My Son Temple Complex - an important religious center of the Champa kingdom with unique historical, cultural and architectural values.
Culture is the core, soul, character and pride of the nation. Vietnamese cultural heritage is a valuable asset of the Vietnamese ethnic community and a part of the world cultural heritage, playing a great role in the cause of building and defending the country of our people.
Protecting and promoting the value of cultural heritage not only meets the people's increasing cultural needs but also contributes to building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity and contributing to the world's cultural heritage.
Duy Xuyen District (Quang Nam) is a good land, the birthplace of talented people and also the place to preserve many long-standing cultural and historical values. The land on the southern bank of Thu Bon River converges and intersects many economic, cultural, historical and spiritual values, coming from ancient civilizations such as Sa Huynh, Champa, Dai Viet ... with cultural depth, rich heritage, along with regional and global connectivity and integration. A typical example is My Son Temple Complex - an important religious center of the Champa Kingdom, with unique and outstanding historical, cultural, architectural and artistic values...
25 years ago, on December 4, 1999, My Son Temple Complex was honored as a World Cultural Heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
This is an affirmation of the pinnacle values of the cultural history and architectural art of the Champa civilization that once flourished. At the same time, it is a great source of pride for the people of the whole country in general, the government and people of Quang Nam province and Duy Xuyen district in particular.
Over the past 25 years, since My Son Sanctuary was recognized by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage, with the attention of the Party and State, and the financial, human and technological support of international organizations and countries such as Japan, Italy, India, Poland, etc., Quang Nam province, Duy Xuyen district government, and the community have made many positive contributions, joining hands to preserve and conserve this priceless heritage for today's and future generations.
Preserving and promoting in the right direction is the most optimal and effective way to preserve the relic so that its original value is retained.
In which, preserving and promoting in the right direction is the most optimal and effective way to preserve the relics so that their original values are preserved, ensuring authenticity on the basis of conservation principles according to the Convention, the United Nations Charter and the Law on Cultural Heritage of Vietnam.
Many development programs, plans and goals have been outlined; scientific research, restoration and archaeological research have been carried out synchronously. In particular, international cooperation is the focus, with many international programs and projects. The efforts over the past time have brought about extremely important results, with outstanding significance in the restoration of Cham relics in the Central region, becoming a model of restoration in the whole country.
Important projects marking progress in conservation and restoration work include: The UNESCO-Vietnam-Italy tripartite restoration and restoration project on "Presentation and training on international standards for the conservation of My Son G tower group"; Khe The stream archaeological excavation project; E7 tower restoration project; and currently the conservation and restoration project of K, H, A tower groups under the Indian project, implemented from 2016 - 2022.
Not only that, traditional values of intangible culture, traditional Cham folk culture are also cared for and preserved, serving tourists visiting My Son Temple Complex, contributing to spreading local spiritual cultural values through events such as festivals and community activities. In addition, the work of preserving heritage landscapes is also focused on. Many hectares of primeval forests are restored, flora and fauna are collected and researched for effective conservation, completely preserving 1,158 hectares of natural forests, preserving the green color of My Son, the cultural space of the Heritage Site is increasingly greener and more beautiful.
In particular, in the field of heritage management, the My Son Temple Complex has had its Plan for conservation, restoration and promotion of world heritage values approved by the Prime Minister, as a basis for fulfilling its commitment to UNESCO in best protecting the outstanding global values of the heritage.
My Son temple complex is the center for promoting tourism in the district.
In the field of tourism, Duy Xuyen district has issued many programs and projects to promote development in accordance with the cultural and historical characteristics of the region. In particular, My Son Temple Complex has been chosen as the center to promote tourism in the district.
From the right direction, priority is given to My Son, resources are favored, investment value is gradually spread across the fields of infrastructure, human resources, and material resources.
The work of building and preserving heritage brands to develop sustainable tourism is focused on. The work of investing in promoting heritage is improved to be more suitable with the trend of the times. Human resources are improved in quality and quantity. Tourism activities are increasingly modern and environmentally friendly. The space for spreading tourism is gradually expanding, people's awareness of tourism and tourism economy is raised.
The issue of community benefiting together is concerned with sharing benefits and enjoying responsibilities. In practice, in the process of heritage management, community participation has brought about great results, but that can only be achieved when we have the right approach in community-based heritage management, making the community understand, love the heritage and benefit from the heritage. There is no stronger heritage protection fence than the protection fence built with the love and sense of responsibility of the community.
After 25 years of continuous efforts, the work of preserving and promoting the value of the world cultural heritage My Son associated with the community has achieved outstanding successes, My Son has developed in a positive and sustainable direction. From education and propaganda work about Heritage, to communication work to raise public awareness; from policies such as bringing heritage education into schools, promoting the dissemination of legal documents in the community, to policies to create livelihoods in relocating communities out of the core heritage area... Or the work of paying attention to training and vocational training in restoration, so that local people can directly participate in relic restoration projects, bringing multi-faceted benefits, so that the whole society can join hands to sustainably preserve the unique value of these thousand-year-old ancient architectural works.
The number of visitors every year is increasing.
Thanks to effective conservation and active promotion, the number of visitors has increased every year, each year higher than the previous year, increasing by an average of over 10%. In 2024 alone, tourism has strongly recovered after the pandemic, growing over 21% over the previous year. Revenue from tourism services reached over 70 billion VND.
From a deserted land, a relic forgotten during a long period of destruction by bombs and war, My Son has awakened, becoming a bright spot of restoration, embellishment and tourist attraction. The value of My Son is increasingly important in the political and social life of the district. Not only is it a potential economic field with competitive power, but it is also a source of pride, a soft power that influences culture to the outside.
The above achievements are thanks to the efforts of collectives and individuals through each generation, people contributing to the work of sustainable heritage conservation; as well as the attention of all levels of sectors from central to local. Along with that, there is the effective attention and assistance of international organizations, sectors from central to local, of domestic and international friends for My Son. They have made great, persistent contributions and even sacrifices for the cause of preserving and promoting the values of Vietnamese heritage. As local people, they have sacrificed their interests to contribute to the development of the heritage. Those people are part of the history of preserving this heritage.
The work of preserving and promoting the cultural and historical values of the world cultural heritage My Son continues. The role and mission of sustainable development of My Son heritage requires today's generation to always make every effort to preserve and effectively promote the precious traditional cultural values left by our ancestors.
Along with the achieved results, the My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board is setting out tasks to be carried out in the immediate and long term. That is to continue to improve the state management capacity in the conservation and promotion of heritage values. Focus on doing a good job of close coordination with relevant agencies in restoration, embellishment... taking advantage of the help of domestic and foreign organizations in terms of resources, especially capital, technical solutions, mobilizing resources of organizations and local communities for conservation.
In 25 years of development, My Son still has ruins buried by bombs and time, many ruins need to be preserved, so we need more international contributions, from all levels from central to local, heritage community, to join hands in the cause of preserving and developing the heritage more and more sustainably, as the late Polish architect Kazimierz Kwiatkowski (also known in Vietnam by the affectionate name architect Kazik) affirmed: My Son is "a priceless museum of architectural art of humanity".
At the same time, promote the completion of planning, harmoniously resolve the conservation and promotion of heritage values with the improvement of people's lives, especially those living in heritage areas. Invest in human resource development, meet the requirements of conservation and promotion of world cultural heritage values, associated with tourism development, especially the team working on relic restoration, regularly train to improve qualifications, train, and foster knowledge about culture, restoration and conservation skills, tourism culture, and tourism skills. Actively research and cooperate in research to soon master restoration and embellishment technology; apply new technologies, apply digital technology to the management, restoration and embellishment of heritage, effectively in relic conservation.
Create harmony between relic conservation and tourism development, build cultural environment in tourism activities
In addition, creating harmony between relic conservation and tourism development, building a cultural environment in tourism activities, aiming for inclusive growth models in tourism development associated with heritage values; developing forms of community tourism, connecting with other relics in the district as well as the province... gradually exploiting the values of heritage landscape space, the values of special-use forests that are still wild and full of potential.
Each tower has its own unique values such as technical marks, architectural shapes, artistic styles, and sculptures. After 25 years of the majestic and quiet My Son World Cultural Heritage Site, we hope that the work of preserving and sustainably promoting this heritage on the southern bank of the peaceful and beautiful Thu Bon River will continue to reap new results and successes.
MSc. Nguyen Cong Khiet – Director of My Son Cultural Heritage Management Board
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