Tran Communal House - Provincial historical and cultural relic

18/03/2025 08:58

(BNP) - Tran communal house (Hap Linh ward, Bac Ninh city) was built during the Le dynasty (17th century). Tran communal house is a place to worship the Saint “Thiên Quan Đống Vinh” Dai Vuong, who fought against the Ming invaders to protect the nation’s independence in the 15th century. The communal house was ranked as a provincial-level historical and cultural relic in 2002.

Over a long period of history, Tran communal house was burned down during the resistance war against the French. Currently, the restored relics include: the Great Communal Hall, the Emperor’s Harem (forming an architecture of Chinese “Dinh” letter), the Front Ceremonial Hall, the Square Court, the Ta Vu and Huu Vu houses, the Alter-curtain Gate, the garden.

The Great Communal Hall is built in the style of a four-roofed house. The internal structure of Great Communal Hall is divided into 3 compartments and 2 wings. The entire ironwood frame consists of 24 pillars. The wooden components on the frame are meticulously and elaborately carved, with the main themes of dragons, flowers, leaves, and clouds.

Typical artifacts include: 7 ordinations from the Le - Nguyen dynasties, 1 divine relic from the Le dynasty, throne, memorial tablet, horizontal lacquered board, parallel sentences, incense table, dragon pavilion, palanquin, etc.

The communal house festival takes place on the 9th of January (lunisolar calendar), with a solemn ceremony held at the communal house. From the 10th to the 11th, the village holds a ceremony every day. On the 12th, there is a farewell ceremony, carrying the Saint’s tablet back to the communal house and ending the festival.

During the festival days, there are many folk games organized such as: human chess, swing, cockfighting, wrestling. In the evenings, there are invited opera troupes, cheo or a dao to perform at the communal house for people to enjoy. Especially in the traditional games, there are very unique rice cooking competitions and lao dot dam. The rice cooking competition is held on the 9th, and the lao dot dam is held on the 12th of January. Nowadays, the festival is held on a large scale every 5 years in even-numbered years.