TRUNG KINH COMMUNAL HOUSE

Trung Kinh Communal House is located in Cho Kham Thien alley, Trung Phung ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi city. In the middle of 19th Century, this site belonged to My Duc village, Tien Nghiem sub-district, Tho Xuong district, Hoai Duc sub-province, Hanoi province.

It is not clear until now exactly when the vestige was built. According to surveying results, remaining architectural traces and some relics, it can be supposed that the Communal House started to be built in middle of 19th Century for worshiping the Tutelary God of the village, who was Royal physician Nguyen Chinh Cong. Through the time, the Communal House was restored many times in 20th Century, with the latest was in 2011.

Current architectural work items of the vestige include the entrance gate, Front Hall, Back Palace.

The entrance gate is built in simple style with bricks; on the gate, there are three characters saying “Trung Kinh Communal House”. Getting inside, after a narrow yard covered with Bat Trang bricks, we see the Front Hall and the Back Palace.

The Front Hall consists of 3 compartment, with close brick walls and extending frames at the sides, roof covered with traditional tiles. At the middle of the roof top centerline, there are a pair of embarked dragons flanking to the sun; at the end of each roof side, there is an embarked stylized “Kim” (a dragon-like supernatural creature) head. The front doors of the compartments are in form of “Railings in upper, plate in lower”, with the upper parts being baluster to make the indoor airy and bright with natural light; the lower part being board inscribed with geometric patterns and sealed characters. The floor is covered with Bat Trang bricks. In front of the Communal House, there is a partition wall decorated with ornamental ancient scrolled paper book, flanking dragon, dancing phoenix and cloud which are quite beautiful.

The frame set of the Front Hall consists of 4 wooden side frames in form of “Gong hanging frame in upper and sculptured wooden boards in lower” combined with side-boards, sitting on 4 column rows. The frames, boards, side-boards are ornamented with vignettes of leaves, clouds, sealed characters, creating the light and flowing feeling for the architectural works. In the veranda, there are two marble columns inscribed with swirling cloud, daisy, dragon in cloud, rosette design. On the two sides of the veranda, there are statues of Vu Dinh – Thien At (two military generals) guarding the Saint House.

In the middle compartment, there is a wooden altar carved with traditional patterns. Above it, there hanged a horizontal lacquered board and a door painting in fresco carved with figure of dragons flanking to the sun, old daisy, and old apricot in artistic style of Nguyen Dynasty. On two sides of the altar, there are parallel sentences in Chinese characters.

The Back Palace consist of two in-line compartments in the layout of Dinh (丁) character. The frame set consists of 3 side-frames in form of “Two side columns, short middle column sitting on traverse beam”. The outer compartment has a Horizontal lacquered board saying “Straightforward, transparent and fair”; the inner compartment has a wooden holy cubicle for worshiping with Throne-Ancestral tablet of the Tutelary God of the village inside.

Trung Kinh Communal House now preserves some valuable relics, reflecting the existence of the vestige. Outstanding relics include: 02 Horizontal lacquered boards, 02 sets of door paintings in fresco; 02 pairs of parallel sentences; 03 wooden altars; 01 set of holy cubicle for worshiping, 01 set of Throne-Ancestral tablet, 01 pairs of wooden cranes in artistic style of 19th-20th Centuries.

Lying in the area of the old Directorate of ImperialObservatory, Trung Kinh communal house together with To Tien, Kham Duc, Thai Kieu, Nam Mac communal houses and Trung Phung temple-communal house create a religious architectural system with traditional character of the Viet people. The presence of the Communal House is an evidence recording the variations of some wards/villages in this area in middle of 19th Century in Thang Long – Hanoi land.