Tan Lan Communal House

On a road beside the Đồng Nai River in Biên Hòa, a communal house carries a small museum of pottery on its roof. This is the Tân Lân communal house, a national monument of history and art in Đồng Nai province.

The province's 2026 list of monuments places the house in Trấn Biên Ward. Many older records give another address, in Biên Hòa city. They place the house on Nguyễn Văn Trị Street, in Hòa Bình Ward. Both ways of writing it are right for their time, because the administrative units have changed. What has not changed is the position of the house. Its front faces the Đồng Nai River, and its back rests against the heart of the old city.

The house was ranked a national monument of history and art by Decision 457 of the Minister of Culture, dated March 25, 1991. This kind of ranking recognizes value in two ways: the history behind the house, and the art that decorates its roof and its interior.

The main figure worshipped here is the Admiral and General Trần Thượng Xuyên. Local sources record that he helped to open, expand and defend the region of Đồng Nai and Gia Định. This was in the time of the Nguyễn lords. The Nguyễn lords were a noble family who ruled southern Vietnam from the 16th to the 18th century. So the story of Tân Lân belongs to a very particular layer of history: the making of the Đồng Nai land, where Vietnamese and Chinese residents cleared new ground together.

A local newspaper reports that the place of worship began in 1820 as a shrine. It stood near the Biên Hòa Citadel and was called Tân Lân. The name was taken from the village. In the south, it is very common to name a shrine or communal house after the place of its own community. Local legend adds that it began as a small shrine in the area of the Kèn citadel, in the time of Emperor Minh Mạng. After two moves, in 1861 and in 1906, the house came to where it stands today.

The years from 1906 to 1908 matter most. In that time the roof of the front hall was decorated with Cây Mai pottery, which the newspaper describes as the finest artistic feature of the house. That account names the Bửu Nguyên kiln as the maker of the first row of small figures on the roof, and the Đồng Hòa kiln as the maker of the second and third rows. Both kilns belonged to the Chợ Lớn and old Saigon area, the largest center in the south for making decorative pottery for communal houses and temples at that time.

On the roof of the front hall are figures of people and creatures of every kind. A library in Đồng Nai lists the subjects of the decoration. They include the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, and Quan Công escorting his two sisters-in-law. Quan Công was a general of ancient China, later worshipped as a god of war. Other subjects are scenes from the Warring States period, a carp turning into a dragon, two dragons contesting a pearl, the sun and the moon, and the dragon and the phoenix. Each one carries its own meaning: a blessing, a prayer for prosperity, a reminder of a Chinese literary tale, or a sign of folk belief. All of it came from the hands of the Chợ Lớn potters, more than 100 years ago.

The house follows the Tam plan, which means three buildings in a row: the front hall, the main hall and the rear sanctuary. This plan is very common in the communal houses and temples of the Chinese and Chinese-Vietnamese communities in the south. The main hall honors Trần Thượng Xuyên. It has rows of large wooden columns, horizontal boards, paired verses and carved wooden frames. The newspaper also records two sets of the eight treasures made of bronze. The rear sanctuary has three rooms. In the middle is worshipped the Tiên Sư. On either side are the Tiền Thứ of Vietnam and the Tiền Thứ of China. Also worshipped alongside are Ngũ Hành Nương Nương and the Thổ Thần.

Tân Lân is not grand in size, but each detail has a story. There is the name itself, and the pottery on the roof. There is the story of Trần Thượng Xuyên, and the settlers who made Biên Hòa. Under that roof, Vietnamese and Chinese memory has been kept for more than 100 years.