Thanh Hoa is a special urban area with strong traces of the Stone and Bronze Ages at sites such as Do Mountain and Dong Son ancient village, as commented by writer Le Ngoc Minh and researcher Ha Huy Tam: A rare historical and cultural address, a strange land of origin that the further back in time, the more sparkling and colorful it becomes. That is what inspired the idea of building a cultural space with a distinctive Vietnamese identity - Vietnamese cultural space, through objects of authentic historical and cultural value, to recreate landscapes bearing the imprint of indigenous nature in the heart of the city.
Located in Truong Thi ward, Thanh Hoa city, the Vietnamese Cultural Space has a total area of over 24,000 m2. This is a complex of architectural works, landscapes, converging many artifacts, rich and valuable cultural heritages. It is not only the spiritual asset, the extremely valuable material resource of a cultural region that is very fundamental to Dai Viet, but also a panoramic description with attractive sources of documents through vivid heritages and artifacts. From there, it introduces to those who love Thanh land, love the history and culture of Thanh land; promotes to tourists from all over the world, those who want to come to Thanh land to learn, research, to feel, discover interesting things of a land that has long been famous for its beautiful name "geomancy and talented people".
Right at the main entrance, visitors will be delighted by the presence of a thatched house, simulating the ancient life of the Vietnamese. The house is made from completely natural materials. The roof is made from straw. The walls are made from a mixture of straw and mud plastered on bamboo. In front of the porch and on the side of the house are places to store labor tools such as a winnowing machine, rice pounding mortar, and rice mill. Inside the house are items (tables, chairs, beds) made of bamboo. On the right side is a small kitchen, next to it are straw, buffalo, jackfruit tree... which are familiar images of Vietnamese farmers.
The exhibition area of wooden sculptures with skillful, meticulous hands, creativity and ideas of the owner, has created wonderful works, extremely valuable for future generations. The works of art attract attention right from the name: Nine dragons competing for a pearl; Four immortals; Four sacred animals: Dragon - unicorn - turtle - phoenix; Lovely blue flag...
In addition to the wooden sculptures, the display area of stone handicrafts also shows the attractiveness, scale, and meticulousness, investment, and dedication of the owner who created this Vietnamese Cultural Space. Many sophisticated, highly aesthetic, collectible products are crafted from green stones, rubies, agates, quartz, topaz, etc. mined from nature; some products are crafted from very impressive monolithic stones.
The most prominent, impressive and also the most historical and culturally significant is the Dong Son Antiquities Museum. As the name suggests, this is the place to preserve, display and introduce more than 1,000 artifacts of the Dong Son culture - a brilliant culture of the Metal Age 2,000-3,000 years ago, the first civilization period of the ancient Vietnamese - the time of the birth of the Van Lang State of the Hung Kings. Remember, the understanding of the Dong Son culture comes from the fact that a resident of the ancient Dong Son village on the Ma River (Thanh Hoa City) accidentally found some bronze artifacts on the right bank of the Ma River. Later, these artifacts were bought by a French customs officer specializing in hunting for antiques, L.Pajot. In 1929, these artifacts were announced to the world by French scholar V.Golubew. It can be said that, among the ancient cultures discovered in Vietnam, Dong Son culture is one of the most typical cultures, attracting much attention from archaeologists and cultural and historical researchers.
What could be more proud than being able to build a large-scale, professionally displayed non-public museum on the very land where traces of Dong Son culture were first discovered? The artifacts displayed at the museum are quite diverse and unique, with many different materials...
Ceramic artifacts of the Dong Son culture are preserved and displayed here, including: cooking utensils (pots, steamers, jars, vases, basins), eating utensils (bowls, cups, glasses) with pink, red ochre, dark gray colors... as the unmistakable characteristics of Dong Son ceramics in the Ma River region, creating the premise for the Thanh pottery production profession to develop in the next 10 centuries.
When mentioning Dong Son culture, we cannot fail to mention the system of bronze artifacts. The museum has a large number of bronze artifacts belonging to Dong Son culture such as: Production tools of prehistoric and ancient people such as crescent-shaped axes, plowshares, butterfly-shaped plowshares...; various types of daily life and spiritual beliefs such as bronze jars, vases, cauldrons, incense burners... Besides, there are also bronze weapons such as spears, lances, daggers, short swords, arrows...
With a collection of more than 200 bronze drums - "Dong Son sun" (the term used by the late researcher Hoang Tuan Pho) shows the scale and great scientific value of the Dong Son Antiquities Museum. This is a fairly large collection of bronze drums, diverse in type, size, design and pattern... Bronze drums are considered a symbol of Dong Son culture. In the book "The Quintessence of Thanh Culture", the late researcher Hoang Tuan Pho, when writing "Dong Son Sun", described in detail: Each Dong Son bronze drum is "a work of art, harmoniously combining sculpture with painting, expressing the life and soul of Lac Viet with the symbol of the Lac bird, a large water bird, capable of dominating the sky, dominating the world of the plains, the rhythm of the tides in harmony with human life and the constantly growing rice plant, the symbol of the Ma River civilization".
The area displaying Dong Son culture artifacts is also one of the highlights and attractions that cannot be missed when coming to the Dong Son Antiquities Museum. The artifacts are miniature models of familiar objects in the daily life of people at that time, used to bury the dead. The artifacts preserved and displayed at the Dong Son Antiquities Museum are bronze drums of different sizes and shapes, partly reflecting the spiritual life of the Vietnamese people, the organizational structure, and class division in society at that time. "Visiting the Dong Son Antiquities Museum in particular, and the Vietnamese Cultural Space in general, visitors seem to be taking a journey back in history, back to the cultural roots of Thanh land. Just talking about the Dong Son Antiquities Museum, we can see that from the dedication and investment potential of the owner here, to the separate artifacts, it has affirmed the historical and cultural depth, the role and position of Thanh in the process of national history", cultural researcher Ha Huy Tam shared.
With historical, cultural, architectural and landscape values deposited in the system of displayed artifacts, the Vietnamese Cultural Space has been recognized as a tourist destination, contributing to diversifying and enriching the tourism and cultural picture of Thanh Hoa City in particular and Thanh Hoa Province in general.
Article and photos: Thao Linh
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