TRUNG TA COMMUAL HOUSE

Trung Ta Communal House is located at No. 264 Kham Thien Street, Tho Quan Ward, Dong Da District, Hanoi City.

Trung Ta Communal House worships Tran Hung Dao (1232 - 1300), a royal member of Dai Viet under the Tran dynasty. He was a prominent politician and military officer in the thirteenth century, who led the army to defeat two invasions of theYuan – the Mongolia in 1285 and 1288. Being not only a military genius, Tran Hung Dao is also a great personality that leaves the eternal good fame for many generations. When the country was in danger, he was ready to place his private enmity aside to take care of the country. Despite his extraordinary feat, his loyalty is the thing that makes the people admired. He is a symbol of loyalty, dedication to the nation, is the unrivaled mettle of a noble man. Before his death, he did not forget to remind the Tran kings: "Considering the people as the root” for the long career of the country. His famous "The Exhortation to the Military Generals” is still well-known until today. After his death, the King conferred the title of Grand Prince Hung Dao. People built temples to worship him everywhere in all parts of the country. Tran Hung Dao became the tutelary god in the village with the desire to protect and give peace and happiness for all people.

Currently, there is no specific documentation recording the construction period of the relic. According to the words of the elderly and local folk legends, the communal house was built early in the ancient land of the ancient Thang Long citadel. Then the communal house was restored in the thirteenth Tu Duc year (1860), the first Thanh Thai year (1889), and the third Bao Dai year (1928). In 1946, the communal house was burned by the French. After gaining the peace for the country, the people rebuilt the communal house to worship the Tutelary God.

On the night of December 26, 1972, the US army dropped B52 bombs to flatten Kham Thien, Trung Ta Communal House was destroyed. The current architecture of the communal house is the result marking the restoration of the late 20th century

Legend has it that once in the area in front of the communal house – temple, there was a large lake with the wide of up to 3 hectares and an ancient weeping fig tree next to the lake. From the lake to the yard of the communal house, there was a flower-tub, then a screen embossed with the words "Happiness and Longevity” and a rockery reservoir. Next to the lake, there was a crossing bridge for the village people to get water for washing. Around the lake and in front of the communal house – temple, there were many flowers and fruit trees, such as orchids, custard-apple and old banyan trees. The architectural works of this area and the old landscape are no longer existed, at present, the relic has been narrowed down by the adjacent civil works.

From outside Kham Thien street to the house No. 264, there is a small gate built with brick arches, above was decorated with traditional patterns and board with 4 big Chinese words “Văn Chương linh từ”; following the small alley to the second gate, the architecture is also a form of arches, overlapped matchboxes with two storeys and 8 roofs of traditional tiles. The roof toop is covered with the shape of a fire sun, separating the upper and lower roofs with the word "Trung Ta Communal House-Temple”, and below this word is the curved letter titled “Van Chuong Village” leading to the brick road for about a few meters to the yard.

The Communal House is built in the southwest direction, using modern materials with a small brick yard in the front and an old banyan tree spreading the shade to the yard. In the front, there are two pillars, the pillar tops are decorated with the patterns of young lions and the eaves are decorated with the patterns of dragon looking at the sun and clouds, leaves.

The current architecture of Trung Ta Communal House is quite modest in the style "丁"-shaped architecture including the Front Hall and the Harem.

The Front Hall consists of 3 compartments with concrete roof. This is the place to worship President Ho Chi Minh.

The Harem consists of 2 vertical compartments, built of two storeys. The first storey has concrete roof and the second storey has traditional tile roof. The structure is made of wooden beams following the style of “Beams crossing columns”. This is the place to worship Lord Tran Hung Dao. The statue of Tran Hung Dao is placed in the throne at the most solemn position. The statue is over 1m high, wearing the mandarin’s clothes with mandarin square and crown. The statue has square face, long ears and strong look. The statue has the dating from early 20th century but the carving features conformed to the carving art of traditional statues, therefore it has a high art value. Below are the statues of his two daughters and two mandarins. Above these apartments hang two letter boards named “Grand Prince Hung Dao” and “Trấn Nam Thiên”.

Experiencing many ups and downs of history, Trung Ta Communal House still preserves a number of precious objects with historical - cultural values, which are 3 stone steles created in the 13th Tu Duc year (1860), the first Thanh Thai year (1889), the 3rd Bao Dai year (1928), the statue of Duc Thanh Tran and his servants and many horizontal lacquered boards, parallel sentences, door painting in fresco which are red-lacquered and trimmed with gold. These objects mainly have art style of 19th – 20th centuries.

During the resistance war against the French colonialists, Trung Ta communal house was also one of the places where activities and propagation of the Vietnamese alphabet were carried out, where documents and weapons were stored and was an ambulance station of the Inner-City Self-Defense Force.

Although the communal house can no longer maintain the first appearance, the presence of the relic has proved the indispensable need to worship the Imperial Citadel of the local villagers and approved the existence of belief form of communal house in the village community culture of the Vietnamese people. The communal house is a familiar symbol, the pride of every villagers of Trung Ta village in the past and present.

Trung Ta communal house was classified as a national relic in 1993.