Thach Loi Communal House

Thach Loi Village, Noi Bai Commune, Hanoi City

Thach Loi Communal House is the common name based on the relic's place name; formerly Thach Loi village had the vernacular name Luoi village. The communal house is located on a large plot in the center of the residential area and on the village's main axis, facing the Ca Lo River; the front yard was originally a large communal pond, surrounded by many fruit trees and perennial trees that create a cool green landscape for the ancient relic.

Based on the remaining architectural scale and carved panels, Thach Loi Communal House is determined to have been initially built in the late Le period, 18th century, and was restored and repaired many times during the 19th–20th centuries (recorded milestones: 1942, 1949, 1980, 1990, 1991, 1995, 1997); the most recent major restoration and embellishment was completed in 2025.

Thach Loi Communal House was ranked as a National-level Historical and Architectural Artistic Relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information in 2006. The communal house's traditional festival takes place on the 1st day of the 2nd lunar month every year with ceremonial processions, rituals, and many folk games and activities such as human chess, singing, and health exercises...

Thach Loi Communal House worships two generals, Truong Hong and Truong Hat. They were brothers and talented generals of Trieu Quang Phuc during the resistance war against the Liang invaders.

At the beginning of the relic space, adjacent to the village road, is the communal house gate built in the style of a ceremonial gate with pillars: two tall square pillars made of brick and plastered mortar, their bodies outlined with moldings and bearing relief pairs of Chinese-character couplets praising the merits of the village's tutelary deity. The top of each pillar forms a lantern box, above which it tapers into a multi-layered finial; the faces of the lantern boxes are carved in relief with tiger-face motifs and floral patterns, with stylized cloud blades added at the corners, giving the pillar tops an elegant yet imposing appearance.

Through the yard, deeper inside, just before the Dai Dinh building, there is also a four-pillar ceremonial gate consisting of four pillar structures arranged in a horizontal row. The two central pillars are tall and large, their tops decorated with four dragons with joined tails rising upward (leaf-flip style, four dragons), their bodies bearing relief images of coiled dragons in panels; the two side pillars are lower, with their tops decorated with kneeling nghe lions. This four-pillar ceremonial gate marks the sacred boundary between the ritual yard and the Dai Dinh building, and is also a familiar architectural highlight in front of the doors of many communal houses and temples in the Northern Delta.

According to the relic's dossier, Thach Loi Communal House formerly also had two front worship halls and two rows of left and right side houses, each row with three bays; these structures were successively demolished around 1947–1950 due to war. The wall system surrounding the communal house was rebuilt by local people in 1980. Therefore, the current gate and wall system are items renovated in a later period, following the traditional communal house gate architecture, helping to enclose the grounds and enhance the solemn, ancient appearance of the relic space.

Behind the gate is a spacious, open communal yard – an important open space used for community meetings, rituals, and festival organization. The yard surface is paved with bricks in two layers: the outer area is paved with gray square bricks printed with concentric circle patterns; the inner area next to the Dai Dinh building is paved with red-brown brick-only bricks (bat bricks) laid diagonally, creating warm-colored ground areas harmonious with the wood and tile colors of the communal house. According to the dossier, the relic's brick yard was built in 1995; the Dai Dinh floor is raised about 40 cm above the yard, with steps in front leading up to the communal house.

The highlight on the central axis of the yard is a large stone incense burner placed in the center, symmetrically in front of the Dai Dinh door, where pilgrims offer incense and pay homage. Along both sides of the yard are many ornamental plants and bonsai carefully pruned, along with planters, pots, and stone benches, creating a cool green landscape. Surrounding the yard, on both sides are one-story red-tile-roofed houses used for receiving guests, preparing offerings, and serving the relic's activities.

The communal house yard space not only has architectural and landscape value but is also closely tied to community life: it was once a venue for rallies during the August Revolution of 1945 and is where the village's traditional festival takes place on the 1st day of the 2nd lunar month every year, along with many folk games and activities such as human chess, singing, and health exercises...

Dai Bai, also called Dai Dinh, is the main and largest architectural structure of the relic, and also where the essence of Thach Loi Communal House's carving art is concentrated. The Dai Dinh is a large building consisting of five bays and two side wings, built in the four-roof style with imposing yet soft curved corner brackets; at the four corners of the communal house, four pillar structures were built to support the corner brackets. The communal house roof has a steep slope, covered with thin local tiles, the tile tips rising like waves; the ridge is decorated with a row of lemon-flower motifs running along it, and at both ends of the ridge and the eave borders are decorated with xo and kim figures in the form of kneeling nghe lions. Around the communal house is a wide porch about one meter running along the front; this porch was rebuilt in 1980. The front of the communal house opens with three large doors in the style of wooden panel doors joined with boards, the two gable bays have two windows, and there are also doors at the two gables of the building, creating an airy appearance for the relic.

The communal house floor is paved with bat bricks and luc bricks, about 40 cm higher than the yard; the central bay is made distinctly higher than the side bays. According to the village elders, the communal house formerly had a fairly sturdy lim wood floor; traces of this floor can still be recognized through the large mortise holes for beams on the column bodies. The wooden frame structure of the Dai Bai building looks very imposing and sturdy with six main trusses and two side roof sections. The trusses are all designed according to a common type: the upper truss is a keo kim with one diagonal prop, the middle and lower parts are made as ke truong, the front is made as bay to support the porch roof; only the two trusses of the central bay are made with stacked beams to create a con. Each truss is positioned on six rows of lim wood column bases; the main columns are large, made in the thuong thu ha thach style, up to 60 cm in diameter, the military columns 40 cm; the stone bases supporting the columns are buried beneath the communal house floor. The interior of the Dai Bai is left empty, creating a spacious area for community cultural activities.

Decoration on Thach Loi Communal House architecture is concentrated mainly in the Dai Bai building. Above the center hangs a gilded lacquered horizontal plaque inscribed with four characters “Nam thien chinh khi”, below it is an incense table and a carved curtain door with a pair of dragons facing each other. Almost all the bodies of the ke truong and ke hien are carved in relief with cloud patterns, chrysanthemum leaves, bodhi leaves, and leaves transforming into dragons; the most prominent and beautiful are the four corner con panels in the central bay with openwork carvings of dragons, the character Tho, cloud patterns, and water waves in the artistic style of the late Le and early Nguyen periods – the dragons are carved vividly, their manes and whiskers curling into multi-layered spear-like blades, covering the surface of the thick wooden panels. The four dau du and two dau nghe in the two trusses of the central bay are dragon heads carved in high relief, typical of 18th-century Le dynasty carving art; in particular, the four support pillars at the four corners of the communal house roof brackets are carved in relief with small-bodied dragons with visible scales, stylized into bamboo bodies, both realistic and stylized, very distinctive, representative of 18th–19th-century folk sculpture art.

The Hau Cung is the most solemn place of the relic, built in the chong diem style with two roof tiers, located right within the central bay of the Dai Bai building. Viewed from outside, the diem roof section with two roof tiers and softly curved corner brackets is quite clearly visible; this is an architecture rebuilt in a later period, around the early 19th century. The gable of the Hau Cung building is decorated with a tiger-face motif and some decorative patterns; the first diem roof is additionally decorated with a pair of kneeling nghe lions. In plan, the Hau Cung does not protrude outside but is raised and enclosed as a worship alcove right in the central bay of the Dai Dinh. The wooden architectural structure is raised in the keo luon, tha mai style to create two diem roof tiers – a rare difference compared with other communal houses of the single-character layout, which usually do not have a separate Hau Cung.

In front of the Hau Cung door are wooden panel doors; inside are a worship throne, gilded lacquered spirit tablet, and worship objects, with wooden stairs beside them for going up and down. In the alcove are a long throne and spirit tablet worshiping Saint Tam Giang along with ceremonial robes and hats arranged solemnly; above hangs a horizontal plaque, on both sides are pairs of Chinese-character couplets praising the Saint's merits, including the line “Phu Le chinh khi trang son ha”.

The Hau Cung and Dai Bai areas currently preserve many precious artifacts: three worship thrones and spirit tablets measuring 87 x 54 x 40 cm, gilded and lacquered, fairly elaborate carvings of dragons, phoenixes, tiger faces, floral vines, and water-wave patterns (20th-century art); a set of bat cong palanquin used in festival processions, carved with dragons and gilded and lacquered, measuring 2.6 x 3.8 x 1.8 m (19th century); a worship altar decorated with facing dragons; three offering trays measuring 70 x 80 cm; two horizontal plaques and four pairs of wooden couplets gilded and lacquered; four wooden panels carved with dragons (18th–19th centuries); a set of bat buu and a wooden command plaque; a pair of wooden cranes; a set of three ritual objects and a set of five ritual objects in bronze; a copied divine genealogy and many other worship objects such as incense burners, lamps, candles, porcelain vases, y mon, parasols, canopies, and umbrellas.

With a harmonious, balanced layout and a rich system of artifacts, the Hau Cung and Dai Bai building have created the distinctive architectural and artistic value of Thach Loi Communal House – one of the ancient communal houses with large, beautiful architecture still preserved in the former Soc Son land and Hanoi Capital, evidence of the worship of Saint Tam Giang deeply tied to the cultural and spiritual life of village residents in the Northern Delta.