International Workshop on Identifying, Preserving and Promoting the Value of Traditional Housing in the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Area of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex

Attending the workshop were comrades: Associate Professor, Dr. Doan Minh Huan, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Mai Van Tuat, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Pham Quang Ngoc, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

The workshop was attended by experts and managers from the Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; domestic and foreign scientists. Also attending were members of the Provincial Party Standing Committee; leaders of departments, branches, sectors, unions, localities in the province, representatives of enterprises; and households living in traditional houses in the heritage area.

International Workshop on Identifying, Preserving and Promoting the Value of Traditional Housing in the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Area of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex — Comrade Tran Song Tung, Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee delivered a welcome speech at the workshop.

Speaking at the workshop, comrade Tran Song Tung, member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, highlighted the values of Ninh Binh, a land of geomancy, outstanding people, rich in historical, cultural, patriotic and revolutionary traditions; this place contains an intact treasure trove of information about the traditional residence of mankind through thousands of years of geological and geomorphological changes along with the adaptation and evolution of humans in Trang An. Standing out in that majestic landscape is the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, preserving the national cultural identity, the origin of traditional architecture. Besides, this place is also the cradle of wet rice culture, starting from exploiting the source of food, hunting and gathering from the forest and sea, they began to know how to cultivate agriculture.

Ninh Binh is also a safe, friendly and attractive destination chosen by many international tourists to stop, enjoy and admire when coming to Vietnam.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee affirmed: The international scientific conference "Identifying, preserving and promoting the value of traditional houses in the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex" will make an important contribution to research, collection, survey, and gathering a large amount of documents and images of traditional houses in the Trang An Heritage area. Through the advantages of new approaches, scientific reports clarify the work of identifying and preserving traditional house architecture in the Heritage, gain lessons learned in the world and Vietnam, contributing to the preservation of natural and cultural values in the core area of the World Heritage of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex. At the same time, call for and attract investment, conservation, scientific research to serve sightseeing, tourism, scientific research to create attractiveness for tourism products in the Heritage area in particular, Ninh Binh province in general.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee hopes that in the coming time, the province will continue to receive attention and support from central ministries, branches, research agencies, and heritage management agencies in Vietnam so that Ninh Binh can promote its potential and strengths, attract more and more tourists, and become one of the most attractive tourist destinations in Vietnam.

Presenting the keynote report at the workshop with the content "Creating the value of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex from traditional sources", Dr. Bui Van Manh, Provincial Party Committee member, Director of the Department of Tourism, stated: Ninh Binh is the first and only province to date to own the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Complex of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex. With that competitive advantage, Ninh Binh province has been preserving, exploiting and promoting the values of the Heritage in an effective and sustainable manner towards building Ninh Binh as a major tourist center of the region and the whole country, creating a driving force for economic and social development, developing green and sustainable tourism.

According to incomplete statistics from the Department of Tourism in September 2023, in the core area of the Heritage, there are still about 100 ancient houses with typical traditional architecture built before 1945 and mainly distributed in the two communes of Truong Yen and Ninh Xuan (Hoa Lu district). Ancient houses have long been considered a unique type of heritage that needs to be preserved and promoted. However, currently, most of the traditional houses have degraded and are at risk of being demolished if there are no timely restoration measures. With the desire to build quality and different tourism products from the values of traditional villages, and even more importantly, to preserve and promote the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex effectively and sustainably, it deserves to be an exemplary model of conservation and socio-economic development as assessed by the Director General of UNESCO.

The workshop was held to honor the outstanding global values of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, continue to identify, preserve and promote the value of traditional residential architecture; promote the value of landscape and traditional village structure in the core area of Trang An World Heritage.

Develop criteria, make a list of traditional houses in the core area of the Heritage; create mechanisms, policies, mobilize resources to preserve and promote the historical, architectural and cultural values of rural areas as a basis for applying policies to support restoration, repair and exploitation to serve tourism development based on the unique characteristics of the Heritage. Continue to affirm the role and importance of traditional architectural housing values, Heritage values in tourism development, socio-economic development; call for, attract investment, preserve, conduct scientific research and attract tourists to visit the Heritage in particular, Ninh Binh province in general.

On the basis of the heritage of the ancient capital and Hoa Lu urban area, Ninh Binh is aiming to build an "Ancient Capital - Heritage Urban Area" to preserve the sustainable values of the heritage, of the historic Hoa Lu Ancient Capital, creating a connection between the past and the present, between history and landscape, between nature and people, in which Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex is a place where outstanding global values of geology, geomorphology, landscape and culture converge. Therefore, the preservation of ancient houses and traditional village architecture in harmony with the landscape of the Heritage area is very necessary and should be encouraged. From these issues, the workshop set out 3 key requirements and tasks: First, it is necessary to encourage the preservation of ancient houses and traditional villages. Second, preserve the traditional settlement environment and create livelihoods for people in the Heritage area. Third, it is necessary to develop criteria and records of ancient houses in the core area of Trang An Heritage, integrated into conservation and restoration plans of special national relics in Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex.

The contents will be clarified in two discussion sessions. Session 1: Identifying and preserving traditional housing architecture in Trang An World Heritage Site. International experience; Session 2: Building criteria and orientation to promote the value of traditional housing in the Trang An World Heritage Site.

Nguyen Thom - Anh Tuan

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