Dong Tru Communal House

Located on the bank of the Duong River, rich in legends, Dong Tru Communal House is one of the relics that still preserve the rustic beauty of the former Tong Coi area. Like other communal houses in the region, Dong Tru village, together with five other villages of Tong Coi, worships General Dao Ky and Princess Phuong Dung as the village tutelary deities. The two had great merits in helping the Trung Sisters fight the enemy and defend the country.

Dong Tru Communal House is located right at the foot of Dong Tru Bridge and is one of the ancient communal houses of Dong Ngan land. Based on its style and especially the artistic decorations on the architecture, it can be said that the communal house has an architectural appearance dating at least from the 18th-century Later Le period. The beam ends and ancient carved panels still bearing 19th-century date marks were repaired and restored in subsequent renovations. The most recent renovation was in 2006, and the architecture has remained unchanged to this day.

Dong Tru Communal House has a "ding"-character layout, consisting of: gateway, main communal house, rear sanctuary, kitchen house, and auxiliary works.

In front of the communal house is the communal pond, embanked and paved with a path around it for festival occasions. The gateway is pillar-style, with two large pillars opening at the main gate on the central sacred axis; connecting both sides are low walls with two elephants in relief, followed by two small arched gates made with two-tier overlapping eaves, curved knife-shaped corners, and tubular tiles.

Passing through the wide courtyard to the main communal house, the plan is arranged in a "nhi" character, including the main communal house and the rear sanctuary. The communal house faces northwest; the roof has curved knife-shaped corners at the four ends, covered with old tiles, with a high foundation and stepped terrace. The main communal house has five bays and two side wings, with a massive wooden frame and large, sturdy main columns, military columns, and veranda columns. The column bases rest on stone footings set into the communal house floor. The high floor is entirely paved with bricks. The frame structure of the main communal house is of the six-row-column type, sufficiently sturdy and balanced. The side wings on both sides are designed almost similarly as supports. The two side wings have many beams, purlins, braces, and rafters... combined into many systems that create balance, squareness, sturdiness, and force resistance, giving the communal house roof a graceful and curved boat-like appearance.

The rear sanctuary at the back is of the closed-gable style with hand-shaped braces; it is small and has recently been extensively renovated and rebuilt. The plan layout of the communal house is in the "nhi" character, with the rear sanctuary adjoining the main communal house roof, and a gutter between them to catch the roof drips.

On the architectural components of the main communal house there are many artistic decorative panels, such as beam ends and bracket panels dated to the 18th–19th centuries. The end of the rafter of the communal house wing has a finely carved dragon head bearing the mark of 18th-century architectural art. Notable are the two bracket structures at the center of the inner front side. These two brackets depict identical opposing scenes with the theme of the four sacred creatures: dragon, qilin, turtle, and phoenix. The carving technique is vivid and attractive, with high relief combined with vein carving; the two-tier brackets and the end of the rafter of the communal house wing have a finely carved dragon head bearing 19th-century artistic marks. The outer faces of the front and rear brackets depict seal-script foot motifs combined with chrysanthemum vines, bearing marks of a later period. In addition, the beam ends, brackets, stacked beams, support blocks, brace bodies, and rafters all have carved decorative motifs with themes of chrysanthemum vines, seal-script feet, seal shapes, flowers and leaves, four seasons... The carved panels are interspersed; the carved images are detailed, vivid, and mostly bear marks of 19th-century art.

Dong Tru Communal House still preserves valuable relics such as the set of altars for worshiping the Saint, the set of eight-treasure mirrors, the decree plaque, horizontal plaques, and couplets... Notable is the curtain door and the folding door set bearing marks of 19th-century art. The end of the rafter of the communal house wing has a finely carved dragon head bearing 19th-century artistic marks; all are lacquered and gilded.

Every year, on the 10th day of the third lunar month, the local people hold the village festival to express gratitude for the merits of Mr. and Mrs. Dao Ky–Phuong Dung. In even years, a procession is held to welcome the palanquin of General Dao Ky. The colorful procession goes from Dong Tru Communal House to Ong Shrine in Phuc Tho hamlet, Mai Lam commune, for rituals. Notably, the palanquin of the male deity and the palanquin of the female deity are carried by young men and women of the village; from time to time they are lifted and spun to the rhythm of drums and gongs, making the atmosphere more lively.