Kim Tien Communal House, Kim Tien Hamlet, Thu Lam Commune, Hanoi City

Kim Tien Hamlet, Thu Lam Commune, Hanoi City

The Kim Tien Communal House relic was ranked as a National Relic under Decision No. 95/1998/QD-BVHTT dated January 24, 1998.

KIM TIEN COMMUNAL HOUSE – this is the only name by which local people have commonly called it from the past to the present.

The Kim Tien Communal House relic currently belongs to Kim Tien Hamlet, Thu Lam Commune, Hanoi City.

Xuan Non in the past was an ancient land with forests, hills, streams, and rivers. There was a pine forest in Be Village, a stream flowing from Van Khe ravine (Nguyen Khe), vast guava forests at Ong Thieu field commonly called Dong De, a forest of cogon grass along the bank of Nguyet Duc River extending to the beginning of Phu Lo Bridge today, and the winding Nguyet Duc River surrounding the north. On this land there was also a large road from Luong Quy junction to Vu Duong Mountain (Sai Mountain) leading to Kinh Bac (Bac Ninh). According to legend, this road dates from the Au Lac period, when An Duong Vuong ordered people to dig and build it so that every year the king could come to worship the mountain god of Vu Duong, who helped An Duong Vuong destroy the Ke demon and build Loa Thanh.

In the north of Duong Nhan Village there was also the Nguyet Lam forest running from Van Khe (Nguyen Khe) along the south bank of Nguyet Duc River and connecting with Dao Xa forest (Dao Thuc). Nguyet Duc River was a defensive line in the Ly dynasty against the invading Song army. Then at Dong De and Gia field in Nhan Village during the Tran dynasty, a surprise attack took place to destroy a Yuan army. When the French colonialists invaded our country, Mr. Chánh Tiền, leader of the Nhan Village insurgents, used Gia field and Dong De as a place to gather and train troops and as the starting point for soldiers going to attack the French fort at Phu Da and Phu Lo.

Kim Tien Village was also called “Tuon”; in the past Kim Tien Village was almost all dense forest and swamp full of tà and lau xú (plants growing in swamps). The village dates from the Tran dynasty. According to legend, some people came here to settle and clear the forest; there was a pond resembling a peninsula, and the landscape was beautifully surreal like a fairyland, so the village was called Kim Tien. Kim Tien was far from flooded fields; whenever the rainy season came and the river rose, flooding the fields white, people's lives here were extremely hard. Despite such hardship, the people of Kim Tien still created cultural works and built their spiritual life, namely the ancient and solemn communal house, pagoda, temple, and shrine. The village pagoda dates from the Later Le dynasty, and dozens of generations of monks came to serve as abbots. Kim Tien has five families intermingled in the two hamlets “Tuon Ha” and “Tuon Thuong”, among which the two families with the most branches and members are the Nguyen Kim family and the Pham family.

According to written sources preserved in the communal house, such as royal edicts and divine genealogies, Kim Tien Communal House is a place memorializing the god Bach Hac Tam Giang, a figure worshipped as the village tutelary god in many traditional rural villages. The god's background and deeds have been recorded fairly extensively in old and modern historical records. Mr. Dao Truong (i.e., Bach Hac Tam Giang) was the third son of His Excellency the Grand Tutor and Minister of Hoan Chau land, named Dao Bot. General Dao Truong had statecraft talent and high martial skills, and was recommended to serve as Tho Lenh Truong, governing Son Nam district.

At that time, the Northern enemy brought troops to invade Van Lang. Facing foreign invasion, Hung Due Vuong summoned Tho Lenh Dao Truong back to discuss plans to fight the enemy. The Tho Lenh reported: “We should intercept them by water and attack.” The king followed his advice and assigned Dao Truong to command the navy; in just one battle he wiped out the enemy troops. After victory, Dao Truong was conferred by the court as Tho Lenh Thong Quoc Dai Vuong, guarding the capital Bach Hac, with the title Quoc Truong Lenh Do, Lac Long Hau Dai Tuong Quan. After that, Tho Lenh Dao Truong also commanded the Van Lang army to defeat the second invasion by the Northern enemy and quell the rebellion in Hong Chau. On the way back from victory over the enemy from Hong Chau, Dao Truong handed command of the army to his younger brother Thach Khanh so he could follow the small river to Ton That Trang and died there.

Hearing of his death, the king was deeply grieved. Hung Due Vuong ordered a solemn funeral, conferred on Dao Truong the title of Thuong Dang Phuc Than (High-grade tutelary deity), and allowed 172 villages to establish temples to Bach Hac Tam Giang. Subsequent kings all issued edicts conferring the title of god. Currently the communal house still preserves 10 royal edicts conferring the god title, the earliest being an edict from the seventh year of Tu Duc (1854).

Annually, from the 8th to the 10th day of the first lunar month (the Great Ceremony), the palanquin is carried from the Temple to the Communal House for sacrifice, and on the festival day it is carried back from the Communal House to the Temple. The festival is traditional, with fine customs and pure rites expressing respect and gratitude to the village tutelary gods and bearing strong national identity. In addition to worship, there are many games; visitors from everywhere and friends near and far come on that day to worship, the roads from the communal house to the hamlets are busy and joyful, in the village every house has incense smoke, people come and go laughing and talking busily, shaking hands and greeting one another with good wishes.

Through surveys and field research, it has been determined that Kim Tien Communal House belongs to the type of religious belief site worshipping the village tutelary god. With its outstanding remaining values, Kim Tien Communal House is classified as an architectural-artistic relic.

Kim Tien Communal House was built quite long ago. However, through the ups and downs of the nation's history, the communal house no longer preserves documents about the year of its founding. The stone stele still kept at the communal house bears the era name Vinh Huu, fourth year (1738), and records that the people elected Mr. Tong Thai Giam Nguyen Dang Vinh, titled Lai Trieu Hau, and his wife, Quan Phu Nhan Nguyen Thi Canh, as posthumous deities, along with the donation of land and money to the locality. The stele also records the rituals serving the village tutelary god, serving the posthumous deity officials, and regulations for sacrifices on each death anniversary. On the upper beam of the front hall it is clearly written: Hoang Trieu Khai Dinh fourth year (1919), the communal house was restored. Thus, through the above evidence, it can be affirmed that Kim Tien Communal House dates from before 1738.

Kim Tien Communal House is the communal house of a village; the area where it stands shows that the architectural scale of the communal house is relatively large. The communal house was built facing southeast on a high plot of land. The main hall and rear hall are linked and bound together by a closed wall system. The main hall was built on a foundation higher than the surroundings, in the style of a four-roofed house with curved up corners. The interior is divided into 5 bays and 2 side bays. The central bay has the boat-shaped space used for sacrifices, while the side bays have raised foundations used for village meetings.

The wooden frame structure of the entire main hall is very imposing and solid, including 6 main trusses made uniformly in the “thuong chong giuong gia chieng ha ke” style, each truss with a plan structure of 6 rows of columns. The decorative panels are concentrated mainly on the con, dau du, ke, bay, and some decorative motifs on the beam ends. The most outstanding and beautiful are the side con panels in the main hall. The main decorative theme is dragons curling in water; besides the dragon carvings are phoenix dancing, long ma, holy turtle carrying the Luo River diagram, along with wave, spiral cloud, and spearhead motifs, creating a lively, powerful yet soft and graceful carved picture. The dau du depict dragons in a straight-looking posture, mouths holding pearls, and spearhead patterns in the catfish-whisker style, a type of carving bearing the artistic style of the 19th century. On the curtain doors and altar panels there are openwork carvings with the themes of the four sacred animals and four precious plants.

The rear hall is a three-bay longitudinal house attached to the central bay of the main worship hall. The house has a simple structure, with a truss type using crossing beams in the form of plain, close-fitting boards. In the center of the rear hall is a wooden platform 120 cm high. Above it are arranged three long thrones and statues worshipping the village tutelary gods, including Bach Hac Tam Giang, Thach Khanh, and Lady Saint Tuy Tinh Hoang Hau. The statues are meticulously and elaborately made, bearing a rustic beauty and full of the humane character inherent in our nation.

Existing to this day, Kim Tien Communal House still preserves a collection of historical and cultural artifacts of various types and materials: a box of royal edicts, including 10 edicts conferring the god title, the earliest being an edict from the seventh year of Tu Duc (1854) and the latest from the ninth year of Khai Dinh (1924); a stone stele from the fourth year of Vinh Huu (1738), whose content records donations for repairing the communal house; a pair of artistic stone crocodiles from the 18th century; a pair of wooden cranes standing on blue stone turtles, 18th–19th century art; three long thrones, 19th-century art; three statues portraying the saints; parallel sentences lacquered and gilded; a wooden incense table in 18th-century artistic style; a bat cong palanquin set, 19th-century art; a set of eight treasures, 18th–19th century art; two decree boards; ancient incense bowls; an altar; a curtain door carved with dragons adoring the sun, four sacred animals, and four precious plants. In addition, Kim Tien Communal House has many other ritual objects such as y mon, lamp stands, candle stands, flower vases, and incense bowls. These artifacts are closely associated with the relic and further enhance its value.

Kim Tien Communal House is one of the communal houses with an early date of origin in our country. Over more than 200 years of existence, Kim Tien Communal House has overcome many harsh challenges of time and many vicissitudes of the nation's history. Months and years and the ravages of war could only change the appearance of the communal house, while the great values shaped from the very beginning of the relic's existence remain and persist sustainably to this day.

In terms of historical value, the tutelary deity of Kim Tien Village Communal House is Bach Hac Tam Giang, an important figure in the system of Vietnamese village tutelary gods with great deeds in the struggle against Northern foreign invasion and in protecting the nation's independence and autonomy. The records in divine genealogies, legends, and inscriptions about the god are important sources for understanding the society and spiritual life of the country through historical stages.

The architecture of Kim Tien Communal House still preserves the imposing and splendid character of an ancient architectural work. Its location and former planning are an ideal model of village communal house architecture. Kim Tien Communal House basically still retains the traditional structures of a Vietnamese village communal house, while also containing unique beautiful features. The architecture has some details bearing the mark of the transition from the Le to the Nguyen dynasty. The communal house has an imposing scale and solid columns and beams; using high-relief and openwork carving techniques, ancient artisans vividly expressed traditional decorative themes with rich ornamental motifs. The system of carved wooden artifacts in the communal house is very rich, such as palanquins, long thrones, incense tables, and curtain doors, carved exquisitely with traditional decorative themes.

In particular, Kim Tien Communal House still preserves a stone stele with an early date, the fourth year of Vinh Huu (1738), and 10 royal edicts conferring the god title. These are extremely valuable materials on history, culture, and the art of carving and shaping through the two Le–Nguyen periods. Through the content of the stele inscription, one can see a rich treasure of materials about personal names, place names, and specific events in the lives of local notables; these are precious antiquities in the nation's cultural treasure.

Kim Tien Communal House relic is fairly well preserved; the landscape, grounds, and architectural parts are conserved relatively firmly and sustainably. This is due to the local authorities and people always paying attention to protecting and preserving it. Up to now, Kim Tien Communal House has contributed much to the spiritual and cultural life of local people. The historical and architectural-artistic content of the relic is a precious ancient heritage in preserving and promoting the fine cultural traditions of the nation.