Van Con Communal House

Van Con village, An Khanh commune, Hanoi city has a large communal house. Local people and people from surrounding areas usually call it Van Con Communal House. Van Con has the vernacular name Lenh village, so some people also call it Lenh Communal House. Not far from the communal house is an ancient shrine built on the left bank of the Day River, dedicated to Lady A La Nang De. People commonly call it Quan Song Shrine.

Before 1945, Van Con belonged to Thuong Coc canton, Tu Liem district, Hoai Duc prefecture, Ha Dong province. Today, Van Con commune belongs to Hoai Duc district, Ha Tay province.

Van Con Communal House faces northwest. In front of the communal house are the communal pond, a banyan tree and a water well, forming a beautiful and familiar landscape of the Vietnamese countryside. That landscape has witnessed many changes of time and circumstances, and it remains as before. The other three sides of the relic are surrounded by residents.

Van Con Communal House is structured in the shape of the character Tam (≡). The first building item of the relic is the Front Hall. This building consists of five bays, with all four sides left open like thien huong buildings. Its architectural structure uses four rows of columns and roof trusses in the chong ruong style, a common architectural style of the Nguyen period. What is particularly noteworthy is that the rows of subordinate columns running around the building were made by the ancients from stone columns. These stone columns were all cut from mountain stone, square, with a vertical ridge line. Each column is nearly 3 m high; there are 16 stone columns of very similar size and shape. The remaining 16 main columns are made of lim wood, each with a circumference of 1.0 m to 1.2 m.

The Front Worship Hall of Van Con Communal House is still fairly complete and intact. On the outside, the ancients applied reliefs of four curved up corners. On the ridges are reliefs of pairs of Kìm and Sô creatures. The roof ridge has a relief of 'Two dragons adoring the moon'. Both the roof ridge and the eave ridges are decorated with lemon-flower motifs. Inside the worship hall, eight large carved panels remain intact, carved with the theme 'Fish and dragon playing in water' in four symmetrical levels. It can be said that these are very elaborate sculptural works. At the center of each panel is a large dragon spouting water. Beneath the water jet, a carp leaps upward. Accompanying this imagery are motifs: phoenix, nghê, dragon horse, turtle, and lotus blooming amid rippling water. In addition to the panels, on the beam ends, purlins, brackets, etc., the ancients carved in relief 'Lone dragon', 'Old plum tree transforming into dragon', 'Bamboo transforming into dragon', and motifs of phoenix, a symbol of cosmic power, nobility and authority, tiger tally and dragon horse. The richness of the carving is also shown on the back of the panels, harmoniously combining both traditional and folk styles, with themes close to the daily life of the countryside. These include relief carvings of an old man resting under an ancient tree, an old man and a buffalo boy (the immortal old man and the buffalo boy), making the interior of the worship hall bright and ancient. Standing on the other side of the communal pond and looking at the communal house, the worship hall and the ancient banyan tree cast shimmering shadows on the water, creating a beautiful picture that is the pride of Van Con village.

Past the Front Worship Hall is a small courtyard, then the Great Worship Hall. The Great Worship Hall is a building 17.7 m long and 8.3 m wide, divided into five bays. Notably, this is an architectural work from the Later Le period, and its interior still preserves the communal house's floor system made of lim wood. In the truncated truss system, the ancients carved motifs of swords and spears and sparks that remain distinct. As for interior decoration, in the middle bay on the left there is a panel carved in relief with a large dragon. The dragon is carved with a flared mouth, bulging eyes and a lion's nose, an artistic style of the 17th-18th centuries; accompanying it are phoenix, nghê, dragon horse, turtle, fish, lotus intertwined with the 'lone dragon'. The dragon is carved in relief projecting 12 cm from the panel background.

The interior of the Great Worship Hall also includes a system of horizontal plaques, couplets, door valances, etc., all lacquered red and gilded. The door valance is carved with the large characters 'Holy Palace, ten thousand years'. Next are the horizontal plaques:

• Chiêm giải khởi kính: All who come to view it feel reverence.

• Ngưỡng chỉ di cao: The more one looks up, the higher it seems.

• Đạo hợp càn khôn: The Way harmonizes with heaven and earth.

Their content all praises the merits of Lady A La Nang De and the village tutelary deities.

Among the four pairs of couplets (full texts are attached in the file), one notable pair is:

Old land, majestic reputation at Hat shore; the villages remember the rain and dew.

By Heaven's command at Snow Mountain, grasses and trees are filled with sacred wind.

Rough translation:

Old land, majestic reputation at Hat shore; hamlets and villages remember the rain and dew.

By Heaven's command at Snow Mountain, grasses and trees are filled with sacred wind.

(full translated text is attached).

After the Great Worship Hall is the Rear Sanctuary.

The Rear Sanctuary of Van Con Communal House is structured in two parts: the Front Offering Hall and the Rear Sanctuary. The Front Offering Hall is created from the main framework with a system of projecting beams and subordinate columns running along the three bays of the Rear Sanctuary. Here there is a large altar for arranging sacrificial objects. On the altar is a door valance 'Two dragons adoring the moon'; on the two symmetrical wings of the valance are crane motifs, both facing toward the Rear Sanctuary. This relic was also brightly lacquered red and gilded by the ancients. Here there is also a pair of couplets with a lacquer background inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Next to the Front Offering Hall is the Rear Sanctuary, the most solemn place, inside which is a large shrine for arranging the dragon throne and spirit tablets worshiping the tutelary deity and preserving ancient relics: paper objects and bronze objects.