Discovering interesting stories about the most beautiful communal house in Southern Vietnam

"The communal house has a good landscape / It is in the Ba Lua canal with great river outside / The ground is high with steps like stairs / In the main hall, there is solemn worship". Those are the verses by author Nguyen Lien Phong introducing about the beautiful landscape as well as the large and dignified architecture of Phu Cuong communal house (or called Ba Lua communal house) in the "Nam ky phong tuc, nhan vat dien ca” work.

Located in Thu Dau Mot city’s Phu Tho ward, Phu Cuong communal house is on the North bank of Ba Lua canal under the Saigon river, possessing a boldly architectural beauty in the style of the Southern temples. Therefore, the name of Ba Lua communal house is popularized widely. This is the communal house to worship the god of Phu Cuong village, born very early in Thu Dau Mot. After being restored many times, Ba Lua communal house is no longer original than before. Especially, the rebuilding in 1957 changed the architecture of the old communal house. But, documents and oral transmission from people showed that this was one of the most beautiful communal houses in the South at that time because it had a unique architecture style with patterns made of dragon lacquer, ancient weapons, beautiful and precious wooden pillars.

Phu Cuong communal house possesses a boldly architectural beauty in the style of Southern temples

The main hall of the communal house is built on a high foundation, with architecture in the old traditional style with three houses with roofs in the “三”style; trusses, columns…are all cast with cement. The innermost compartment of the main hall is called the Chanh palace or the harem to worship the god of the village.  The two sides are mosaics to worship left state and right state. The incense table is opposite to the altar. In the main room, there are also horizontal panels, couplets to create solemnity for the place of worship. The space in the middle is the space for sacrifices, for making offerings to the gods, and for reading orations on the occasion of the sacrifices… The pre-sacred space also has a pair of wooden platforms carved in the shape of four spirits, which were offered by Deputy General Binh Dien in the year of Giap Thin (1904). In the outermost space, there is a shrine for Tien Hien and Hau Hien. On both sides of the main hall, there is a Dong Lang for men and women to meet and a warehouse. There is a dragon and tiger screen, an altar to the god Nong and both sides worshipping the left guard, the right guard in front of the communal house.

Although not keeping the architectural prototype of an old communal house, Phu Cuong communal house today still preserves the cultural values ​​of the old village and is a place for the local people to return to traditional culture. Every year, the communal house has two festivals, including “Ky Yen” festival held on January 11 and “Thu te” festival to report the results of the harvest which is held on the 1st day of the 10th lunar month. On these occasions, in addition to the local people, a large number of people in neighboring areas also gather to attend the festivals of the communal house. With the values associated with this ancient communal house, on June 2, 2004, provincial People's Committee issued a decision to recognize Phu Cuong commonal house as a provincial-level historical and cultural relic.

So far, there have been many anecdotes about the beautiful communal house that once existed, especially the information about a version of the communal house in France as said by local people. This is quite interesting. To know more about the anecdotes of Ba Lua communal house, as well as why it is orally transmitted as the most beautiful communal house in the South..., please watch the next episode of the program "I love Binh Duong". The program conducted by Binh Duong Newspaper will be broadcast at 6 am on Sunday, June 11 at the address: baobinhduong.vn.

Reported by Thuc Van-Translated by Kim Tin