By mid-2024, the country will have more than 40,000 relics, including 8 World Cultural and Natural Heritages, 130 Special National Monuments, 3,621 National Monuments, and more than 10,000 provincial-level relics.
More than 4000 years of history have left the Vietnamese people with a rich and diverse cultural heritage. It is not only a priceless asset of the nation but also an important resource for the sustainable development of the country.
In the context of strong globalization and urbanization, preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage is becoming an increasingly important and urgent task.
Cultural heritage - the "soft power" of the nation
Cultural heritage includes intangible cultural heritage and tangible cultural heritage, which are spiritual and material products of historical, cultural and scientific value, passed down from generation to generation in Vietnam.
Among them, intangible cultural heritage is a spiritual product associated with a community or individual, objects and related cultural spaces, with historical, cultural and scientific value, expressing the identity of the community, constantly recreated and passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, craft, performance and other forms; tangible cultural heritage is a material product with historical, cultural and scientific value, including historical-cultural relics, scenic spots, relics, antiquities and national treasures.
Our country has a rich history and culture of thousands of years with a system of tangible and intangible cultural heritages that are extremely diverse, unique and valuable. Cultural heritages not only enrich the spiritual life of people and society, but are also valuable resources for developing the tourism industry in a sustainable direction.
According to statistics from the Department of Heritage (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), by mid-2024, there will be more than 40,000 relics nationwide, including 8 UNESCO-recognized World Cultural and Natural Heritages, 130 Special National Monuments, 3,621 National Monuments, and more than 10,000 provincial-level relics.
Regarding intangible cultural heritage, there are about 70,000 heritages that have been inventoried nationwide, 15 intangible cultural heritages have been listed by UNESCO in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding; 9 documentary heritages belong to UNESCO's Memory of the World program; 498 intangible cultural heritages have been included in the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritages and 265 artifacts and groups of artifacts have been recognized by the Prime Minister as National Treasures.
In particular, Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex is currently the only mixed world heritage not only in Vietnam but also in Southeast Asia.
This rich cultural heritage not only creates diversity, richness and identity of national culture in the context of international integration, but is also an important factor and resource for the socio-economic development of the country.
In terms of socio-economic aspects, many cultural heritages have become complete cultural-tourism products, both the driving force and the target for tourism development. These are valuable assets that contribute to positioning the national and ethnic brand in the period of global integration.
Five-year data (2016-2020) shows that the total number of tourists at World Heritage sites in Vietnam in 2016 was 14.3 million visitors, increasing to about 18.2 million visitors in 2019.
Total revenue from ticket sales and services at World Heritage sites in Vietnam in 2016 was about VND 1,776 billion, reaching about VND 2,322 billion in 2019. Since 2020, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of visitors and revenue has decreased sharply, but is gradually recovering.
Driving force for sustainable development
In recent years, Vietnam has increasingly valued heritage resources and considered cultural heritage in particular and culture in general as a type of resource that, if used appropriately, will be a driving force and catalyst for sustainable development.
Therefore, the Government has supported thousands of billions of VND for localities across the country to protect, restore, embellish and rehabilitate relics. Relics and scenic spots that have been restored and embellished have become attractive destinations attracting more and more domestic and international tourists to visit and research. For example, the Complex of Hue Monuments (1993) and Ha Long Bay (1994), when they were first listed as World Cultural and Natural Heritage, only had a few tens of thousands of tourists, but now they have attracted millions of visitors to visit and research each year.
Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, after 5 years of being recognized by UNESCO, has attracted more than 6.3 million visitors/year.
The socialization of activities to protect and promote the value of relics has also achieved positive results, mobilizing a significant amount of capital from organizations, unions, businesses, communities and aid capital from UNESCO, government and non-governmental organizations for the protection, renovation, embellishment and restoration of relics.
Restoration projects of historical sites such as the One Pillar Pagoda or structures in the ancient capital of Hue have been carried out with the active participation of the local community. This not only preserves historical values but also creates opportunities for tourism development.
In addition, intangible cultural heritages are also collected, researched, restored, transmitted and performed, directly improving cultural life at the grassroots level and developing the socio-economic life of local communities.
Many community groups actively, meaningfully and voluntarily participate in protecting cultural heritage. This participation is not only reflected in statistics (number of restored and embellished relics, number of established art clubs, number of people participating in heritage practices...), but also in the passion for heritage, the desire to teach heritage to the next generation, and the willingness to invest effort and money in restoring, embellishing and protecting cultural heritage.
In some places, many intangible cultural heritages have become attractive destinations for domestic and foreign visitors, creating a brand and unique mark for the locality with the heritage, such as Quan Ho Bac Ninh, Soc Temple Festival, Huong Pagoda in Hanoi, Ca Hue, and Soc Trang Boat Race.
This remarkable change contains many typical practices of poverty reduction, through solving jobs for tens of thousands of workers, improving the lives of local communities in places where heritage is located.
In many localities, cultural heritage has contributed greatly to shifting and changing the economic structure. After 20 years since becoming a World Heritage Site, Hoi An has helped the local tourism industry grow dramatically, now accounting for more than 70% of the city's GDP.
These revenues have added significantly to local spending on improving infrastructure, education, health, security and on the conservation of heritage sites themselves.
On the other hand, keeping up with technological advances and digital transformation applications, the application of new technology in heritage management and conservation, and the construction of digital databases on cultural heritage have been set by the State and are increasing.
On December 2, 2021, the Prime Minister approved the Program for Digitizing Vietnamese Cultural Heritage for the 2021-2030 period. On that basis, agencies and units have initially digitized and standardized existing data of museums and relic management boards nationwide, aiming to gradually form a shared database for the industry.
This is not only useful in conservation work, creating a treasure trove of detailed information about tangible and intangible values, but also creating a foundation for maximizing the potential of heritage in the cultural industry.
As one of the pioneers in preserving intangible cultural heritage, after more than 25 years, the Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts currently stores a large amount of data on moving and still images, scientific reports on intangible cultural heritage of Vietnamese ethnic groups, including nearly 5,700 video tapes of various types; 980 photo albums with nearly 91,700 photos.
The Institute has also digitized more than 700 scientific reports, 1,154 scientific-documentary films and 40,000 photos, and is creating a database for intangible cultural projects...
This data digitization process requires large resources in terms of finance, human resources, technology and time, but will contribute significantly to providing a database of relics and relic conservation for the cultural sector.
In 2023, Vietnam was voted the “World's Leading Heritage Destination” by the World Travel Awards (WTA) for the fourth time, once again affirming the potential and leading attraction of natural resources as well as the value of Vietnam's long-standing cultural heritage, contributing to raising the level of Vietnamese tourism, making Vietnam shine on the world tourism map.
Consistent policy in preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage of the Party and State
Since early on, our Party and State have recognized the importance of Vietnamese cultural heritage and have consistently advocated the need to care for, preserve and promote the traditional cultural values of the nation. On November 23, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh signed Decree No. 65/SL “Determining the tasks of the Oriental Archaeological Institute” - this is the first Decree of our State on the preservation of national cultural heritage. The Decree affirmed that the preservation of ancient relics “is a very important and necessary task for the construction of Vietnam.”
Since then, awareness of the role of cultural heritage in socio-economic development has been increasingly enhanced. The Government has issued many resolutions to connect cultural heritage with sustainable development, affirming that culture is not only a goal but also a driving force for development.
Those documents have a profound impact on the process of preserving, protecting and promoting the value of the nation's cultural heritage.
In 2001, the Law on Cultural Heritage was passed by the 10th National Assembly, 9th Session. This is the highest legal basis for protecting and promoting the value of cultural heritage in Vietnam. And in 2005, the Prime Minister decided to take November 23 as "Vietnam Cultural Heritage Day" to "promote the tradition and sense of responsibility of those working to protect and promote the value of Vietnamese cultural heritage, and encourage all social classes to actively participate in the cause of protecting and promoting the value of national cultural heritage."
Over the years, Vietnam Cultural Heritage Day has become a major festival, lighting the flame of national cultural heritage in the hearts of millions of Vietnamese people.
In particular, the development of the Party's theoretical thinking on "promoting the soft power of Vietnamese culture" - first appearing in the Party's 13th National Congress Document - has affirmed the fine values of tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Vietnamese people.
Vietnamese cultural identity and the strength of Vietnamese people have become the roots of national cultural soft power, endogenous strength, a great resource and driving force of the country in sustainable development and international integration.
Preserving cultural heritage is not only the responsibility of the state but also the duty of each individual in society. Only when we join hands to preserve these precious values, can Vietnam's cultural heritage shine forever in the hearts of each citizen and international friends./.
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