An old man in Thanh Hoa has spent 40 years collecting valuable documents, preserving the 'soul' of ancient Thai script.

Love for Thai script

Mr. Ha Nam Ninh (born in 1949, Thai) in Canh Nang town, Ba Thuoc district, Thanh Hoa, is known as the person who "keeps the soul" of ancient Thai script. He has been awarded the title of Meritorious Artist, and is a "red address" for the archive of ancient Thai script.

Before he became involved in Thai language research, Mr. Ninh was a teacher. He then held many positions such as district education manager, Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee in charge of culture and society, etc.

Mr. Ninh introduces the ancient Thai documents he has collected. Photo: Le Duong

Since he was a child, Mr. Ninh was taught by his parents to speak Thai and understand the culture and customs of his people. However, people only communicated and talked to each other, most of them could not write or read Thai.

“When I became a teacher, I thought a lot about why I, a Thai person, had a written language but could not read or write. From then on, I wanted to learn about my ethnic writing, but I did not know where to start,” Mr. Ninh recalled.

Until 1985, during a meeting with provincial leaders, he met Mr. Ha Van Ban (at that time, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee). Mr. Ban was a researcher on Thai culture.

Ancient Thai scripts from hundreds of years ago. Photo: Le Duong

“Mr. Ban asked me if I knew Thai, I said no. He immediately criticized me and said that it was not acceptable for a Thai person not to know their own language, especially a cadre, as they were not worthy. Then he wrote me the Thai alphabet,” Mr. Ninh recalled.

Having wanted to learn about Thai script before, when he received the alphabet from Mr. Ban, Mr. Ninh learned it very quickly. Once he had memorized the characters, learned how to read and write, he officially began to research and collect documents about the language of his people.

He compiled documents on Thai script for the Thai people in Thanh Hoa. Photo: Le Duong

After 40 years, Mr. Ninh now has hundreds of valuable documents about traditional festivals, ancient literary works, and ancient scripts of the Thai people, such as: "The Story of the Road to Heaven" written during the reign of King Le Chieu Tong; "The Poetry of Kham Panh"; "Khun Lu - Nang Ua"; "Song chu son sao"; "Truyen tinh Pha-dua"...

These works are all valuable, vividly reflecting the cultural and spiritual life of the Thai people.

Free teaching to preserve handwriting

Mr. Ninh said that since he became proficient, every time he went to the grassroots, he spoke and taught Thai to the people. He also researched and compiled a number of documents on Thai such as: Ancient Thai script of Thanh Hoa, Vietnamese Thai script teaching set in Thanh Hoa, documents on teaching Thai ethnic language...

In addition, he also collected and translated many ancient Thai books into Mandarin with the desire to widely disseminate them to everyone.

Mr. Ninh was awarded the title of Meritorious Artisan. Photo: Le Duong

In addition to his work, Mr. Ninh also spends time opening free Thai language classes for local officials and people. After many years of opening free classes and achieving many successes, the Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training has granted him a certificate to teach Thai.

In 2006, Thanh Hoa province had a policy to encourage learning Thai. At that time, Mr. Ninh was the Vice President of the Ba Thuoc District Education Promotion Association, so he decided to open a Thai class right at the district People's Committee headquarters.

Despite his old age, Mr. Ninh still diligently teaches Thai. Photo: Le Duong

In 2007, to create a premise for implementing the project of teaching Thai language in the province, the Department of Education and Training of Thanh Hoa province invited Mr. Ninh to teach Thai language to a number of teachers of Hong Duc University.

Since then, every summer, he and Mr. Pham Ba Thuong (in Quan Son district) and some of his teachers and students go to teach Thai language. The students are all teachers and Thai people working in the highland districts.