The recent “bleeding” of antiquities and the theft of royal decrees at some relics in Phu Tho province and across the country has raised questions about the management and preservation of antiquities and valuable Han Nom documents, including royal decrees. Digitizing Han Nom documents, including royal decrees, has been of interest to relic management boards and local authorities. This move is not only expected to better preserve valuable documents dating back hundreds of years, but also to contribute to promoting heritage to the public.
"Treasure" of the village
Returning to the Quoc Te Temple relic (Di Nau commune, Tam Nong district), it has been three years since 39 royal decrees and some ancient artifacts in the temple were stolen by thieves. The elders in the relic management board are still worried about the missing "treasures". Mr. Ta Dinh Hap - a member of the relic management board said: "Although they were kept in a large, modern safe system with 2 latches, a locking system, and security in the sanctuary of the sacred relic dating back over 2,300 years, thieves were able to brazenly and boldly break the safe and take away 39 royal decrees, 40 ancient Han Nom books, communal house registration books, ancient land registers, 3 ancient cups, and 7 ancient plates. Honestly, we had never thought of this before."
As painful as it is, fortunately, a few months before the theft, Di Nau commune received support from the State Records and Archives Department (Ministry of the Interior) to restore the torn and damaged parts of the royal decrees at the International Temple. At the same time, the Department took photos, colored the royal decrees, translated them into Vietnamese and bound them into 2 volumes for storage. This story raises the issue that relics should only be displayed and circulated as backup copies, while original artifacts should be kept in a place with adequate safety conditions and few people know about them.
Lam Thao district is an ancient land with a long history and culture. The district currently has 134 relics of various types of culture, history, religion, beliefs and 3 archaeological sites. Of these, 20 relics are ranked at the national level and 35 relics are ranked at the provincial level. At the relics, there are hundreds of royal decrees, many horizontal lacquered boards, parallel sentences, stone steles, bells, gongs, thousands of pages of village rules, customs, legends, divine decrees and valuable Han Nom documents.
Coming to Xuan Lung commune, visiting Bang Nhan Nguyen Man Doc Temple, Nguyen Tam Son family still preserves 10 royal decrees of the Le Trung Hung dynasty and Nguyen dynasty for the loyal minister of the "eight-member diamond" rank. With all the care and meticulousness, Mr. Nguyen Trung Moc - Head of the family management committee of the Temple opened the B40 shell box, took out 10 royal decrees wrapped tightly in many layers of nylon. Mr. Moc is sure that wrapped in shells like this, even if thrown into fire or dropped into water, it will not cause any harm.
Among the 10 royal decrees that are still preserved, the oldest royal decree is from the 6th year of Vinh Thinh under the reign of King Le Du Tong in 1711. After nearly 400 years, through wars and natural disasters, the people and the family still pass down many strange spiritual stories about the royal decrees. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Nghi - Chairman of the Tam Son Tiet Nghia family said: "The flood in 1971 caused the Temple area to be submerged in water. The door, the laterite wall and the iron box containing the royal decree, the throne and the horizontal plaque were all washed away. However, 3 days later, the box containing the royal decree and the offerings floated back to the temple and I picked it up with my own hands."
Among hundreds of historical, cultural and religious relics in the province, the number of relics with royal decrees translated into Vietnamese can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Not to mention, although the people assigned to manage temples and clans have paid great attention to preserving royal decrees, the limitations in professional knowledge are only enough to keep the royal decrees from being damaged by termites and torn. The preservation of "treasures" and "souls of relics" to last over time requires the attention of professional agencies and local authorities.
Digitizing to bring heritage to the public
Royal decrees (also known as dao sac) are priceless, unique assets, carrying within them thousands of years of stories of relics and villages. Royal decrees are the king's recognition of the worship of a village's gods (royal decree) or the title of an official (royal decree). Royal decrees are expressed in the form of Han Nom documents about villages in Vietnam. The place names recorded on royal decrees are important information determining the changes in the names of Vietnamese villages over time, contributing to the study of ancient place names. The dates on royal decrees are important traces affirming the history of the nation. Therefore, royal decrees are very important and rare sources of information with great significance in the process of researching and building the history of villages.
In the current era of mass media, the royal decree carrying the story of a relic is no longer limited to the scope of the clan or village, but also needs to be spread to the people, especially the young generation, to know about history, to foster pride and gratitude. Mr. Ta Dinh Hap shared: “Promoting and communicating about heritage is what needs to be done to let future generations know the value of the relic. The royal decree not only conveys the message on the paper but also lives in the minds of the people. That is how cultural values are preserved. Digitizing the royal decree or other valuable Han Nom documents will be the key to solving the problem of preserving this precious heritage source”.
The first step to digitize the decree is to inventory, research, transcribe, and translate the meaning of Han Nom heritage sources at the relics. Currently, only Lam Thao district in Phu Tho province has planned for this content. Comrade Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh - Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Lam Thao district informed: "The district will review, collect, and compile statistics on Han Nom documents at historical and cultural relics that have been ranked and some unranked relics that have great influence in the community. At the same time, coordinate with the Provincial Museum, the Institute of Han Nom Studies, and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences to transcribe and translate the researched and collected Han Nom texts and documents into Quoc Ngu script. Then, systematize and digitize the translated document sources to serve information exploitation through document files on digital devices".
In the modern era, cultural heritage conservation is no longer limited to the framework of preservation and transmission to future generations, but can also be exploited for copyright and transformed into intellectual property, creating commercial values. On December 2, 2021, the Prime Minister approved the program to digitize Vietnam's cultural heritage for the period 2021-2030. The general goal is to build a national database system on cultural heritage on a unified digital technology platform, serving the work of archiving, managing, researching, preserving, exploiting, promoting heritage, and promoting sustainable tourism development.
Digitizing valuable Han Nom documents, including royal decrees, is an inevitable and objective reality in cultural heritage preservation activities. However, the financial and human resources for this content are not small. Although the plan has been issued, Lam Thao district must set up a project and bid. At the earliest, it will take years for the plans on paper to be implemented in reality.
Responding to the press about the issue of preserving royal decrees in villages and communes today, Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Xuan Dinh - Institute of Ethnology, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences said: "It is necessary to apply digital transformation early to digitize heritage. And it is necessary to build an interactive system on smart devices, QR Code application, image recognition, 3D recognition, multimedia experience... to serve the people, tourists to visit, experience, explore relics or learn about a historical relic in the most convenient and comfortable way right on their smartphones. This will also contribute to storing it on the National database system in a synchronous manner and avoiding the loss of information that cannot be restored."
Royal decrees are priceless, unique assets, containing historical stories spanning hundreds and thousands of years of Vietnamese villages and communes. In the era of modern technology, the work of preserving royal decrees also needs to be digitally transformed to contribute to preserving them for future generations and promoting heritage to international friends.
Thuy Trang
Source: https://baophutho.vn/so-hoa-sac-phong-225196.htm
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