Tho Quan Communal House

Tho Quan communal house is located at no. 133, Tho Quan alley, Tho Quan ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi city. Tho Quan is the combined name between Quan Tho village of Huu Nghiem sub-district, Tho Xuong district and Quan Tram village of Ha sub-district, Vinh Thuan district in 19th century.

Tho Quan communal house is the place for worshiping 3 brothers of Dao family, named Hien Huu, Phuong Dung and Quy Minh, who originated from Thanh Hoa and migrated to Tho Quan village. According to stories of the gods, the mother of the 3 brothers dreamed that she was given 3 peaches to eat by the Fairy; after that, she was pregnant and delivered 3 children and named them with surname of Dao (meaning peach). In 40 A.D., when the Trung Sisters rose up against the invading Eastern Han dynasty, the three brothers enrolled soldiers and followed the Trung Sisters. The current traces in Tho Quan nowadays are some names of ancient places such as Ong Lenh, Bai Tran, Ho Don, etc. which, according to folk legend, were the places where the insurgent troop of Dao brothers gave the order to dispatch the troops, establish the bases and hold military exercises.

After that, the three brothers went to Kinh Bac to enroll more soldiers and collaborated with generals of the Trung Sisters in fighting against troop under Sū Dìng. In the year 43, Ma Yuan brought the army to our country. Failing to defend against the enemy, the Sisters jumped into the Hat river to maintain their sense of purpose and uprightness. The three brothers of Dao family continued to build the fortifications to resist against the enemy until the last minutes. In the communal house nowadays, there is a pair of parallel sentences to praise their career:

Nhất thi khảng khái anh hùng lệ
Bách chiến quan hà cố quốc tâm

Meaning:

A poem of bravery, the heroes cry
A hundred of battles, the river engrave on its heart

Through different dynasties, the gods all appeared and supported for the peaceful country and people, and were bestowed with the title “The First Good Genius”; every year, the village people organize ceremony to worship on the birthday of the first and second brothers on 12th February (lunar calendar) and the third brother on 15th July (lunar calendar).

According to the elders and folk legend in the locality, Tho Quan communal house started to be built very early in the ancient land area of the Thang Long capital. The stele built in Giap Ngo year of Thanh Thai reign (1894) which is still remained in the house says that: “… Tho Quan is the place for worshiping the three First Good Geniuses… started to be built in Giap Ngo year of Thanh Thai reign (1894), with one communal house, one pedestal, covered with tiles; the house was completed after one month. This building work was a great activity, wasn’t it? ...”

The stele dated to At Mui year of Thanh Thai reign (1895) mentioned the restoration and told the merits of the chairmen who hired workers to repair the communal houses: “This building work was a great activity, wasn’t it? Everyone said that our hometown has been granted with the favor of the country, with the good virtue of the Gods, which made the career of literature and military become more and more renowned, the career more and more developed; this helps to know that the spacious scale, beautiful and new landscape all originated from the today foundation, didn’t it…”

However, in the days when the whole country was in the resistance war against the French in 1946, the French enemy burned and destroyed Tho Quan communal house. When the country gained the peace, the people contributed their efforts in restoring the communal house on its original location. The current architecture and scale are resulted from the last restoration in the end of 20th century.

Tho Quan communal house lies deep in the Tho Quan alley with high density of residents. The items include Entrance gate, Main Hall, Back Palace in layout of "Đinh" (丁) character.

The Entrance gate is built with bricks in traditional formation. After the entrance, there is a quite large yard paved with Bat Trang bricks. In the yard, there are some ornamental trees to create the landscape and shade for the vestige. Especially, right in front of the door of the communal house, there is a century-old banyan tree with luxuriant leaf canopy giving shade to a large area of the yard and creating a quiet landscape within a crowded quarter.

The Main Hall consists of 5 compartments with close brick walls and extending frames at the sides, roof covered with traditional tiles; at the middle of the roof centerline, there embarked a pair of dragons flanking to the sun. The three middle compartment have entrance doors; the side compartments have windows to make the inside airy. The inside frameset is built of pseudo-wood concrete, linked in form of “Two side columns, short middle column sitting on traverse beam”.

The Back Palace is a longitudinal house with concrete roof covered with tiles. The Back Palace is in behind of the Main Hall, forming the general layout of "Đinh" (丁) character. At the highest and most backward area, there are 3 sets of Worshiping throne – Ancestral tablet of the three Tutelary Gods of the village and many worshiping objects.

Despites various historical variations, Tho Quan communal house still preserves quite many precious relics with historical, cultural and artistic values; notable of which are 01 book of Stories of the Gods, 02 edicts of conferring, 03 stone steles, 03 sets of Worshiping throne – Ancestral tablet and many worshiping objects such as worshiping cubicle, set of eight weapons for ornament, literature board, bronze thurible, horizontal lacquered board, parallel sentences, door painting in fresco, etc. which were created in a skillful and meticulous manner with artistic style of 19th – 20th centuries.

In the resistance war against the French colonists, the communal house was the place for protecting revolution officers who work in the capital, the place for forming the Interim Revolution Committee (August 1945), the place for voting the First National Assembly representatives after the success of the August revolution.

Tho Quan communal house has been going with the landscape and people in this area. The house is the center for cultural activities of the village community, the place for educating the people to the good and kind things in the life.

The communal house was classified as National vestige in 1993.