A place to preserve ancient traces

Restoration of the secret tunnel in nearly-200-year communal house is the wish of the seniors as well as members of Di An communal house's Management Board (Nhi Dong 1 ward, Di An ward, Di An town). That wish was shared by the elderly when we visited this house. According to the seniors, this would add values to this national historical and cultural relic...

Di An communal house is restored spaciously.

From cultural vestiges

Di An communal house on weekends usually has a large number of visitors. Trịnh Văn Xuân, Head of Di An communal house's Management Board, said that more and more people had come to this special communal house, which is located in the heart of a crowded city. Since being recognized as a national monument, the number of visitors has increased.

In July 2019, provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and People's Committee of Di An Town co-organized a ceremony to hand over the decision of recognizing Di An communal house as National historical and cultural monument. This also heightened locals' pride in their hometown. In 2011, Di An communal house was recognized as a province-level cultural and historical monument. At the proposal of Provincial People's Committee, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism signed a recognition decision for Di An communal house on 28 Mar 2019.

According to historical data, the communal house was called initially a temple, because it was only built temporarily of bamboo and thatched leaves. Around 1838, when the population here was more crowded, people joined hands to build this temple into a communal house to worship a deity named Thành Hoàng Bổn Cảnh. After many renovations, Di An communal house still retains the old architecture, and is a place of folk beliefs for the locals.

The restoration and renovation of this relic but still retaining the traditional cultural features always concerns cultural managers, management boards as well as benefactors. Therefore, Di An communal house still retains ancient characters in the heart of a town with fast economic development and urbanization pace. Di An communal house has an area of more than 24,000m2, has a specfic architecture with adjacent rows of houses, including: Võ Ca, Tiền Điện, Chánh Điện, and Hậu Điện houses. There are now guest houses, Ngũ Hành temples, Hùng King temple, martyrs and Vietnamese heroic mothers temples in this monument. Particularly, the main hall preserves the old architecture built in 1910.

To revolutionary vestiges

One thing to be proud of is that this place is not only a unique architectural and artistic monument attracting visitors by peaceful natural sceneries but also a place to keep traces of secret hidden tunnels from the revolutionary war.

According to Trịnh Văn Xuân, in addition to a place of cultural and folk beliefs, during the two wars against the French and the Americans, this communal house used to be a base of Dao Son Tay's revolutionary soldiers. In particular, during the resistance war against the Americans, the communal house was also a stopover and shelter of Thu Dau Mot armed forces. In the communal house, there are still some secret underground tunnels of Dao Son Tay's army. Although at present, all of the secret tunnels are leveled by concrete, but the traces are still preserved and can restore some tunnels for visitors to know more about the history of this monument.

Mr. Xuân said that there were about 16-17 secret hideouts within this communal house. Because this is a land of primeval forest and fields, it was very convenient to hide revolutionary cadres. The seniors said, on some worshipping occasions, many soldiers came to understand the situation. They dressed up like locals, so nobody knew about their identity. There is a very interesting thing that here was a very fierce war area but on these worshipping occasions, especially in lunar November feast, the two sides ceased fire. They let the locals do the right rituals, enjoyed together folk songs during 3 days of the festival”, Mr. Xuân said.

Mr. Xuân also said that the common aspiration of the Communal house's Management Board was that with the approval of Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and local government leaders, the board would call donations and labors from locals to dig some trench covers; making clear and detailed notes to introduce historical documents and images of the communal house in particular and the land in general to visitors. This land was originally owned by Trịnh Văn Bồi, great-grandfather of Trịnh Văn Xuân, and then was dedicated to build this communal house. Therefore, Mr. Xuân understands this place very well.

Another memorable event was that in the years 1960-1961, the enemy had a plan to flatten this land. At that time, Trần Văn Xe was the keeper, knew that there were many secret trenches here, so he took advantage of his acquaintance with the interpreter. He asked the interpreter to say that this was a primeval forest with many rare and precious woods that should not be destroyed. So the temple and the forest were retained. The secret hideouts were still a place for living and fighting of our army until the national liberation day.

A place to hide revolutionary officials

Nguyễn Văn Phục, born in 1941, is now the keeper of this monument. Mr. Phục also joined the revolutionary side, and was arrested and imprisoned at Chí Hòa from February 1962 until 1964. After that, he worked at Di An Wagon Factory. Since 1992, after retirement, he has been in this communal house. According to Mr. Phục, during the resistance war against the US, he heard a lot about our revolutionary soldiers, witnessed locals conceiving and caring for revolutionary soldiers at this house. “I still remember very clearly about the four cadres who used to live in the secret trenches of Di An Temple. They were Nguyễn Văn Chịu, Phạm Văn Kịch, Tô Văn Phương, and Trần Văn Chỗ. They were in this communal house from 1962 to 1968. People around this region were very proud of this, as hiding these cadres and helping them, providing food, medicine, and making communications for revolutionary forces", Mr. Phục said.

Once the secret trenches here are restored, it will add values to this monument. This will also be an address of historical tourism, good example for historical education for the next generations...

Reported by Quynh Nhu - Translated by Ngoc Huynh