UNG THIEN COMMUNAL HOUSE

Ung Thien Communal House, also called as Lang Ha Communal House, is located in Lang Ha ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi city. In the past, this land area belonged to An Lang communal, Quang Duc district, Phung Thien sub-district in the suburb of Thang Long capital and was well-known for vegetable cultivation as mentioned in an ancient folk-song of Hanoi: “watermelon from La, basil from Lang, spring-roll from Bang, soy sauce from Ban”.

According to folk legend, Ung Thien Communal House originated as a temple built under the order of King Ly Thanh Tong to commemorate the goddess Nguyên Quân Hau Tho for her merits of supporting the king in the quell against the Champa in 1069. Later, she turned up to help Tran Anh Tong by creating the rain to cease the drought and was bestowed with the title “Ứng Thiên Hậu Thổ Phu Nhân”.

According to the “Viet Dien U Linh” book (Collection of Stories on the Shady and Spiritual World of the Viet Realm), Nguyen Quan was the goddess of the ancient Vietnam. When King Ly Thanh Tong quelled the Champa enemy and came to the sea port, the wind suddenly blown very hard and the wave raised up like mountain chains; the boats of the King could not move on and had to anchor at that beach. That night, the king dreamed that a charming young lady in white coat and pink trousers stepped onto the imperial boat and said: I am the spirit of Vietnam country and have been perching onto the tree for a long time; on the occasion that the king brings the troops to quell the enemy, I am volunteer to follow the king to achieve a feat. Then she vanished. Being afraid, the king summoned the mandarins and the elders to come and tell them about his dream. The Sangharaja named Hue Sinh addressed in a respectful way that: His Majesty dreamed that the goddess said she perched onto a tree, the we can found her. Then the trusted people are ordered to seek all the hills on the shore and found a wooden log in form of a holy statue which is similar to the person that the king had seen in the dream. The king ordered to place her in the imperial boat, burn incenses for worshiping and nominated her as Hau Tho Phu Nhan. Just in a moment, the sea became still, the wind stopped blowing and the boats moved on without obstacles. When the boats travelled by the same place on their way back from the battle with the Champa, the King granted the edict to build the temple for worshiping the goddess. Suddenly, the waves raised up hardly like before. Hue Sinh reported that: The goddess did not satisfy so she hided far away from the shore; she desired to go to the capital. Then the sea became still and the wind stopped blowing. Back to the capital, the king ordered to build a temple in An Lang village to worship her. The temple was very miraculously efficacious.

In the reign of Tran Anh Tong, there was a serious drought. The king ordered to build a tower to worship for the rain. The goddess told the king in his dream that: Câu Mang Thần Quân in my temple can create the rain. Waking up, the king ordered Hữu Ty mandarin to perform the worshiping ceremony; as expected, there was heavy rain in a large area. The king bestowed her with the title Ung Thien Hau Tho Phu Nhan; Cau Mang Than Quan was a junior under her and took care of the spring rain; therefore, it was necessary to celebrate worshiping ceremony in spring and to bring earth buffalos to place in the temple.

Through various dynasties, the goddess was granted with conferring edicts. The current parallel sentences in the communal house presented her merits:

Trợ Lý bình Chiêm thiên cổ tích

Phù Trần bái vũ vạn dân an

(meaning:

Supporting the King Ly to fight against the Champa enemy, making a legend

Supporting the King Tran to create the rain, getting the people off the worry)

Every year, in the spring and autumn (from 6th to 8th March of lunar calendar and 26th September of lunar calendar), the festival of Ung Thien communal house is celebrated, attracts crowded people and visitors.

Besides Nguyen Quan Hau Tho Goddess, Ung Thien communal house is also the place for worshiping Cao Sơn Dai Vuong, Linh Lang Dai Duong, Vinh Gia Princess and Tu Luong Ton Than.

Ung Thien Communal House is built in Southwest direction, heading to To Lich river. The work items of the communal house are arranged in the “Cong” character (工) layout. The first item is the entrance gate of green marble in form of two storeys, two roofs with one overlaying the other and 8 roof sides altogether, ornamented with patterns of four supernatural creatures, four seasons, sealed characters, leaves, etc. creating the majestic atmosphere for the architecture.

The Main Hall consists of 5 main compartments and two side compartments, with close brick walls and extending frames at the sides, roof covered with traditional tiles; the front doors of the three middle compartments are in form of “Railings in upper, plate in lower”; the two side compartments have windows with lattice of “Tho” () character, which makes the inside airy. The frame set consists of 6 wooden side frames linked in form of “Overlaid beams in upper and diagonal beam in lower”, ornamented with patterns of leaves, clouds in artistic style of Nguyen Dynasty.

The small Front worshiping house is in square shape, in form of two storeys, two roofs with one overlaying the other and 8 roof sides altogether, the roof corners ornamented with curving sabre tips patterns. Inside, there is a big altar; above the alter is a horizontal lacquered board with characters “Ứng Thiên hiển thánh” and a door painting in fresco of dragons flanking to the sun, turtle, birds, four seasons in artistic style of Nguyen Dynasty. On the two sides of the small Front worshiping house, there are the Left house – Right house (houses for scholar and military mandarins), each of them consists of 3 compartments and is built of brick in simple form of “traverse beams sitting on brick walls”.

The Back Palace consists of 3 compartments; the wooden frames which support the roof are in form of “Overlaid beams and Gong hanging frame in upper and diagonal beam in lower”. On the right hand side, close to the back wall is a stele which is written with names of those who were nominated as the Hậu thần (a title for those who had great merits in the village). In the most backward and solemn area, there placed the statue of the Nguyên Quân Hậu Thổ Goddess and her two assistants. The statue is placed in a big worshiping cubicle and has the same size as an actual person, with kind-hearted expression, similar to the Mother Goddess statue sculpture style in 19th Century.

Ung Thien Communal House still preserves many precious relics which have high historical, cultural, artistic values, such as the Worshiping cubicle, Altar, set of eight ornamental weapons, horizontal lacquered board, parallel sentences, door paintings in fresco, etc. which are dated to the Nguyen Dynasty. Especially, the set of literature materials including: 01 book of Goddess origin, 15 edicts of conferring dated from Restored Le Dynasty, Tay Son Dynasty to Nguyen Dynasty, the bronze bell, the stone stele, etc. are precious materials which help to study and research about the formation, development of the vestige as well as the historical and cultural traditions of the locality throughout the history.

With those notable values, Ung Thien Communal House was classified as National artistic architectural vestige in 1992.