Chi Dong Communal House

Visiting Le Chi village, Thuan An commune, Hanoi city, tourists have the opportunity to learn about Chi Dong Communal House – a valuable historical, cultural, and architectural-artistic relic closely tied to the religious life and traditions of the local people. Chi Dong Communal House is where the two village tutelary deities, Chau Do Thong Dai Vuong and Duc Tran Hung Dao Dai Vuong, are worshipped. The two deities worshipped at the communal house are associated with two different historical periods, but they share the common point of being figures revered by the people for their contributions to the country.

According to legend, Chau Do Thong Dai Vuong lived during the reign of the Sixth Hung King and had the merit of fighting the Yin invaders, contributing to protecting the country in the early days of nation-building. Meanwhile, Duc Tran Hung Dao Dai Vuong – Tran Quoc Tuan was an outstanding national hero of the 13th century, a person with especially great contributions in the three resistance wars against the Yuan-Mongol army. Worshipping both Chau Do Thong Dai Vuong and Tran Hung Dao Dai Vuong at Chi Dong Communal House demonstrates the tradition of honoring those who contributed to the country, and also deeply reflects the Vietnamese nation's moral principle of “when drinking water, remember its source.”

Every year, local people organize commemorative ceremonies for the two tutelary deities. The 11th day of the first lunar month is the death anniversary of Chau Do Thong Dai Vuong; the 20th day of the eighth lunar month is the death anniversary of Duc Tran Hung Dao Dai Vuong. In particular, on the 10th day of the third lunar month, the people of Chi Dong organize a festival to commemorate the contributions of the two tutelary deities and to pray for national peace and prosperity, and for a peaceful and prosperous life.

Not only valuable in terms of history and belief, Chi Dong Communal House is also an architectural-artistic work bearing many imprints of the traditional village communal house of the Northern Delta. Through historical vicissitudes, the relic still preserves architecture in the “Dinh” character style, including the front worship hall and the rear sanctuary. The front worship hall is a five-bay house with two side wings, with a system of curved roofs. The central bay has a boat-shaped ceiling, where rituals are performed; the side bays are raised and were formerly spaces for community meetings and village affairs.

Behind is a three-bay rear sanctuary running lengthwise, forming the “Dinh” character layout. The building was constructed in the style of closed gable walls, with roofs covered in old fish-scale tiles, bearing a solemn, ancient beauty. One of the highlights of the communal house is its architectural decorative art. The carved panels are concentrated mainly on the corbels and beam ends, with dragon images carved in relief and openwork in a delicate manner, bearing the artistic style of the 18th century.

The dragon figures not only create beauty for the architecture but also express the aesthetic conceptions and beliefs of the ancients, symbolizing authority, power, and the community's good aspirations. Besides the architecture, Chi Dong Communal House also preserves a rich system of relics, diverse in type and of high artistic value. Typical items include a palanquin with a dragon canopy, dragon thrones, memorial tablets, incense tables, ceremonial weapons, parallel sentences, and many other worship objects. In particular, the system of genealogies, royal edicts, and written documents are precious sources of material, contributing to the study of local history, beliefs, customs, and practices through various periods. Each architectural component and each object preserved at the communal house contributes to telling the story of a land, of the people, and of the cultural values that the community has preserved through many generations.

Today, Chi Dong Communal House remains a space for religious and cultural community activities of the people of Le Chi village. On festivals, tutelary deity death anniversaries, and traditional festivals, local people return to the village communal house to remember their ancestors, meet the community, and pass on good cultural values to younger generations. With its outstanding values in architecture, art, history, and culture, Chi Dong Communal House was ranked as an architectural-artistic relic in 1996 by the Ministry of Culture and Information, now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Chi Dong Communal House – a place where patriotic tradition, the moral principle of “when drinking water, remember its source,” and the beauty of Vietnamese village communal house architecture converge; where the stories of Chau Do Thong Dai Vuong and Duc Tran Hung Dao Dai Vuong continue to be preserved, retold, and passed down by the people through generations.