VINH TRUNG VILLAGE TEMPLE AND COMMUNAL HOUSE

Vinh Trung Temple and Communal House (also called Linh Linh Temple or Outer Communal House) is located in the middle of Vinh Trung Village, Ngoc Hoi Commune, Hanoi. This is the original communal house of the village, as distinct from the Inner Communal House, which was built later.
The temple has a fairly spacious grounds, including a large pond in front, a temple courtyard, a system of ceremonial gates, two rows of Left and Right Side Halls, and a main worship area consisting of the Great Hall, the Ong Muong connecting passage, and the Rear Sanctuary. The overall complex has an enclosed and balanced layout.
Vinh Trung Temple and Communal House was ranked as a national historical-cultural relic in 1993 by the Ministry of Culture and Information (now the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism).
The temple worships the three Great Kings of the Hung Vuong era, called by villagers Ong Ca, Ong Hai, and Ong Ba. The three were credited with fighting foreign invaders and protecting the country from the early days of nation-building; they were conferred the title Than Xa Dai Vuong by the Hung Kings and allowed to establish a temple for worship locally.
Currently, the temple still preserves 17 royal decrees conferring the title of tutelary deity through feudal dynasties. The earliest dates to the 44th year of Canh Hung (1783), and the latest to the 9th year of Khai Dinh (1924). These are valuable documents affirming the status and role of the tutelary deities in the spiritual life of the people.
Generally, Vinh Trung Temple is a relic with a long history, associated with legends from the Hung Vuong era. The current architecture was mainly restored in 1900 under Thanh Thai, featuring late 19th–early 20th century artistic style with many exquisite carvings such as dragons, phoenixes, the four sacred creatures, flowers and leaves. Not only of architectural value, the temple was also an important site during resistance wars, once serving as a place for training, weapons production, and revolutionary activities. In addition, the relic preserves many valuable artifacts such as royal decrees, worship statues, wooden objects (four wooden rifles, one incense altar, one set of bat buu, six pairs of parallel couplets, four horizontal plaques, three sets of dragon thrones and spirit tablets), ceramic objects (two luc binh vases, one ceramic incense bowl, one jar), bronze objects (one set of ding, one set of tam son...), and an ancient painting - the Tung Hac painting dated to the 18th year of Bao Dai (1943).