Village temple on tour

Visitors experience calling pigeons to Thang Tam communal house.

This century-old heritage has now become a driving force and resource in the process of defining identity as well as exploiting cultural tourism .

The beauty of the village communal house

On the weekend, a tourist bus carrying more than 50 tourists stopped in front of the gate of Thang Tam communal house (Vung Tau ward, Ho Chi Minh City). In front of the communal house yard, tourists were excited to film and take pictures of the ancient architecture of the old communal house roof; another group of tourists scattered seeds and called birds to perch in the communal house yard. Inside, some tourists gently followed the tour guide to visit, worship, and listen to explanations about the relics and festivals of the communal house.

Thang Tam communal house is located at the position of “an son tu thuy” (mountain and water), built in 1820. Initially, the communal house was made of bamboo and leaves, but in 1835, the people contributed to repair and roof it with tiles. In 1965, the communal house was restored, solidly built, and kept the same architectural layout as today. The communal house worships the three people who contributed to the construction of three villages in Vung Tau, namely Pham Van Dinh, Le Van Loc, and Ngo Van Huyen.

The communal house has a continuous architecture consisting of four houses connected by a side path, which are the front house - the meeting hall - the middle house - the martial arts stage. The communal house is decorated with many elaborately carved ceremonial objects, splendidly painted with gold. The front house is roofed with yin-yang tiles, on the roof there is a relief of "two dragons worshipping the moon". The ends of the rafters, purlins, and columns are all carved with dragons.

Traditional village festivals become unique tourism products

Thang Nhi communal house is located near the river mouth and Ben Dinh market, which is also a communal house with long-standing cultural and historical value. Mr. Mai Van Ba (residing at 36/2 Ngu Phu, Vung Tau ward, Ho Chi Minh City) said that he was born and raised in Thang Nhi and has witnessed many changes in this land.

“Today, the streets of Thang Nhi have been expanded and paved, becoming a bustling commercial center, people's lives have also been improved, but Thang Nhi communal house is still a place to remember the merits of those who opened the land and established the village with the spirit of being near the market first, near the river second,” Mr. Ba said.

Long Huong communal house is one of the communal houses with more than 200 years of age located near Dinh river (Long Huong ward, Ho Chi Minh city). According to many elders of Long Huong commune, Long Huong communal house was built in 1850. During the 9 years of resistance against French colonialism, Long Huong communal house was a place to shelter and hide revolutionary cadres; the communal house's grounds have many tall ancient trees that were used by guerrillas as a place to guard and observe the enemy from many directions, creating favorable conditions for cadres to build revolutionary bases.

The historical and cultural values and unique architecture of the communal house are the factors that attract tourists.

Analyzing the architecture of communal houses, architect Nguyen Duc Lap - Chairman of the Association of Architects of Ba Ria-Vung Tau said that communal houses in the East of Ho Chi Minh City are a complex of many square houses with 4 main pillars, or long houses with three compartments and two wings. The communal houses are often built on high mounds of land, in beautiful locations, near markets, and convenient for transportation.

The communal house has a four-pillar structure, extending to four sides by a set of rafters and rafters of equal square shape. The roof is covered with yin-yang tiles, on the roof are often attached colored glazed ceramic images with the following subjects: two dragons fighting for a pearl, a phoenix holding a scroll, a mother unicorn teaching her baby unicorn, a fish transforming into a dragon...

Mr. Pham Chi Than, former Director of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Museum, said that in the East of Ho Chi Minh City, communal houses of fishing villages are often built next to temples, pagodas, shrines, markets... forming an economic - cultural - religious center of the village, a place to discuss village work, a place to worship Thanh Hoang god, Natural gods, Human gods, historical figures, predecessors who have contributed to the village and the country...

“Therefore, the communal house becomes the center of sympathy, a place to nurture and convey the villagers’ feelings related to the past, present and future. Over time, the communal houses along the river and near the market still exist as a lasting cultural beauty, becoming an attractive destination for tourists,” said Mr. Than.

Travel Connection

The system of 15 communal houses and ancient pagodas representing traditional architectural art and festivals, expressing the cultural identity of Vietnamese folk beliefs, currently existing in the East of Ho Chi Minh City, is a beautiful cultural feature that is being exploited to develop tourism.

Mr. Pham Ngoc Hai, Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Association, said that with the diversity of architecture and style, the old communal houses can be a connection between the ancient and modern cultures. The communal house is a gathering place for the ancient community but is also a part of the spiritual life of the people in the present time. Therefore, in recent years, tourism and travel agencies have connected so that visitors to the coastal communes and wards of Ho Chi Minh City can admire the quintessence of the ancient communal house roofs and Vietnamese villages.

Panoramic view of the village communal house

From a local perspective, Mr. Vu Hong Thuan, Chairman of the People's Committee of Vung Tau Ward, also said: "In addition to tourism products such as swimming, sports, modern entertainment, bringing the ancient beauty of the village communal house into tourism development is a matter of local concern. Especially in recent years, festivals at the village communal house such as Nghinh Ong Thang Tam festival have been developed into unique tourism products that both promote national intangible heritage and attract domestic and international tourists. Thanks to that, the number of tourists to Vung Tau has always increased steadily over the years."

However, exploiting the value of communal house heritage in tourism development activities is still a challenging problem, requiring creative approaches with the cooperation of the community, government and businesses.

According to Mr. Le Hong Tu, Director of BT Tour Community Tourism and Event Organization Company Limited, in order for the communal house heritage to become an attractive destination for tourists, first of all, the infrastructure and service system must be improved synchronously. Especially, the participation of local authorities and the community in renovating, preserving landscape space, environmental sanitation, and organizing tourism training for local people.

In addition, coordinate and connect with travel businesses to build products, design tours and routes with destinations being communal houses with typical values...

In the long term, there needs to be appropriate mechanisms and policies to encourage the community to join hands in protecting and promoting communal house heritage to become a branded cultural tourism product.

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