Preserving Cho Xam communal house relic

(Baonghean) - During the two wars of national salvation, Xam market communal house was not only a place for activities and meetings of the Kim Khe Trung village independent Party cell but also a place to send off Nghi Hoa (Nghi Loc) children to join the army; a place where festivals of the local people took place. Currently, Nghi Hoa people are making efforts to preserve and restore Xam market communal house, folk games associated with traditional festivals... to meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the people.

Memories of the old temple

According to the memory of Mr. Dang Van Dien (75 years old) in Hoa Trung hamlet, Cho Xam communal house was very big at that time, located on a high flat mound in the East of the village. The communal house had two upper and lower halls. The upper hall consisted of a two-sided room, a four-pillar structure, with four ironwood pillars 2.78m high, 0.70m in diameter, the communal house roof was covered with yin-yang tiles, on the top was a relief of two dragons facing the moon, in front of the gate there was a gate. Around the communal house was built a row of walls; on top were sculptures of animals such as horses, elephants and soldiers holding swords standing guard. On both sides of the gate were two fang pillars 3.5m high, on top were reliefs of lotus flowers. In the middle of the communal house yard there was an ancient banyan tree, further enhancing the ancient majesty of the communal house.

Next to the communal house to the south is the Chua well - this is a well built during the French period, the water is clear, cool and extremely sweet. On hot summer days, people coming back from the fields, stop by the communal house to sit under the banyan tree to enjoy the cool breeze, not forgetting to scoop up a bucket of well water to drink to cool off. The Chua well provided water for the entire Kim Khe Trung area at that time (including 3 communes Nghi Hoa, Nghi Thuan and Nghi Long). Along with the communal house and the Chua well, there is also a Buddhist temple in the west - a place to worship Confucius and Mencius, a celestial altar to worship the god Nong built in the sky. Not only is it a spiritual place for people in the area to visit on the 15th and 1st of every month, the day of vegetarianism, but the communal house also annually organizes many traditional festivals of the village such as the Thuong Nguyen Festival on the 7th of January, the Trung Nguyen Festival on the 15th of July, the Ha Nguyen Festival on the 15th of December, along with many traditional games such as chess, wrestling, playing cu, acting, singing... attracting a large number of people in the area and the whole district to participate.

A corner of Cho Xam communal house relic.

The Pagoda Well is located in the Cho Xam communal house relic complex.

The thing that the people of Kim Khe Trung area were most proud of at that time was that Cho Xam communal house was chosen by revolutionaries as a center for communication, meetings, printing, and hiding Party documents during the revolutionary movement of 1930 - 1931. It was the place where the Kim Nguyen General Party Cell was established, where 300 farmers gathered to coordinate with the Dang Xa, Van Trinh, and Thuong Xa communes to go to the district capital to demand tax reduction and to divide public land for poor farmers, where there was an ancient banyan tree where the French executed 19 revolutionary soldiers... It was also here that every night under the light of peanut oil lamps with rudimentary printing tools, hundreds of leaflets about the struggle news, directives and resolutions of the Party were published. When the documents had not yet been transported, they were hidden in the altar and sacrificial objects. Cho Xam Communal House has been associated with many events in the heroic struggle history of Nghi Hoa people, especially during the Nghe Tinh Soviet period of 1930 - 1931. With that meaning, Cho Xam Communal House was recognized as a National Historical Relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information in 1998.

Conservation efforts

On a summer afternoon in June, following Mr. Dang Van Tam - a cultural officer of the commune, we visited the old communal house. The communal house is now located in the center of Hoa Dong village, next to the village cultural house, so many people come and go every day. The good news is that in 1994, in response to the wishes of the people, the commune restored the upper house - a place of worship and belief for the people on holidays, Tet or the 15th and 1st of the lunar month. Not far away, the Chua well is still intact, the water is still clear and cool, and every day the people of Hoa Trung village still come here to fetch water for use. Especially on days of great drought like this, the Chua well is the main source of water for hundreds of households in the area. Even better, around the communal house, rows of green trees of all kinds are cared for and protected by the people of the commune. Mr. Tam said: To restore the green color to the communal house, every year, on the Tet tree planting day "Forever grateful to Uncle Ho", organizations and people in the commune come together to plant more trees, both to create shade and to beautify the landscape of the communal house.

After being recognized as a National Historical Relic, the communal house has been restored and embellished by the State, partly meeting the spiritual and cultural needs of the people. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Van (the caretaker of the relic) said: On the 15th and 1st of every month, many people come to burn incense. On July 27th every year, young people come to learn about the history of the communal house. The Nghe Tinh Soviet Museum has also organized exhibitions to introduce images related to the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement so that people can better understand the value of the relic.

What Nghi Hoa people are concerned about is that the holy house where Confucius and Mencius are worshiped has not been restored. Only the upper temple remains; the ancient spiritual and cultural activities of the region such as festivals, traditional games, opera, etc. have not been restored. Ms. Tran Thi Ty (56 years old, Hoa Dong hamlet) said: People are very passionate because in Nghi Hoa there is only one relic cluster of Cho Xam communal house. Everywhere, in every locality, people restore, renovate, and embellish the relic to remind the origin, so that the young generation can understand the traditions of the village and the commune. People want the commune government to take more drastic action, to be more concerned. How to restore the lower temple, the pagoda, the banyan tree, etc. so that this place becomes a place for spiritual and cultural activities of the people. A place for extracurricular activities on history for teenagers and children.

Mrs. Ty's wish is also the wish of many Nghi Hoa people. However, the Nghi Hoa commune government has been concerned about how to properly promote the value of the Cho Xam communal house relic with long-term orientations. That is, in the coming time, to strengthen propaganda so that people and organizations can respond more to the movement of planting trees at the relic, especially to replant the banyan tree - an important historical relic in the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement of the Kim Khe Trung area. Choose a day - possibly the day 19 revolutionary soldiers were executed by the French as the main festival day of the Cho Xam communal house relic complex to organize memorials and pay tribute... Step by step restore the items of the communal house such as the church, the lower hall, the main yard... Assign the commune's cultural cadres, the Youth Union, the Women's Union, the Veterans Association and other organizations to restore folk games, traditional festivals... so that this place becomes a spiritual and cultural activity place for the people of Nghi Hoa in particular, and the people of Kim Khe Trung in general.

Thanh Thuy