From frontier military post to Hong Ngu district-level town

Abstract

Hong Ngu Town is currently the only town of Dong Thap Province. Place name Hung Ngu dates back from early times and was officially recorded in many of Nguyen Dysnasty’s historical records. The place name Hong Ngu originated from Hung Ngu which was the name of the Nguyen Lords’ army troup assigned to guard the border and to collect taxes. The place where the Nguyen Lords’s army troup stationed was named Bao Hung Ngu. The land was garrisoned by the army troup of the same name. Through long-time contact, the land’s name was set as Hung Ngu. For convenience of sound pronunciation, “hung” was pronounced a little bit inclined to “hong”; thereby, “hung ngu” to “hong ngu”. The place name Hung Ngu (now called Hong Ngu) may have been formed in the late 18th Century or the early 19th Century. Bao Hung Ngu troup originally stationed at Rach Doc Vang rivulet mouth (at Thanh Binh rural district), then moved to the lower shore of Hiep An river, now is the Mekong resort of Dong Thap Tourist Company. Over 200 years, Hong Ngu constantly developed. It took 85 years sharp for the frontier military post in the Nguyen Lords’ times to become an administrative unit at rural district level (1029); now it has been the district-level town of the province for 5 years (2009-2014). The paper points out the continuity of the formation and development process as mentioned above. Hong Ngu continues to rise to become an urban area and the clue of an economic focal point of the North of Dong Thap Province, and towards the near future, a city in the sea area.