Ngai Cau communal house

Ngai Cau Communal House was built on a large plot of land. Its main architectural components face south, looking out onto Road 72. The communal house is massive in scale, formed by many transverse and longitudinal building ranges; from the outside in, the layout includes the triple gate, the square pavilion, the main hall, the bridge house and rear shrine, along with two small side halls on either side. The antiquity of the relic is shown in its slender corner spurs, raised roof ridges with ridge-end ornaments, likened to dragon boats gliding over waves.

Inside the main hall, the wooden roof trusses are made in the chong giuong gia chieng style combined with eave brackets. The beams on the upper tie beams are large, their ends joined closely, their bodies carved with curling cloud patterns; the frame rests on four rows of large columns, with column bases set on two tiers of stone slabs—the lower octagonal, the upper round; linking the trusses is a system of upper and lower tie beams running through all five bays.

On the panel boards at the two gable ends of the main hall are eight small shrines dedicated to the ancestral cults of the giáp groups; the front of each shrine has a hanging ceremonial door carved with a pair of dragons facing a fully blooming chrysanthemum (a symbol of the sun), and above it hangs a horizontal board bearing the giáp's name. The positions of the shrines correspond to the seats of the eight giáp on days when village affairs are held at the communal house: on one side are the Tay Nhat, Tay Nhi, Cau That, and Cau Bat giáp; on the other are Dong Nhat, Dong Nhi, Trung Nhat, and Trung Nhi. The interior also has a system of lacquered and gilded ritual objects: 8 hanging ceremonial doors, 10 horizontal boards, 13 pairs of couplets, a ceremonial door, a scroll, incense altars, a pair of cranes, a dragon palanquin, 8 sets of palanquins, and an arched-roof palanquin set from the 18th century.

Ngai Cau Communal House is in Ngai Cau Hamlet, An Khanh Commune, Hanoi City. It lies west of Hanoi, on the route leading to famous relics such as Tram Pagoda, Tram Gian Pagoda, and Thay Pagoda.

Ngai Cau is an area within the settlement territory of ancient Vietnamese people during the nation-building period: not far from the village is the An Thuong archaeological site, classified by archaeologists in the system of early Bronze Age relics in our country; in the area of the Holy Mother's tomb near the communal house, Han-era brick tombs have also been discovered. In the Ly period, this land was associated with legends about Zen masters Tu Dao Hanh, Duong Khong Lo, and Giac Hai. In the Tran period, Ngai Cau was the center of Yen Lung canton; at the beginning of the 15th century, during the resistance war against the Ming, when the insurgent army advanced to besiege Thang Long, according to old histories, in the Binh Ngo year (1426), Le Loi established his main headquarters in the Ngai Cau area.

The communal house worships the village tutelary deities from the nation-building period. The surviving royal edicts all confer the title 'Five Great Kings,' and the communal house still keeps five sets of dragon thrones and spirit tablets. In addition, folk memory and deity genealogies also mention a female deity associated with the Holy Mother's tomb—an earthen mound about 200 m southwest of the communal house; the tomb remains 40 cm high, each side 2.5 m by 1.4 m, surrounded by a flower wall 80 cm high, with a small shrine housing a stele at its head.

The communal house currently preserves 19 royal edicts from the Le, Tay Son, and Nguyen dynasties, the most important being those bearing the Quang Trung 5th year (1792), Canh Thinh first year (1793), and Bao Hung 2nd year (1802) reign titles; a deity genealogy; five stone steles, including one engraved with a land contract drawn up in Canh Tri 7th year (1669) concerning the fields of the giáp groups and the custom of singing and praying for blessings at the communal house.

The communal house's triple gate is a three-bay brick building with truss-style frames. In the center of the building's interior is a wall as high as the roof ridge, running through all three bays; the wall has one large door and two small doors serving as entrances to the communal house. The two gable walls are decorated with tiger-face motifs holding the moon; the roof frieze is carved with floral scrolls using openwork carving. With its dividing wall and three doors, the triple gate is both a closed front facade for the relic and a way of defining entry according to traditional ritual order: the large central door is for important festivals, while the two small doors are for everyday use.

Immediately behind the triple gate is a large square pavilion built in the eight-roof stacked-eave style—an architectural form that creates a focal point on the sacred axis, usually used as a place for preparing rituals, placing palanquins, and conducting ceremonies on festival days. The small roof above is supported by four long brackets mortised into the main columns through hidden columns; wooden boards are placed on the brackets to support the purlins. The bracket ends are deeply carved with dragon figures; the beam ends beneath the upper tie beams are decorated with curled-whisker dragon heads in the Nguyen style. The corners of the square pavilion's roof curve upward, and the roof ridges are decorated in relief with dragons and phoenixes.

On either side of the square pavilion are two small brick courtyards; beyond the courtyards are two three-bay side halls parallel to the square pavilion. The side halls are simply built with truss and crossbeam frames: the right range is left empty, while the left range holds a large wooden table and eight sets of ritual palanquins. In traditional village life, the courtyard and side halls were where procession groups assembled, the giáp groups prepared offerings, and villagers gathered on village festival days; the land contract engraved on the stele from Canh Tri 7th year (1669), still kept at the communal house, shows that the village had customs of singing, praying for blessings, and honoring the deities at the communal house from the 17th century.

The main hall is the largest structure, consisting of five bays and four roofs, covered with small-tipped Vietnamese tiles. The roof ridge and edge ridges are built in the đinh style; in the center of the roof ridge is a relief of a sun with fire and a pair of dragons facing it, and the two ridge ends have dragon-head shapes facing inward; the corner spurs curve upward, and the roof friezes are carved in relief with the four seasons plants and scrolling floral patterns as a continuous system. The trusses are of the chong giuong gia chieng and eave-bracket type, set on four rows of large columns, with column bases on two tiers of stone slabs (octagonal below, round above), and upper and lower tie beams linking all five bays.

The communal house's carving art is concentrated on the roof friezes, beam ends, eave brackets, beams, and corner bracket panels, with themes arranged in long bands. More than 20 eave brackets of the main hall are carved on both faces with dragon-and-leaf, dragon-and-cloud, old plum, old bamboo, phoenix, and dragon-horse motifs. The beam ends are openwork-carved with dragon heads. The corner panels are openwork-carved in multiple layers on both faces with diverse themes: 'dragon curling in water,' the four seasons plants, the four sacred creatures (dragon, qilin, turtle, phoenix), dragon horse carrying the sun, turtle carrying the Ho River diagram, phoenix holding a letter, pine and deer, a herd of elephants, and a 'dragon nest' scene showing a mother dragon playing with 12 young dragons. At the two gable ends of the main hall are eight shrines to the ancestral cults of the eight giáp groups, with hanging ceremonial doors carved with a pair of dragons facing a fully blooming chrysanthemum.

The rear shrine consists of three small bays, located 1.2 m from the main hall; connecting the two structures is a two-roofed bridge house surrounded by brick walls. The trusses in the rear shrine have a simple truss-and-crossbeam structure; the central bay is left empty, and the two side bays have mezzanines for storing ritual objects. Inside, between the main hall and the bridge house, is a high wooden floor built as a forbidden sanctuary; the front of the sanctuary has folding doors, and inside are the dragon thrones and spirit tablets of the five village tutelary deities, all lacquered and gilded.