La Tinh communal house

La Tinh Communal House belongs to La Tinh hamlet, An Khanh commune, Hanoi city. The communal house stands on an elevated plot of land beside the Day River, and in the middle of the village, La Tinh Communal House lies entirely on the dragon's forehead to give power to the deity. Also according to feng shui, the ancients dug two ponds beside the dike to symbolize the dragon's eyes.

La Tinh Communal House has been restored many times, and to this day it is a spacious monument.

The communal house's gate has a floor area of 60m2, supported by 3 rows of ironwood columns; however, the two gable ends are still built in the closed-gable style so that inside the walls are two guardian generals standing watch. This characteristic allows us to imagine a temple rather than a communal house. From these two gable walls out to both sides are pillar inscriptions, creating an imposing stance. The doors are made of ironwood and three Chinese characters can still be seen: “Tối linh từ”.

Behind the gate is a large courtyard, with simple-structured rows of Ta vu and Huu vu on both sides. The Tien te building is lavishly decorated and from here leads into the main structure, the Dai bai building. In this structure, some places still retain many carved panels in the 17th-century style; although details of folk daily life are no longer seen as in some communal houses of the same date, instead there are carvings from later centuries such as dragons, phoenixes, flowers, leaves... Among them, noteworthy are the dragons on the rafters with plump bodies and strongly projecting blades; they still fully retain their status as an image of the sky, clouds and thunder and lightning. A large horizontal plaque is also hung in the Dai bai.

“Thánh cung vạn tuế” along with many couplets and decorative images on the Y mon. From behind the central bay connects to the forbidden palace; the altar is raised by a floor system 1.2m high, enclosed around by wood with doors opening on both sides. The carving art in the Hau cung is concentrated only at the front with the chi o horizontal plaque: “Thượng đẳng tối linh từ”, and the embossed doors depicting phoenixes embracing the door set. Four scenes carved with old plum, chrysanthemum, and bamboo serve as deified images to contain sacred meaning. In the Hau cung is placed the dragon throne and tablet of the Tutelary God Nha Lang, who lived in the 6th century, a talented general who contributed to establishing the Van Xuan state.

In addition, the communal house preserves a rather beautiful palanquin set in early 18th-century artistic style, 13 royal edicts and many other ritual objects. La Tinh Communal House was ranked as an architectural and artistic monument by the Ministry of Culture and Information in 1989./.