Within the framework of the exhibition “Cultural Heritage of Vietnam’s Seas and Islands” from August 27 to September 2 at the Provincial Cultural Center and the exhibition “Binh Thuan Cultural Heritage Connecting Regions” taking place from August 31 to September 6 at the Po Sah Inư Tower relic, Phu Hai Ward, Phan Thiet City, one of the booths displaying artifacts and images that attracted many tourists and people to come and see and learn was the booth of private collector Nguyen Ngoc An.
Binh Thuan sea trade route
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc An currently resides in Mui Ne Ward, Phan Thiet City, and is currently the Chairman of the UNESCO Club for Research and Collection of Binh Thuan Antiques. Coming to the exhibition "Cultural Heritage of Vietnam's Seas and Islands" chaired by the Vietnam Exhibition Center for Culture and Arts (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) and with the participation of 22 provinces and cities, the exhibition booth of collector Nguyen Ngoc An shows the basic features of the trade route on the sea of Binh Thuan and the fishing gear of coastal fishermen, through more than 400 artifacts. These are fish sauce tins, ceramics of dynasties, fish sauce-selling boats; fishing gears include basket boats, cotton-tipped squid fishing, squid fishing, and trevally nets...
The special thing is that Binh Thuan's nup bau boat has only one sail, different from the three-sail nup bau boats of other provinces. Mr. An explained: The reason is that Binh Thuan boats mainly transport fish sauce over shorter distances, mostly to the six provinces of Nam Ky.
In addition, the sea trade route also saw the appearance of merchant ships carrying ceramics from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming dynasties, and Chu Dau ceramics (Vietnam) that sank in the waters of Binh Thuan. These artifacts prove that Phu Hai Port, Vi Ne Bay (Mui Ne), and Phan Ri Port were places where merchant ships often stopped to exchange.
Cham collection features
At the exhibition “Binh Thuan Cultural Heritage Connecting Regions”, organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc An brought to the audience interesting cultural features of the Champa Dynasty that flourished in Binh Thuan. These were Kut statues, stone statues, gold knobs, utensils, jewelry of the Cham royal family, the painting of “Cham girl” by artist Doan Van Tho… These are precious artifacts that Mr. An has collected and researched for more than 30 years and is exhibiting for the first time.
In addition, there are also ceramic artifacts from Dong Son, Sa Huynh, Oc Eo, Ly, Tran, Le, Mac, Nguyen dynasties. The artifacts are ivory chopsticks inlaid with gold, gold earrings and jewelry made of silver, copper... from the 10th - 13th centuries, discovered at Ta Lu site (Phan Son commune, Bac Binh district) in 2000.
In the exhibition space, viewers can also see a glimpse of old Phan Thiet with stilt houses and daily activities of coastal residents through paintings by artist To Minh collected by Mr. Nguyen Ngoc An.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc An shared: Through more than 300 artifacts and typical images contained in a small exhibition space of a few dozen square meters at the Po Sah Inư tower relic, I want people and tourists to see that the Cham culture and Kinh culture from the 10th to 19th centuries are very rich and diverse, and need more research to promote their values. At the same time, we can also see the exchange between the Cham culture of Binh Thuan and the Cham people living in other regions or the intertwining between the Dong Nai River culture and the Da Kai culture of Binh Thuan...
The precious artifacts of private collector Nguyen Ngoc An contribute to diversifying the colors of display and exhibition activities, serving student education, attracting visitors to Binh Thuan to develop tourism and local economy.
Box: Mr. Nguyen Ngoc An has collected more than 40,000 artifacts and antiques from different periods, which are currently on display at his family home in Ward 5 and are regularly open to welcome residents and tourists to visit and research. From 2014 to present, he has donated over 50,000 artifacts 81 times to units, museums, schools, and military media galleries in provinces and cities. Many of these are rare artifacts donated to the Binh Thuan Provincial Museum.
Source
Comment (0)