Luong Quan Communal House

The communal house belongs to Luong Quan village, Viet Hung commune (now Gia Luong village, Dong Anh commune). In the past, the village was also called Luong Quan hamlet. When An Duong Vuong built Co Loa Citadel, this hamlet had to move three times. It moved from Vuon Dat to Vuon Trinh and then back to its original location. Luong Quan hamlet was renamed Luong Quan village. When it merged with Gia Loc, it was called Gia Luong Cooperative, and later it was separated again and called Luong Quan village.

According to the legend, the royal decree is still kept at the Institute of Social Sciences Information; Luong Quan Communal House worships Dong Nhac Dai Vuong, who is said to have been the son of Mr. Ta Hanh and Mrs. Dang Dieu in Da Hoi village, Tu Son district, Kinh Bac region. At the age of 18, his parents passed away. Nhac Cong followed Phu Dong Thien Vuong to fight the Yin invaders and help the country. After winning, Nhac Cong returned to the beginning of Kim Hoa district and then transformed. That day was the 21st day of the first lunar month. The people and soldiers were all afraid. The king then sent someone to write a eulogy, conferred him the title of Supreme Blessed Deity, and allowed the people of Luong Quan to build a temple to worship him. In the time of Dinh Tien Hoang, when quelling the rebellion of the 12 warlords, he was besieged at a pagoda and was rescued by the deity's secret assistance. From then on, later dynasties all bestowed honorific titles and royal decrees. On his birthday and death anniversary, festivals and taboo characters, absolutely forbidden: Dong and Nhac are the tutelary deities worshipped by Luong Quan.

The communal house has a structure in the shape of the character "đinh", including the gate, front hall, and rear sanctuary. The gate is built in the four-pillar style; the two central pillars form a two-tiered overlapping roof passage, covered with yin-yang tiles, with curved corners at the four corners, and the top decorated with two dragons flanking the sun. The front hall has three bays and two side wings with four curved corners. In the middle of the ridge is a pair of dragons flanking the moon; the ridge edges are in the shape of nghê. The roof-supporting frame has four rows of column bases; the roof frame is in the thuong gia chieng style, with two sides having stacked beams and secondary brackets.

Decoration inside the front hall consists of stylized flowers and leaves. The beam ends are carved with dragons with protruding eyes, upturned noses, mouths holding jewels, and manes and beards as blades running backward in many layers. The corner brackets in the side aisles of the central bay of the front hall are carved with images of a flying phoenix, bodhi leaves, a turtle carrying a scroll... The rear sanctuary connects to the central bay of the front hall and is where the dragon throne and memorial tablet of the Tutelary Deity are arranged. The rear sanctuary has two bays and one lean-to; each frame has two wooden columns, the roof is covered with local tiles, the floor is paved with bat tiles, the frames are in the thuong gia chieng style, and both sides have stacked beams and secondary brackets. In front of the rear sanctuary door hangs a scroll-shaped horizontal plaque "Eternal heroic spirit". Opposite the curtained door of the outer bay is a horizontal plaque bearing four Chinese characters "Thien sinh anh tai", on both sides are a pair of parallel sentences.

Inside the rear sanctuary is a tiered wooden altar; on the lower platform above are an incense bowl, offering tray, altar tray, five-vessel set, and a box containing royal decrees. On the innermost platform is a wooden shrine lacquered in red and gilded with gold, a throne, a statue, a memorial tablet, and a statue of the Tutelary Deity in the artistic style of the 19th century. In front of the wooden shrine hangs a finely carved curtained door.

The communal house still preserves sedan-chair shafts, an incense table, a throne, a bronze bell, offering bowls, a curtained door, an altar vessel, candlesticks, a worship crane, a scripture stand, flower vases, horizontal plaques, parallel sentences, an incense table... dating from the 19th century. The wooden sedan-chair shaft with handbars is joined by two fixed large longitudinal shafts, decorated with dragon heads with straight, small, long blades flying backward. The dragon heads are carved meticulously and elaborately, characteristic of 19th-century artistic style. At the two shafts, the tail section forms a solid frame, on which is made a worship mat like a bed equal to the opening of the sedan chair. This piece has a border enclosing both sides and the front face without decoration; the back face is carved in relief with dragon patterns on the theme of two dragons flanking the moon, exquisitely, and above is carved a tiger-face emblem holding the character “tho”. In the middle of the horizontal and vertical shafts, a raised pierced wooden piece depicts dragons on the theme of a group of dragons. The four corners of the horizontal shaft are pierced with stylized dragon-and-cloud patterns.

In the modern and contemporary historical period, Luong Quan Communal House also records a number of historical events: during the August Revolution, Luong Quan Communal House was the place where the election of deputies to the First National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was organized. In the 1946–1954 period, the communal house was a contact and activity location for cadres and guerrillas; the side compartment of the communal house had a secret tunnel, and outside there were two tunnels connecting to people's houses. During the resistance war against the United States, Luong Quan Communal House was a warehouse for supplies, guns, and ammunition of soldiers evacuated to serve the resistance. 

Every year, the villagers organize a festival on the 21st day of the first lunar month, the day the deity transformed. The festival takes place solemnly, with all the rituals of a traditional festival and with distinctive local features. Families bring offerings to the communal house and together carry out festival-related tasks under the direction of the Festival Organizing Committee.

With its outstanding values, Luong Quan Communal House was ranked as a City-level historical and artistic relic under Decision No. 1913/QĐ-UBND dated February 28, 2013.