TL;DR: Thổ Công (also called Thổ Địa or Tho than) is a deity believed to oversee the land and foundations where a family lives, playing a distinct and somewhat more solemn role than the Southern-style Ông Địa and Thần Tài. In traditional Northern Vietnamese belief, Thổ Công is often worshipped together with Thổ Địa and Thổ Kỳ as the trio "Dinh phuc Tao quan," or on a shared altar with the ancestors, serving as the tutelary deity governing all fortunes and misfortunes within the family's residential land. The spirit tablet usually bears all three deities' titles; Thổ Công's hat, robe and boots take a new color each year according to the five elements and are burned on the day of Tết Táo quan (Toan Ánh, 2001; Bùi Xuân Mỹ, 2001).
Who is Thổ Công?
In the traditional folk beliefs of the Vietnamese people, especially widespread in the plains and midland areas of the North, Thổ Công (also called Thổ thần, or Thổ Địa in some regions) is the deity believed to govern the plot of land and the house foundation where a family resides. Folk belief holds that "land has its Thổ Công, the river has its Hà Bá": every piece of land, large or small, has a local deity watching over it, and a family living on any piece of land should worship and honour the Thổ Công of that land in order to be protected and to avoid transgressing taboos related to the land (such as digging, or building in the wrong direction or at the wrong time).
Thổ Công does not only watch over the land in the physical sense; he is also regarded as the deity who governs all matters of fortune and misfortune, great and small, within the household. From business and health to important ceremonies such as weddings, funerals, construction and động thổ (groundbreaking), the family must "report" and ask Thổ Công's permission before proceeding. This is a folk conception handed down by tradition, not something that has been verified.
Table showing the roles of the three deities in the Định Phúc Táo Quân group according to folk belief in the North.
| Deity | Domain of guardianship |
|---|---|
| Thổ Công | kitchen matters |
| Thổ Địa | the house, garden and residential land |
| Thổ Kỳ | the family's markets, money and goods |
Who are the three deities Thổ Công, Thổ Địa and Thổ Kỳ?
According to folk belief in the North, and especially as recorded in many folk culture documents, Thổ Công is actually one of three deities belonging to the "Định Phúc Táo Quân" group, which comprises:
- Thổ Công: governs kitchen matters (closely related to, and sometimes partly identified with, Táo Quân in some variant versions).
- Thổ Địa: governs the house, garden and residential land.
- Thổ Kỳ: governs the family's markets, money and goods.
These three are popularly known together as the "Ba vị Táo Quân" or "Định Phúc Táo Quân"; together they observe and record all the good and bad deeds of the household throughout the year in order to report them to the Jade Emperor. The division of roles and the names may differ slightly depending on the document and region, but the common thread is the conception of a system of local spirits that comprehensively oversees family life and is closely tied to land and home.
On the names of the three deities, the books of Toan Ánh (2001) and Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001) do not entirely agree. Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001) records the joint tablet of the three with three titles: "Bản gia Đông trù Tư mệnh Táo phủ Thần quân", "Bản gia Thổ địa Long mạch Tôn thần" and "Bản gia Ngũ phương Ngũ thổ Phúc đức Chính thần". Toan Ánh (2001) also records these three titles, but the character recognition from the scanned images is faulty, so the clear reading of Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001) is followed here. As for the names of the three in this section (Thổ Công, Thổ Địa, Thổ Kỳ), these are the common folk designations; when explaining the tablet, the books of Toan Ánh (2001) and Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001) attach the three titles above to three different domains of guardianship, so readers may encounter both ways of naming in different books.
How is Thổ Công distinguished from Thần Tài?
One point that easily causes confusion is the difference between Thổ Công/Thổ Địa (the traditional land deity) and the pair of ceramic figurines "Ông Địa, Thần Tài" common in shops, especially in the South (already presented in a separate article). In essence, Thổ Công in Northern belief has a more solemn role, closely tied to ancestor worship and the main altar of the house, focused on the function of protecting land and home in general, and not leaning entirely toward the "praying for wealth" meaning of the Thần Tài figure popular in the South. In other words, Thổ Công is the patron deity of the plot of land and the house, while Thần Tài (in the Southern motif) is the deity specifically in charge of money and trade.
What is the position and arrangement of the Thổ Công altar?
Unlike the Ông Địa and Thần Tài altar placed close to the ground, the Thổ Công altar in Northern tradition is usually placed in a dignified position in the house. In many places he is worshipped together on the ancestor altar (usually in the central bay, possibly with a separate tablet or incense bowl for Thổ Công placed beside the ancestor incense bowl), or a small separate altar or shrine is set up outside in the yard or a corner of the garden, called the "bàn thờ ông Thiên" or an open-air Thổ Địa shrine in some regions. Offerings to Thổ Công are usually simple and plain: incense, flowers, betel and areca, water, fruit; on occasions such as Tết, death anniversaries, động thổ and nhập trạch (moving into a new home), the offerings are more elaborate and include savoury dishes, together with a văn khấn (prayer text) asking permission and reporting.
Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001) records that the Thổ Công altar is usually placed in a side bay; in the case of a house without an ancestor altar (such as the house of a secondary branch of the family), the Thổ Công altar is placed in the central bay. This describes customs in the North and should not be extrapolated to other regions when the book does not say so.
What do the động thổ and nhập trạch rites involve?
The worship of Thổ Công plays a particularly important role in rites connected with land and construction: the động thổ ceremony (asking Thổ Công's permission before breaking ground to dig foundations or build a house) and the nhập trạch ceremony (asking permission and reporting when moving into a new home) are both common rituals maintained by many Vietnamese families to this day, including in modern urban areas. Folk belief holds that "asking permission" of Thổ Công before touching the land is a way of showing respect for the local spirits, helping construction and moving go smoothly and avoiding misfortune.
What is the cultural significance of Thổ Công worship?
The worship of Thổ Công and Thổ Địa reflects the deep bond between the Vietnamese people and the land, the source of life in a wet-rice agricultural civilisation. It is also a concrete expression of the local animist belief that every piece of land has its own patron spirit who must be respected, existing alongside and complementing other beliefs such as ancestor worship and the worship of the village Thành Hoàng, forming a multi-layered system of folk belief closely bound to the living space of every Vietnamese family.
What titles are written on the Thổ Công tablet?
The Thổ Công tablet usually bears all three titles of the three deities worshipped together, not just one. According to Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001), these three titles are "Bản gia Đông trù Tư mệnh Táo phủ Thần quân", "Bản gia Thổ địa Long mạch Tôn thần" and "Bản gia Ngũ phương Ngũ thổ Phúc đức Chính thần"; the words "Bản gia" are placed first because each household has its own Thổ Công. Toan Ánh (2001) also records similar three titles, but the character recognition from the scanned images is faulty in many characters, so the clear reading of Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001) is followed here.
Also according to Bùi Xuân Mỹ (2001), the old tablet is burned and replaced with a new one on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the day of the Táo quân ceremony; on this occasion people prepare offerings to ông Công and then replace the tablet. This is a custom recorded in the book, not a mandatory rule for every family.
What is special about the Thổ Công hat?
The Thổ Công hat may be a set of three, comprising two men's hats and one woman's hat, or just one men's hat. According to Toan Ánh (2001), the men's hats have two tall winged flaps, while the women's hat does not have these two flaps; worshipping three hats means providing for all three deities, while worshipping only one means that single hat is the Thổ Công hat. On the paper pedestal, people place the set of hats or the single hat, each hat accompanied by a robe and a pair of boots fixed to the paper pedestal; usually beneath each hat are placed one hundred ingots of gold.
The Thổ Công hat, robe and boots change colour each year, following the five elements. Toan Ánh (2001) records: in a Kim year the hat is yellow, in a Mộc year white, in a Thủy year blue, in a Hỏa year red, and in a Thổ year black. This is the hat colour convention exactly as the book records it; the book does not explain why these colours deviate from the five-element colour table commonly found in other documents, so they are kept as recorded here, not corrected to match. As with the tablet, each year the old hats are burned on the day of the Tết Táo quân and replaced with another set to be worshipped until the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month of the following year (Toan Ánh, 2001).
On which days is Thổ Công worshipped?
According to Toan Ánh (2001), people worship Thổ Công on death anniversaries, Tết and the sóc vọng days. On sóc vọng days (the first and the fifteenth of the lunar month), families usually choose a vegetarian offering with gold and silver paper, betel and water, and flowers and fruit; whether to make a vegetarian or a savoury offering depends on each household head.. Some households make savoury offerings too, adding wine, glutinous rice, chicken or a leg of pork. This describes customs in the North and should not be extrapolated to other regions when the book does not say so.
Overview article on the topic: What does Vietnamese folk belief include?
