Display with care
After admiring the Brahma Birth relief for a long time, a group of tourists from England were surprised to see a person wearing a hat with a curved top that looked quite similar to the traditional costumes of many East Asian countries.
When the tour guide explained that it was an image of a Taoist priest in Cham culture performing a blessing ritual, many people nodded and expressed their interest.
At present, the Brahma Birth relief, along with the Apsara relief and the Shiva statue, are among the latest artifacts recognized as treasures of the museum.
Previously, right from the first recognition in 2012, when the whole country had only 30 treasures, the Cham Sculpture Museum had 3 artifacts, including: Tra Kieu altar, My Son E1 altar and Tara Bodhisattva statue. The next artifacts recognized as treasures include: Dong Duong altar, Ganesha statue, Gajasimha statue.
With the main material being sandstone, the conservation work is done in an environment protected by good infrastructure, ensuring humidity and light. The statues and reliefs are all in very good condition. Particularly at the Cham Sculpture Museum, when there is deterioration at the display site, the management will immediately repair and fix it.
Right from the moment visitors step into the museum, they will be greeted by a friendly guidance and warning system to ensure that artifacts, especially treasures, are not damaged.
Along with protecting the treasures with tempered glass panels, the museum is also equipped with a surveillance camera system. Security personnel also regularly visit to check and remind visitors if they have offensive behavior.
An interesting question that the museum often receives is: is there a fear of the treasures being stolen if they are displayed publicly? Mr. Tran Dinh Ha - Deputy Director of the Museum, said that with modern surveillance technology and careful display, not to mention that 7/9 Cham treasures are large in size and very heavy, so we can rest assured in preventing theft.
“For example, the Gajasimha statue weighs 2 tons, the altars also weigh tons… so they can be displayed. The bronze Tara and Ganesha statues are only opened when welcoming heads of state, serving foreign affairs or other special events,” said Mr. Ha.
Researcher Tran Ky Phuong added that during the period 1978 - 1998 when he was the museum curator, because he assessed the value of the Ganesha statue, he made two versions for display. The original statue was put in storage to ensure it would not be stolen. Similarly, the bronze Tara statue is also being displayed in a version.
Increase the attraction of treasures
At the museum, depending on the style of each treasure, it will be displayed in different rooms, such as: Tra Kieu, My Son, Dong Duong. Each treasure becomes the highlight of each room, so every step of the visitor is an exciting, new experience.
In 2019, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its opening, the Museum of Cham Sculpture released a preliminary report on the number of visitors from 1936 to 2018. In the period from 2005 to 2015, the museum welcomed an average of more than 200,000 visitors per year. By 2018, the museum had welcomed more than 300,000 visitors per year, of which 90% were international visitors.
Tourism has now recovered after the pandemic, although it has not reached the previous numbers, the number of visitors to museums has increased sharply again.
It can be seen that, since the milestone before 2012, the number of visitors to the museum has increased day by day. After 2012, when the Tara statue associated with the thrilling story of losing 2 handheld objects (restored at the end of 2023 - pv) and 2 other artifacts became treasures, the attraction of tourists to the museum has also increased.
Mr. Tran Dinh Ha commented that thanks to the good implementation of conservation, display and exhibition work, the collections of artifacts, including national treasures, have promoted their value.
Mr. Ha said that, along with introducing artifacts in galleries, the museum also pays attention to exhibiting and displaying artifacts in localities in the country as well as abroad to introduce, promote and promote the value of the collection of artifacts. Exhibition cooperations at many museums around the world have been carried out, from the Ethnographic Museum of Vienna (Austria); the Royal Historical Museum of Brussels (Belgium)...
Another interesting thing is that before being recognized as national treasures, artifacts such as the Brahma's Birth relief, the Ganesha statue, etc. had been sent abroad to participate in exhibitions with insurance values of up to millions of USD.
Mr. Tran Dinh Ha added that among the museum's more than 3,000 artifacts, there are still many that deserve to be included in the national treasure dossier. The "space" for treasures is still very large, but every year, the museum makes dossiers in order of priority.
Mr. Ho Tan Tuan - Director of the Museum informed that there are 3 more artifacts that are being researched by the Central Government for treasure records. If recognized in early 2025, the Cham Sculpture Museum will increase the total number of treasures being preserved to 12. This information will certainly continue to attract tourists...
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/hap-luc-tu-bao-vat-van-hoa-champa-3146936.html
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