused to reside in the luxurious President Palace.

He once confided, "I have but one desire, one supreme desire – that is to ensure that the country is totally independent, our people are wholly free, and each of our compatriots has food to eat, clothes to wear and a school to go to. As for myself, I would like a small house next to green mountains with blue water to fish and grow vegetables and have nothing to do with fame and wealth."

At the time, the President was living in House 54, which belonged to an electrician of the former Indochina General Governor. The house was covered with some trees and near a pond. However, it was very cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

In order to give a special gift to Uncle Ho on his 68th birthday in 1958, architect Nguyen Van Ninh, one of first eight students to attend the architecture course at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts de l’Indochine, was assigned to design a house-on-stilts in the garden of the Presidential Palace.

Ninh’s blueprint was originally a four-room wooden house and an auxiliary complex.

However, when President Ho Chi Minh first saw it, he abolished the whole auxiliary complex. Also, he wished to have a cement bench surrounding the ground floor to put planks on as seats for his young guests, whom he loved very much.

Simple, yet abundant life: The tranquility and beauty of the President’s house-on-stilts inspires a feeling of peacefulness in visitors.

Thus, the stilt-house construction finished on May 17, 1958 with only three little rooms. Downstairs was where the President met with visitors and other Politburo members; upstairs were his tiny study and bedroom.

Ever since, the house has become the clear reflection of the great man’s daily life who lived in harmony with the surrounding nature. Is simple yet warm, open yet has enough room for privacy and has a casual manner.

Today, visitors to his 11 square metre bedroom can still see a single wooden bed in the corner with one blanket and a fan made of palm leaves. On the table, there was a jar of flowers, a boiled-water bottle and a cotton bonnet, which the President often wore during his visits to different localities. He had a number of books, including ‘Good People, Good Deeds’, which he selected to publish as exemplary lessons for others.

The President moved into the house on a special summer morning. He shook the hands of the people warmly and invited all to take photographs and share a little party with him.

Since that summer, the stilt-house became the permanent home of President Ho after dozens of years of an unsettled life. Although he had many visitors each day, at night the atmosphere became extraordinarily tranquil.

Late one night, when one of his assistants came across the stilt-house, he heard the radio still playing from an open window. Leaning in to switch it off, he realised the President was still awake.

"Could you please leave the radio on," Uncle Ho asked. The assistant then realised that the President lived alone, so he always wanted to hear the human voice.

It was in such night of working late, the President drafted numerous important speeches upstairs, among them was the 15th anniversary of National Day (September 2, 1960). It read, "should the entire nation be united, unanimously determined and persistent in our struggle, our motherland will be reunified in 15 years at the latest." Then he scratched out the phrase "at the latest". This prediction finally proved its value, with liberation coming in 1975.

Although having moved to the new stilt-house, the President often walked as far as half of the lake-around to reach House 54, where he ate all of his meals. On stormy days, he would still be seen walking silently in the rain, with his rolled-up trousers and an umbrella in his hand – this image became familiar to all the assistants in the Presidential area.

Natural splendour

At play: President Ho Chi Minh and the children in the Presidential garden. For him, playing together with children were some of the happiest moments of his life.

Uncle Ho didn’t want to change anything in the natural environment of the surrounding garden during the stilt-house construction, so visitors still have a chance to contemplate immeasurably high trees that are hundreds of years old. Moreover, since he came, the garden was turned into an orchard filled with plants and trees like longan, orange, litchi and grapefruit.

In the green orchard there was also a pond where deer and stags came to drink water. Since the President arrived, the pond was expanded for fish breeding.

Every afternoon, after working, President Ho Chi Minh would sit on the bank feeding his fish mud carp, common carp, silver carp and nile tilapia. On his birthdays the President would send fish to other people in need, and visitors today still see the pond as an example of the President’s warmth and generosity.

Few people know that in the campus of the Presidential Palace’s garden there was also another house where Uncle Ho spent the last days of his life.

In 1967 he visited China, where the Politburo decided to build a bomb-proof house made from concrete to ensure the safety of the President during the American bombardments.

When he returned from China, he refused the house for himself but instead suggested to use it as the meeting place of the Politburo. Since then, the house, dubbed House 67, has witnessed many important meetings that steered the country’s direction.

On August 18, 1969, the President acknowledged the request of his doctors to stop working in the house-on-stilts and moved to House 67 because of his declining health. He kept reading political reports, signing decrees and sending messages of congratulations and badges even from his bed. Those ten days in House 67 were the final days of President Ho Chi Minh’s life. On an autumn day, after he requested a folksong of his heartland and a sip of coconut milk, Uncle Ho passed away. Leaving to the eternal world, Ho Chi Minh still brought with him an endless nostalgia for the South. At that time, the South wasn’t liberated.

President Ho departed from this world 37 years ago, but the three houses, the garden, the fishpond and all the things in the Presidential area still remain as valuable vestiges, illustrating his immortality – a great soul in a simple appearance.

Coming back to the stilt-house in a summer morning, I stood motionless and bowed my head to a great man.

Cuban poet Flex Pieta Rodrighette had shared my thinking at that time, as he once wrote, "he only kept for himself very essential things: a bed, a closet, a table and a bookshelf – just things needed for his work and a little rest – nothing more. President Ho Chi Minh dismisses everything that may hinder him from offering his unconditional service to his people." (VNS)