There have been 26 antiques stolen from four communal houses and pagodas in Hanoi during the past month.

La Phu village in Hanoi’s outlying district of Hoai Duc is one of the few ancient rural villages that well preserve its communal house and traditional festivals.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Communal houses in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue sit forgotten, left to degrade into ruins after being deserted in the process of urbanisation. 

 Around the time Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly, under the orders of Emperor Napoleon III, fired the first canon shots of the Cochinchina campaign to lay claim to what would become France’s colony of Indochina, 

VietNamNet Bridge – Centuries-old communal houses have gone underappreciated, but a group of history lovers wants to help popularise the structures’ cultural and aesthetic values.  

The key role that communal houses play in preserving and developing the nation's culture should be recognised and brought into full play lest they fall prey to modern times, experts said at a conference in Ha Noi this week.