An Ha Communal House

An Ha Communal House is located in An Ha Village, An Khanh Commune, Hanoi City (the old address was in An Thuong Commune, Hoai Duc District, Ha Tay Province). An Ha Communal House originally jointly worshipped a deity from the Thuc An Duong Vuong period, Lady Bao (surname Do, full name Do Thi Bao).

An Ha Communal House was built in the southwest of the village, right next to the village pagoda. An Ha Quan was built in the middle of the village, right next to the main road in the village. From Hanoi capital, the old Ha Dong town, along National Highway 72 - Ha Dong - Quoc Oai, travel about 9 km, near Thanh Quang dike, turn right about 500-600 m to reach An Ha Communal House. From the communal house to the quan along the village road is only a few hundred meters.

According to the original Han-character genealogy preserved at the site together with the royal edicts, An Ha Communal House worships a deity associated with the Thuc An Duong Vuong period. The legend is as follows: “During the reign of King Thuc An Duong Vuong, there was a man of the Do family named Thiem. He had two wives, the first from the Kim family and the second from the Chu family. They lived in a very harmonious and prosperous family, generation after generation cultivating virtue and doing good. On the 10th day of the first lunar month in the Giap Ty year, the first wife, of the Kim family, dreamed of a white snake coiling around a pink cloud, which then bloomed into three white lotuses, and she reached out to receive them. More than a year later, on the 12th day of the third lunar month in the At Suu year, she went into labor. The next day, she gave birth to a sac containing three daughters. The couple named the three girls A, Hai, and the third daughter Bao”.

The genealogy continues: “When the country was in danger, the Qin dynasty in the north planned to send troops to invade our country. King Thuc - An Duong Vuong then appointed former officials and promptly invited talented strategists to discuss fighting the enemy and saving the country. The king established five armies. Lady Bao recruited 300 strong soldiers and led them to present herself to the king, asking to go suppress the enemy. She was conferred the title Princess “Huyen Vu Phong Tu” - specializing in commanding infantry. She marched through the Linh Nam region and fought the enemy general Nham Hieu. The two sides fought fiercely. The enemy was heavily defeated and fled. King Thuc was overjoyed and held a banquet with music to reward the troops and celebrate the great victory. The king rewarded the soldiers and conferred titles on her.

Several years later, on the 10th day of the seventh lunar month, the sky and earth suddenly darkened, strong winds and heavy rain arose, thunder and lightning broke out, rivers and waters stretched vast, and aquatic creatures such as soft-shell turtles, water serpents, shrimp, and fish were all swept up in the swirling waters. Lady Bao and a number of her fellow soldiers, without illness, suddenly disappeared.

Three years later, on the full moon of the first lunar month, King Thuc held a court session to discuss and determine the merits of the generals and soldiers. The king decreed that the areas of Ngu Cau, An Ha, and Dao Nguyen jointly worship the famous generals. Later, Thuong Thon worshipped the first meritorious official, whose taboo name was Ngu. Trung Thon - that is, Ngu Cau Village - worshipped the second meritorious official, whose taboo name was Tham. Ha Thon, that is, An Ha Village, worshipped the third meritorious official, who was conferred by King Thuc - An Duong Vuong as the sixth princess, whose taboo name was Bao. Princess Bao’s birthday was the 13th day of the third lunar month. Her transformation day was the 10th day of the seventh lunar month.

According to Vietnamese history: “Before the resistance war against Qin, the Tay Au tribal alliance of Thuc Phan had many close relations with the Van Lang state of Hung Vuong. When advancing into our country, the Qin army first encroached upon the residence area of the Tay Au people. Thuc Phan, as leader of the Tay Au tribal alliance, naturally had to organize and direct the resistance war against Qin. The deeper the Qin army advanced south, the more fiercely it encountered resistance from the Tay Au and Lac Viet people. The Vietnamese leaders, due to the demands of the struggle, exalted Thuc Phan as the supreme commander”.

“The struggle lasting 5–6 years tightened the existing solidarity and close ties between the Tay Au and Lac Viet peoples. The glorious victory of the resistance further consolidated and enhanced Thuc Phan’s prestige not only among the Tay Au but also among the Lac Viet”.

The genealogy of An Ha Village Communal House records an event in which the tutelary deity, a woman of the Do family whose taboo name was Bao, recruited 300 soldiers to pay homage to Thuc Phan, and Thuc Phan accepted them and conferred on her the title of princess commanding infantry against Qin; this is a memory consistent with historical thinking in the third century BC.” - (According to Vietnamese History, Volume I - Social Sciences Publishing House, Hanoi 1993, p. 188).

An Ha Communal House is an architectural-religious relic. According to some Han-character documents recorded in the thirteenth year of Bao Dai - Mau Dan ([unreadable]) currently preserved at the communal house, in the past the villagers of the commune shared Dun Communal House (Hoi Well, Ngu Cau). When the population developed into three village administrative areas, two more communal houses were built, probably in the late Le and early Nguyen periods.

An Ha Communal House is also called Ha Thon and was built in the Qian-Kun orientation - that is, northeast-southwest. The communal house was built in the Dinh (T) character layout, including the bai duong hall and the rear sanctuary.

In addition to the main architectural items mentioned above, An Ha Communal House also has two rows of left and right corridors, a system of pillars, enclosing walls, and a gate.

Overall, An Ha Communal House is a large-scale architectural work with five bays of the great hall, three bays of the central hall, and three bays of the rear sanctuary, all built of ironwood. This is a communal house that remains quite intact, from the roof ridge, corner spurs, and panel-door system to the balustrades and interior furnishings, including horizontal plaques, couplets, dragon thrones, spirit tablets, and ritual objects. Through many years, climates, and wars, the present existence of An Ha Communal House is rare.

Entering the communal house, before its gate there is a system of pillars, enclosing walls, and a gate built elaborately. Across a wide brick-paved courtyard is the great hall. The great hall of An Ha Communal House is built on a high three-level foundation with square-built edges. From the outside, on the roof ridge are reliefs of “Two dragons adoring the moon”; the kìm, sô, and corner spurs all remain intact. In particular, the two gable ends still retain two “spider navel” areas with reliefs of phoenix figures. In the popular mind, perhaps the ancients believed that the village tutelary deity was originally a goddess, so they molded the phoenix image - a symbol of nobility and boundless power. The communal house roof is covered with old ri tiles. The ironwood panel-door system remains intact across all five bays, and beneath the panel-door bases, rows of balustrades are also fully preserved.

The great hall of the communal house is 21.30 m long and 10.03 m wide. The floor of the great hall is lowered in the middle, called the boat belly, while the two sides are higher than the central bay - similar to the communal house bench style. The main columns and military columns are quite large. The average diameter of the main columns is 0.40 m and of the military columns 0.34 m, all of ironwood. The architectural structure of the bai duong hall follows the form of four rows of wooden feet with a stacked-beam roof truss. This is an architectural work from the Nguyen period, with traces of the Le period still seen in the corner braces and a few military columns (small in size, originally main columns of the old structure). As for the interior of the communal house, there are some Le-period artifacts such as large-character plaques and incense tables; in addition, the architecture is complete and sturdy; noteworthy is the carving. The communal house still preserves four large corbels carved in relief on both sides.

The central bay of the great hall concentrates highly skilled carving. The right corbel is carved with the motif “Ngu long hi thuy” (fish and dragon playing in water). At the center of the corbel is a large dragon carved in relief by the ancients, relaxing among clouds. Below the dragon’s mouth, a carp is surging upward. Beside the large dragon, the ancients carved in relief a group of small dragons, long ma, and phoenixes accompanying the scene of a carp transforming into a dragon. The corbel is also embellished with flowers, leaves, and clusters of pomegranates - a symbol of happiness. Opposite, the left corbel is also carved with the motif “Ngu long hi thuy”. On this corbel, the ancients carved in relief a school of carp surging upward with a large dragon. Complementing this theme, the ancients also carved in relief phoenixes, nghe, and long ma, artistic images venerated in the late Le and early Nguyen periods. After the corbels, to demonstrate their skill, the ancients carved in relief the motifs “Tung hoa long” and “Mai hoa long”. Notably, if the four sacred creatures and four noble plants themes were considered orthodox by contemporaries, folk cultural expressions were also present. These include images of lotus flowers, lotus leaves, and field crabs crawling on lotus leaves.

The interior of the great hall is also adorned with a system of horizontal plaques and lacquered relief couplets praising the merits of the goddess: Tai thuong oc thien an dien long tu trat and Cu An Ha lac tho dan cu nguong chiem. And the large-character inscriptions: “Thanh cung van tue” and “Thuong dang toi linh”.

In the center of the great hall is a large vermilion-and-gilt altar screen carved in relief in three layers. The top layer is a relief of “Two dragons adoring the moon”; the middle layer is a relief of dragons and flowers and leaves, with the four characters “Thanh cung van tue” carved in relief; and the third layer is a relief of dragons, clouds, flowers, and leaves with exquisite motifs, intact in gold and vermilion. Here it is also worth mentioning that the dau du, ke bay, and rương columns... were all carefully carved by the ancients with motifs of the four sacred creatures or four noble plants, stylized flowers and leaves... so the interior of the bai duong hall looks both ancient and solemn.

Beyond the great hall is the rear sanctuary. The rear sanctuary is 12.10 m long and 7.10 m wide. It has two parts: the front altar hall, 3.30 m long and 5.10 m wide, where two large incense tables are arranged, with many ancient artifacts above. It should also be noted here that these two architectural items are linked by a system of corner braces. Adjacent to the central hall (called in some places the front altar hall) is the rear sanctuary, separated by a panel-door system with two small passages on either side. Entering that solemn place, the ancients created a door system and invested in rather elaborate carving. It also features the motif “two dragons adoring the moon”, but in date, this architecture and carving are earlier; it predates the great hall. Beyond the front altar hall is the rear sanctuary; in the rear sanctuary, the ancients built in a sturdy style, with smooth finishing and close-fitting joints. The interior of the rear sanctuary is built on a large floor of tu thiet wood. On that wooden floor is arranged the worship niche, dragon throne, and spirit tablet of the village tutelary deity - Princess of the Do family, taboo name Bao - who had the merit of helping Thuc p

An Ha Communal House still preserves many precious artifacts, rich in materials and types, including one genealogy from the Mau Dan year, 17 royal edicts, of which the oldest is from the second year of Vinh Khanh (1680), 2 altar screens (1 from the Le period and 1 from the Nguyen period), 8 pairs of couplets, 2 incense tables, 5 large wooden pedestals, 4 candlesticks, 1 writing stand, 1 large tray, 1 horizontal plaque, 2 sets of eight treasures + a board with the four characters “Nghiem tuc te chinh”, 3 offering bowls, and 2 candlesticks.

In 1995, An Ha Communal House was ranked as a National Historical-Cultural and Artistic Architectural Relic under Decision No. 2233-QD/BT dated June 26, 1995, of the Ministry of Culture and Information.