Ngự Câu Communal House

The communal house faces southwest; in front are two rows of left and right auxiliary halls, and behind is the main hall with a Dinh-shaped ('mallet-handle') plan comprising a three-bay, two-wing great worshipping hall and a four-bay rear sanctuary. The architecture is of the closed-gable type, roofed with liệt tiles, with a two-layer mortar ridge; at both ends of the ridge are large kìm ornaments shaped like dragon heads, their mouths holding the ridge, with pointed crests on their foreheads, bulging eyes, and lion noses. At the corner of the strip ridge on the right, a nghê is molded running downward; on the left, a nghê runs horizontally; the roof corners curve in three tiers with small nghê statues, scroll motifs, and dragon images; the roof ridges are decorated with leaf-shaped motifs and scrolling vine and seal-script patterns.

The interior of the great worshipping hall consists of four roof trusses and four rows of columns: the two central trusses are of the 'upper giường – lower bẩy' type, and the two side trusses are of the 'upper cốn – lower bẩy' type; round wooden columns with 'upper tapered, lower flared' form stand on round stone column bases. The two side bays have wooden floors and wooden balustrades 0.87 m high above the Bát Tràng brick paving—where ceremonial weapon sets are placed and where the giáp groups sit during meetings. On both sides of the wings are eight large vermilion-lacquered and gilded shrines—a rare feature in old communal houses, reflecting the organization of nine giáp by clan lineage in old Ngự Câu Village. The giáp ranks include two first giáp, one second giáp, one third giáp, one fourth giáp, two fifth giáp, and two sixth giáp. All structural members are densely carved, from bracket ends, side beams, side braces, and beam ends to tie beams and roof trusses.

The communal house still preserves a collection of artifacts in many materials: paper items (a 1919 copy of the deity genealogy and 14 royal edicts); wooden objects (a bát cống palanquin, ceremonial weapon sets, a pair of worship cranes, an incense table, worship horses, a dragon throne and spirit tablet, pairs of vermilion-lacquered and mother-of-pearl-inlaid couplets, nine large horizontal plaques, and three ceremonial gate panels); bronze objects (bell, gong, ritual washing vessel, seven-piece set, and three-piece set); ceramic objects (bowls, teapots, blue-painted jars, including two Qing-dynasty porcelain bowls); textile objects (two long cổn dragon robes for court audiences and two large canopies) and a set of deer antlers.

Ngự Câu Communal House currently belongs to Ngự Câu Village, An Khánh Commune, Hanoi, about 20 km west of the capital's center.

The communal house worships five Đại Vương deities—the village tutelary deities—including King Bố Đại Vương (named Đỗ Thẩm), who helped Thục An Dương Vương drive out the Qin army. According to the 1919 copy of the deity genealogy from the Khải Định Kỷ Mùi year, the five were sons of Mr. Đỗ Thiện and his two wives of the Kim and Chu families; when the Qin invaders came, they recruited 300 warriors to follow King Thục against the enemy, causing the enemy general Nhâm Hưu (Nhâm Ngao) to be hit by a poisoned arrow and flee, and the enemy army was utterly defeated. After they passed away, King Thục issued edicts conferring deity status and provided funds to build temples for worship. From the reign of Lê Cảnh Hưng to the end of the Nguyễn dynasty, successive dynasties issued edicts; the communal house still keeps 14 edicts, the earliest from the 28th year of Cảnh Hưng, the Mậu Tý year, and the latest from the 9th year of Khải Định (1924).

The communal house dates back a long time; its current scale results from a major restoration in the 19th-century Nguyễn dynasty, while the wooden floor and balustrade are remnants of the Lê-dynasty communal house. It is a typical communal house of 19th-century artistic architecture, combining northern Vietnamese architecture with Huế royal court decorative style. The village's ceremony praying for national prosperity and public peace is held on festival days and to celebrate the deities' birth and death anniversaries. Especially on the 12th day of the first lunar month, the village holds a festival to commemorate the merits of the village tutelary deity.

Ngự Câu Communal House was ranked as a national-level Architectural and Artistic Monument in 1990 by the Ministry of Culture (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism).

In northern Vietnamese communal houses, the Tam Quan gate (nghi môn) is the opening element, separating the everyday living space of the village from the sacred space worshipping the tutelary deity—a spiritual 'threshold' reminding the community to maintain a respectful attitude when entering the communal house. Tam Quan gates usually take two forms: a four-pillar nghi môn with four brick biểu pillars creating three passageways, the pillar tops decorated with phoenixes with joined tails or kneeling nghê, and the pillar bodies inscribed with Chinese couplets; and a roofed gate form. According to old custom, the central passage was opened only on festival occasions for processions of the deity's palanquin; on ordinary days villagers used the two side passages—a distinction reflecting the traditional village ritual order. The Tam Quan also defines the sacred axis of the monument; in front it usually faces the communal pond and well—'water-gathering' elements meaning the gathering of blessings.

The communal-house courtyard is the open space between the Tam Quan gate and the great worshipping hall; at Ngự Câu Communal House, the courtyard lies in front of the main hall, with two rows of left and right auxiliary halls on either side. It is a multi-functional space of the traditional village: for rituals, it is where palanquin processions assemble, the giáp groups arrange offerings, and the ritual team performs before the great hall—at Ngự Câu Communal House, it is where peace-praying ceremonies are held on the birth and death anniversaries of the five Đại Vương; for festivals, it is the 'stage' for folk games and performances such as wrestling, human chess, and cửa đình singing; for community life, it was formerly where village affairs were discussed and on ordinary days a place for villagers to meet and enjoy the shade. Northern Vietnamese communal-house courtyards are usually paved with Bát Tràng bricks or chỉ bricks, sloping gradually outward for drainage; the wide courtyard creates a setback from which the full façade of the great hall can be viewed.

The great worshipping hall is a large three-bay, two-wing structure. The central bay has three sets of folding panel doors carved with floral-scroll themes: 'four seasons' (tứ quý), 'pine and deer' (tùng lộc), 'plum and crane' (mai hạc), and 'old bamboo, flowers and birds' (trúc lão hoa điểu). The structural members are richly carved: bracket ends are carved with dragon faces; bracket bodies combine themes of the 'four sacred creatures' (tứ linh), 'four seasons' (tứ quý), and 'bamboo transforming into a dragon' (trúc hóa long); side beams are carved with 'liên áp', 'nho sóc', 'dragon and crane', scrolls, and phoenixes facing each other; side braces are carved with 'dragon-nghê', 'nest dragon', and 'water-curling dragon'; eight beam ends are carved in relief and openwork with dragon forms; the upper scroll of the roof truss is carved with a tiger emblem (hổ phù) surrounded by small dragon heads; the ceiling of the central bay is lacquered in vermilion and gilded, painted with a bagua mirror.

Typical are the 'water pavilion' (thủy đình) carving panel on the left truss of the central bay (a two-roofed pavilion, rainbow, horse climbing a bridge, boat with oars over three layers of waves); the 'three turtles – seven cranes' panel (seven cranes facing the moon, three turtles crossing waves, the Big Dipper constellation); and the panel of nine unicorn figures ('lân ổ'), each with a different appearance. Four large horizontal plaques above the four shrines on the left side read 'Thủy hữu nguyên – Mộc hữu bản – Kim tại phạm – Thổ cư trung' (Water has its source – Trees have their roots – Metal lies within the mold – Earth is in the center), reminding people of the principle 'when drinking water, remember its source.' At the end of the central bay is a vermilion-lacquered and gilded incense table carved with lotus and dragon, scrolls, tiger emblem, phoenix, and the four sacred creatures; on either side is a pair of worship cranes standing on turtle backs.

The rear sanctuary begins from the two auxiliary columns beside the central bay of the great hall, divided into two large central bays and two side bays, with three stacked-giường trusses and four rows of columns; the two central columns are round wood with 'upper tapered, lower flared' form on stone bases, while the auxiliary columns are replaced by enclosing brick walls. In front of the rear sanctuary are two gilded curtain doors (cửa võng), the upper border carved with 'two dragons facing the moon', the side borders carved with 'water-curling dragon' and facing dragons; the nghi môn sits within the outer curtain door, inscribed with four Chinese characters 'Thành cung vạn tuế'.

In the sanctuary, the spirit tablet is placed on a vermilion-lacquered and gilded dragon throne; the throne stands on a worship platform carved with kneeling-leg and fish-belly motifs, dragons, yin-yang floral scrolls, and dragon-nghê; the throne arms rest on six bamboo-stalk-shaped supports decorated with pairs of dragon heads. The spirit tablet bears no writing, has a moon-face shape on top, and a border decorated with floral scrolls. In the communal house there are still traces of a tunnel used to shelter revolutionary comrades during 1947–1950.