23. Historical, cultural, architectural and artistic relic of Long Dien Communal House

Long Dien Communal House is also known as Long Phuong communal house as it was built in the ancient Long Phuong hamlet. The communal house is located in a beautiful location, on a high turtle-shaped mound, which ancient people called Go Don. Currently, the communal house is located in Long Phuong neighborhood, Long Dien town. The entire communal house campus is located within a rectangular wall, hidden among the green of an ancient forest of trees over a hundred years old, including types of wood such as: apitong, goldden oak, afzelia xylocarpa, dalbergia oliveri, Pterocarpus macrocarpus, etc., luxuriant all year round, giving off cool shade. The gate opens to the windswept Bau Thanh side, from here visitors can enjoy admiring the green rice fields, orchards and peaceful villages.

Regarding the construction date of the communal house, there is currently no document recorded. According to the seniors, however, this is Long Dien’s oldest communal house. According to the story, Long Dien Communal House was built at the same time as Long Ban Pagoda. On the oblique column of the communal house, there is an inscription of Chinese characters discovered when repairing, “Thieu Tri ngu nien tao” (Built in the 5th year of Thieu Tri Emperor – 1845). Based on this valuable document, Long Dien Communal House was built in 1845. In the beginning, the communal house was built with wood on the foundation of an ancient rampart; the remaining evidence behind the communal house is a 50 meters long, 3 meters high wall built of lime-washed laterite, in the middle of the wall is a high gazebo, and below is a gate; this relic proved to be a citadel of the Cambodian people, then used by the Nguyen Dynasty, which remains to this day. In Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi, it is also recorded: “The old rampart of Phuoc Tu, East of Bien Phuoc station, belongs to Phuoc An territory. In the past, the Cambodian people, Bo Tam, built a soil rampart at the beginning of Hung Phuoc, planted bamboo and thorns, the structure was very solid (…), later generations still followed that position and made it an important post of Dao Hung Phuoc, the old bamboo banks and pillars still remain today. This is important evidence that the communal house was built on the old foundation of the ancient rampart and still retains the original wall surrounding the communal house grounds.

Over the past 150 years, Long Dien Communal House has been restored and repaired many times, but the largest in 1900 due to heavy damages, the communal house was completely rebuilt with a more extensive scale, made of brick, stone, cement, and tile roofs. In 1945, due to the destruction of the war and the “Scorched Earth Policy”, the communal house was destroyed; until 1958, the communal house was renovated as it is today. The architecture of Long Dien Communal House includes: gate, screen, martial music house, main hall, back house, in addition to Tien Su worshiping house, the kitchen and the shrine of Than Nong are located separately. At the Main Hall, the central altar only worships the word God in Confucian characters, which is the place to worship Tutelary God, on both sides are the Left and Right altars. In the funeral eulogy for the Tutelary God, it was mentioned as “Dominion in control of the world, Do Dai Thanh Hoang Dai Vuong”; according to the elders, in the past, the communal house  still retained its ordination, but due to the destruction of the war, the communal house burned down in 1946, so it no longer exists. In Long Dien communal house, there are still many altars, hammock doors, horizontal lacquered boards, symmetrical sentences…carved, painted and gilded very elaborately, by the hands of extremely skillful and talented artisans. Using the method of perforation on wood, the artisans created very vivid sculptural images: two dragons flanking the moon, apricot trees, orchids, chrysanthemums, bamboo, grape vines…

The architectural complex of Long Dien communal house forming the letter Dinh, including: three-entrance gate, martial arts stage, main hall, next to it is the master’s house, kitchen and right next to the communal house is Emperor Shen Nong temple…located in a communal area with 169 ancient trees, creating a cool and quiet space for the communal house.

On an annual basis, Long Dien Communal House holds Ky Yen festival on the 16^th, 17^th, 18^th day of the second lunar month with the main ceremonies: Thinh Sanh, Tuc Yet, Dan Ca, Tien Hien, Hau Hien… Ky Yen festival is considered a great annual festival associated with the agricultural festival, praying for the peace of the people, favorable rain and wind, bumper crops, peaceful and full houses… of agricultural residents. During the festival, local residents gather to worship the gods, play and enjoy the music.

Through many ups and downs of history, Long Dien Communal House still preserves traditional festival rituals of ancient agricultural residents and today, the communal house is still a place of spiritual and folk belief activities of residents of Long Phuong area. Existing for over 150 years, Long Dien Communal House along with other ancient relics: Long Ban pagoda, Long Hoa pagoda, Hac Lang Communal House… have become important historical traces and evidences of the process of reclamation, hamlet establishment and village creation of the first Vietnamese people in Long Dien and preserved and spiritually nurtured through many generations until today.