Tuy Loc Communal House, a national-level relic, Phuc Tho Commune

Tuy Loc Communal House, a national-level relic, Phuc Tho Commune

Tuy Loc Communal House is in Tuy Loc Village (Sao Village), now in Trach My Loc Hamlet, Phuc Tho Commune, Hanoi City. Tuy Loc Communal House is also known by its vernacular name, Sao Communal House. It worships Duc Thanh Tan, the eldest of the three Tan Vien Son Thanh saints. Tan Vien (also called Son Tinh) is the deity who governs the Ba Vi mountain range (Tan Vien Mountain), one of the four immortals of the Vietnamese peopleThroughout history, Duc Thanh Tan Vien has not only been worshipped as the Tutelary God protecting the village but has also been revered by the people as a Fortune God, a supreme tutelary deity, a hero of water control, a cultural hero, and a national hero since the early days of expanding the territory.

According to folk legend, Saint Tan Vien is also called Son Tinh; he married Princess Ngoc Hoa, daughter of Hung Due Vuong (the 18th Hung King). This marriage led to a lifelong feud: the war between Son Tinh and Thuy Tinh. Son Tinh also helped the Hung King fight invaders. He traveled everywhere and taught the people how to make a living, such as teaching them to make fire, teaching them to farm and hold festivals, teaching them to hunt, teaching them to practice martial arts, teaching them to weave silk, teaching them to sing and dance, and in the Tuong Phieu and Tuy Loc areas, Tan Vien Son Thanh taught the people to pull nets and fish. Tuy Loc Communal House is located on a beautiful, high plot of land in the middle of the village, facing due west. The communal house includes a four-pillar gate, the Main Hall, and auxiliary items.

The Main Hall has a single-row structure, with only one large Main Hall. In the past, lush trees and year-round flowers and fruits surrounded it; in front of the communal house the space was airy, and the distant view was unobstructed. Connecting to the communal house pond and stretching west was a vast rice field; not far west of the communal house was the Tich River, originating at the foot of Ba Vi Mountain and winding southward, whose water irrigated the rice fields on both banks, bringing prosperity and happiness to the people of a large region.

The communal house today still retains many architectural features spanning from the Le to the Nguyen dynasties and later. Tuy Loc Main Hall has a structure of three large bays and two wings, four curved roof corners, and a roof covered with mui hai tiles. The roof ridge is decorated in relief with the image two dragons flanking the moon, at both ends of the roof ridge are two kim ornaments holding the roof ridge. Inside the Main Hall, the main load-bearing wooden frame is structured on a plan of four rows of columns; the columns are all made of solid lim wood and rest on round-cut blue stone blocks suited to the column cross-section. The central bay of the Main Hall has a suspended alcove, inside which are placed the dragon throne and memorial tablet of the village tutelary god. This suspended alcove is carved quite elaborately with some relief panels on the exterior: a pair of phoenixes facing the moon and a pair of cranes standing on turtles on both wings, in the carving art of the Le Trung Hung period.

Tuy Loc Communal House currently preserves a number of precious relics, which are messages of history and thereby affirm the value of the communal house to the local people.

To express gratitude for the merits of Duc Thanh Tan, every year the villagers hold a communal house festival on the 14th and 15th days of the first lunar month, with a grand festival every two years. In grand festival years, the ritual team is selected and the list is announced before Lunar New Year. The giap (now hamlets and neighborhood groups) are assigned specific tasks, and villagers join together to clean the village roads and alleys so they are bright and clean. In particular, the traditional festival on the 14th-15th of the first lunar month in Tuy Loc Village in the past also staged a 'Thuy Chien' water battle performance, which was a ritual to commemorate the water battle of Duc Thanh Tan Son Tinh with Thuy Tinh.

According to the elders, the communal house has undergone many repairs. In recent years, with admiration and reverence for the Saint, in order to preserve and promote the relic's value, the people of Tuy Loc Village and fellow villagers far from home have joined together with heart, some contributing money and some labor, to renovate it. In 2020, the communal house received investment for major restoration and embellishment from the state budget. After nearly two years of restoration and embellishment, Tuy Loc Village Communal House was completed and put into use to meet the local people's needs for cultural and spiritual life.

Tuy Loc Communal House was honored to be ranked by the State as a national-level architectural and artistic relic in Decision No. 511/QD-BVHTTDL dated February 13, 2015, of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.