Dương Đình Village Communal House Relic

Dương Đình Communal House belongs to Dương Đình Village, Dương Xá Commune, now Gia Lâm Commune, Hanoi City. The relic is also known by another name, Tam Dương Communal House.

Dương Đình Communal House worships the village tutelary deity Nguyễn Tiêu Giao (also called Tiêu Giao Đại Vương). He was from Nghệ An and lived in the 15th century. During the resistance war against the Ming invaders (1418–1427), he took part in the resistance and achieved many merits, so he was conferred the title Minh Quốc Công. In his old age, he returned to Dương Đình to live. Here, he encouraged the people to actively reclaim land and promote production. When he died, the king granted money to the people of Dương Đình to build a temple to worship him.

Currently, the communal house still preserves 10 royal edicts, including 01 edict dated the 44th year of Cảnh Hưng (1783), 03 edicts from the Quang Trung era, and 06 edicts from the Nguyễn dynasty.

According to the stories of the village elders, the communal house was formerly at the entrance to the village and was moved to its present location in 1917. The communal house was built on a high, spacious, and airy plot of land; in front is a large courtyard paved with Bát Tràng bricks, and outside is the communal house pond. A wall has been built around the relic; in front of the communal house is a temple that local people usually call the nghè (the shrine is on the front left and the pagoda on the right).

The gate is built with four pillars; the two main pillars are tall, their tops decorated in relief with four phoenixes with tails joined together and heads turned in four directions, forming a stylized gourd shape. Below are lantern panels decorated with the four seasons, flowers, and leaves; the bodies of the pillars are decorated with pairs of parallel sentences in Han characters. Connecting the main gate with the two side gates is a wall decorated with flowers, leaves, and the four seasons, adding liveliness to the relic. The two side pillars are lower, their tops decorated with gourd shapes; the lantern panels are left plain without decoration, and the lower parts of the pillars are also decorated in relief with pairs of parallel sentences in Han characters.

From August 2020 to February 2021, the main communal house was restored according to its current scale, form, and position. It is a ding-shaped house with an area of about 245m2, 05 bays and 04 rows of columns, with curved roof corners, including a forecourt and a rear sanctuary, with a traditional truss structure; the frame system includes columns, beams, tie beams, and stacked brackets. The wooden structures are made of lim wood.

The rear sanctuary consists of three bays, built with gable walls closed at the ends, roofed with traditional Vietnamese tiles. The frame is arranged with four truss forms; the two outer trusses are in the chồng rường giá chiêng style, with panel boards above, on which are carved in relief a dragon facing the sun, the dragon in a fierce posture with protruding eyes and upturned blades, interspersed with cloud patterns, dragon-transformed leaves, and flipped leaves; below are patterns of dragon-transformed leaves. The two inner trusses are in the quá giang trốn cột style and are plain without decoration. Besides architectural decorations, decorative panels are also found on the relics of the communal house, such as the palanquin, dragon throne, set of eight treasures, y môn, cửa võng, giá văn, incense table, stele, bell, etc., with relief carvings of the four sacred creatures, four seasons, etc. All are lacquered red and gilded to enhance the solemnity of the relic.

Every year, the people of Dương Đình Village hold the traditional festival on the 10th day of the 8th lunar month.

Dương Đình Communal House was ranked as an architectural and artistic relic by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2009.