Khê Tang Hạ Communal House

The communal house worships the great king Hưng Đạo Vương Trần Quốc Tuấn (1232–1300) and Trần Thông. Tiết chế quốc công Trần Quốc Tuấn was the general who commanded and led the three armies to drive out the Yuan-Mongol invaders in the 13th century. In this resistance war, Khê Tang village had 271 people participate, contributing to the cause of protecting the nation's independence. Đức Trần Thông was born in his mother's dream. The legend says that his mother was told in a dream by the Buddha and given a lotus flower, a symbol of Buddhist purity, so he was named Trần Thông, meaning a person of understanding and wisdom.

Initially, the communal house was only a small shrine with a single-compartment layout; by the 18th century it was repaired, but the architectural marks on the đầu dư (beam ends) currently bear strong 19th-century imprints. The three-bay front worship hall has a closed gable with bít đốc, outside columns have tops decorated with overlapping leaves, and the walls are decorated with the left green dragon and right white tiger. This motif also expresses the nature of dragon-tiger gathering (dragons still meet heroes who take action), hoping the village will have many talented people. The Đại bái (main worship hall) is a three-bay, two-wing building; decorative art is mainly concentrated in the cốn (bracket panels) with themes of the four sacred creatures and dragons rolling in water. The trusses are made in the “giá chiêng chồng rường con nhị” style; most of these trusses are smoothly planed and tightly joined. However, the two beam ends still bear strong 18th- and 19th-century carving art. The cốn and đầu kẻ are carved in relief with stylized flowers, leaves, and water waves representing agricultural residents. Between the Đại bái and Hậu cung there is a connecting roof section, giving the communal house a “công” character layout.

At the relic site, there are still quite a few valuable artifacts, such as a set of võng doors dating to the 19th century, and an incense altar in 18th-century artistic style, repaired in the 19th century.

Đình Hạ Khê Tang was ranked as an architectural and artistic relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information in 1986. The communal house was most recently restored and repaired in 2024.