Phuc Hau Communal House

Phuc Hau Communal House worships Great King Tam Lang, a major meritorious official of the Ly dynasty. According to the genealogy, Tam Lang was the son of Ly Khanh Van, and Ly Khanh Van was the adoptive father of Ly Cong Uan. Great King Tam Lang played a meritorious role in the rebellion of the three princes—Dong Chinh Vuong, Duc Thanh Vuong, and Vu Duc Vuong—helping Crown Prince Phat Ma (Ly Thai Tong) ascend the throne. Tam Lang was granted a fief in the Hau Trai area (now Phuc Hau). After his death, he was worshipped by the people of Phuc Hau; because the former shrine no longer exists, the people of Phuc Hau worship him at the communal house. He also had the merit of spiritually assisting King Le Thai To in pacifying the Ming invaders and was granted the title Great King Hieu Ung. Every year, on his birth, death, and festival anniversaries, the villagers organize ceremonies and rituals to remember and honor the hero of their homeland and country. Phuc Hau Communal House was built quite early. Based on the deity record of the Hong Duc era, the royal edicts of the 17th century (Duong Duc, Chinh Hoa), the 18th-century phoong statues, and especially two beams decorated with 17th-century art, the communal house was built at least in the 17th century, when it had a massive, majestic, and bustling architectural scale. In 1972, American B52 bombs destroyed the main communal house; today only the rear shrine and the three-entrance gate and tower pavilion of the Nguyen-era architecture remain. In the early 2000s, the people restored the communal house on the old foundation with an architecture of three bays and two side compartments, four curved roofs, and elaborately made roof trusses. More prominent in the sacred space of the communal house is the ceremonial gate. The ceremonial gate is placed transversely in front of the main communal house, with its central gate slightly offset from the main royal path in the center of the communal house. The gate type of Phuc Hau Communal House is a five-entrance three-gate tower pavilion with an upper tower. The five entrances are massive and beautiful, bearing the mark of Nguyen-era architectural art. The bricks used to build the three-entrance gate are mainly Bat Trang bricks; the central and two side gates have arched vaults, the base tier is strong and sturdy, and stairs on both sides lead to the upper tower. On the upper tower is a two-layer wall structure with eight roofs and curved corners. Around it are flowered parapet walls, with flat tiled roofs covering the two stairways leading up. At the four corners of the upper tower are pillar markers topped with square caps, whose faces are decorated with lime mortar and ceramic inlays forming motifs depicting the four sacred creatures. The upper tower is in the middle of the upper tier, roofed with tubular tiles, with two wall layers, outside supported by corner pillars, and the inner wall has openings on all four sides supporting the eaves above. On the outer wall of the three-entrance gate are two rectangular panels on both sides, inlaid with ceramic depicting a single dragon playing with water and clouds, with turtles facing the center. On both sides of the tower pavilion are two gates also roofed with tubular tiles and overlapping eaves with curved corners, but lower than the upper tier and smaller than the central gate. Where the roofs of the two gates meet the upper tower, there is a narrow adjoining wall; outside, on both sides, are pillar markers, followed by a high screen wall. These pillar markers are as high as the upper tier and have faces decorated with lime and ceramic inlays of the four sacred creatures. At the edges of the two side gates running into the communal house courtyard is a low wall, whose ends are also formed into pillar markers but lower and simpler. At the outer ends of the transverse screen wall, there is one more gate on each side, forming the five-entrance system of the three-entrance gate.

Phuc Hau Communal House still preserves a relatively large number of valuable ritual objects, including a scroll of deity records and 19 royal edicts dating from the Le and Tay Son to the Nguyen dynasties, forming a rich collection of historical sources. The edicts are quite early, such as those of Duong Duc and Chinh Hoa, and especially there are edicts from the Quang Trung and Canh Thinh eras. All dynasties conferred titles on Ly Tam Lang with many beautiful honorifics. Besides these, there are a dragon throne and ancestral tablets, an eight-bearer palanquin, a ceremonial weapon rack, an incense table, a ritual sword, horizontal plaques, couplets, etc., dating from the 17th–18th centuries. Especially notable is a pair of wooden grinning statues, lacquered and gilded, depicted in detail with humorous smiling expressions, dating to the 17th–18th centuries. During the resistance war against the French colonialists (1946–1954), the Dong Ngan area in general was heavily oppressed by the enemy, who set up strong puppet administrations. Phuc Hau and Duc Tu Commune set up a “shell” administration, using a false name to deceive the enemy; our cadres frequently traveled through and operated to maintain the base and build the movement. Right in the rear shrine of the communal house was a secret tunnel where many key cadres of Duc Tu Commune at that time and of Tu Son District hid. During the resistance war against the American imperialists, the communal house and its courtyard became a center for organizing activities, meetings, rallies, and encouraging the spirit of the army and people to fight the Americans.