Explore the Tale of Kieu record gallery in Hoi An

The gallery in Hoi An owns a Vietnamese record related to the Tale of Kieu, a horse mascot stamp set, and thousands of coins and banknotes to serve tourists.

CSO Gallery is a three-storey building, nearly 2,000 square meters wide, located on Cua Dai Street, Hoi An City. The gallery will be put into operation in early 2024, storing 20,000 items, with 77 collections divided into six areas including stamps, Tale of Kieu, coins, banknotes of Vietnam and nearly 200 countries around the world.

Mr. Tran Huu Tai, 50 years old, in Ho Chi Minh City, takes advantage of his time traveling domestically and internationally to collect Tale of Kieu, stamps, coins, and paper money.

In 2022, he set a Vietnamese record for having the largest collection of publications and items related to the Tale of Kieu. In 2023, he set a record for having the largest collection of horse mascot stamps from countries around the world, with information about the stamps compiled and edited by the author in both English and Vietnamese.

For over 20 years, he has been to many regions in the country and abroad to collect and buy items and bring them back to his home. In early 2024, he came to Hoi An and saw that there were many tourists visiting, so he opened a gallery to display his collection for visitors.

The gallery has three floors, each floor is nearly 200 square meters wide, arranged according to themes. The garden is a space for visitors to relax.

The first floor displays 1,630 editions of The Tale of Kieu in Nom script, Vietnamese script and many foreign languages ​​published domestically and in several countries around the world. In addition, there are 480 other related publications, which are articles in magazines, books and newspapers... published since the early 20th century such as Nong Co Min Dam (1916), Nam Phong (1919), Trung Bac Tan Van (1924), Nam Ky (1942). Mr. Tai's collection also includes 30 paintings of Kieu by several famous artists and hundreds of publications and items related to The Tale of Kieu such as vases, ancient porcelain plates illustrating The Tale of Kieu, music pieces about Kieu, and art calendar publications about The Tale of Kieu.

The second floor is a space displaying 58 collections of rare coins and banknotes. There are 47 sets of coins such as animal coins, Islamic coins (AH year), German and Japanese porcelain coins, British Queen coins, ancient coins of Vietnam and China, Japan, India, Korea, France, Italy, Switzerland... Collection of ancient Vietnamese coins from the reign of King Dinh Tien Hoang (980) to the Nguyen Dynasty (1945).

Paper money of Vietnam and other countries in the world through the ages. Paper money has 11 collections such as overprinted paper money (1902-1989), Vietnamese paper money (1903-1994), women's paper money (1883-2018), emergency paper money, military paper money (17th century - 1973), smallest and largest paper money (1896 - 1941), paper money with the largest denomination.

On the third floor, in addition to his collection of coins, Mr. Tai also displays a clock that can display the time in 200 countries around the world, which he invented.

The gallery of stamp collections by theme is arranged around the outside space, including the world horse stamp collection (1891 - 2017), the world stamp collection - colonies and occupation (1873 - 1973), President Ho Chi Minh stamps (1956-2020)...

The horse stamps he collected set a Vietnamese record.

Vietnamese fabric coupons issued 1965-1969.

Collection of punched stamps from many countries around the world.

Tourists visit the Kieu Story exhibition area. Prices range from 100,000-250,000 VND/person and free tea and coffee are available upon arrival at the Gallery.

Mr. Nguyen Van Quynh, from Da Nang, was impressed by the massive collection of Tale of Kieu. In addition to the Tale of Kieu translated into 20 languages, there are also many research and commentary works on Tale of Kieu. "The unique gallery has thousands of stamps and coins from many countries around the world," he added.

Dac Thanh

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