Vietnam

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

Over the centuries, the 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam have created, modified and maintained their own rich and varied cultural heritage. The Museum inaugurated in 1997, serves to enhance the visitor's understanding of Vietnam's diverse cultures through its unique presentation of objects and dress from everyday life. The Museum is located in Cau Giay district, 7km northwest and twenty minutes by taxi from the city center. - quote from a brochure -

Museum of Ethnology

Hours : 08:30 - 17:30
Closed : Mondays and the Tet holidays
Admission : 10,000dong (Camera : 20,000dong)

The Museum has collected nearly 15,000 artifacts from all over Vietnam, and also a center for research and conservation. Each artifacts improve with use tell us their simple beauty.

Bamboo lunar calendar

There are different notches

Indicating the favorable and unfavorable dates for daily activities (agriculture, fishing, hunting, house building, marriages, funerals, etc.)

Lacquered tools

Cage

Rice sickle

Ethnic groups of Vietnam

One of my purposes to come here was to see traditional costumes of ethnic groups. Up to second floor exhibition begin from reconstructed traditional Black Thai house. At this floor we can see many kind of ethnic dresses and dioramas of making cloth here and there.

Tay dress with silver

Spinning by Flowered Hmong

Pathen's brilliant dress

I also had interested in displays of minorities rituals, like "Bahnar buffalo sacrifice" or "Giarai's model of grave". I quoted explanation as follow.

Giarai : Model of a grave

Buffalo sacrifice : Buffalo is sacrificed whenever highlanders hold great ceremonies: to celebrate harvest, victory, wealth, and the growth of children, and so on.

We can see video of the festival on TV.

Funerals of Giarai : The funeral ceremony is an occasion of joy for the entire community, but also a ritual to send sprit to the other world of the ancestors in the west.

The grave house, constructed during the ceremony, shows the art of carving, painting, decoration, and architecture of the community. The ceremony is carried out to the sound of gongs, with dancing, folk performance, and folk songs.

Open-air Museum

There are also open-air exhibits waiting visitors: water puppetry performance stage of the Viet, the communal house of the Sedang, the long house of the Ede, the grave house of the Giarai, etc. I hope the museum will promote better understanding of Vietnam's minorities.

The carving of the Giarai's grave house

History Museum

View from the garden

The Museum is located in an area of Hanoi which was the first one to be ceded by Vietnamese authorities to France in 1874.

The present building was built in 1932 as Louis Finot Museum for exhibit and store the materials from EEEC (Ecol francaise Exreme Orient).

In 1954 after French withdrawal, the Vietnamese Government named it 'History Museum'.

- quote from a brochure -

Hours : 08:00 - 11:30, 13:30 - 16:30
Closed : Mondays and the Tet holidays
Admission : 15,000dong (Camera, 15,000dong)

A brief history of Vietnam
Chinese Rule : 111B.C. - 938A.D
- Vietnam, at that time it means north of Fue, was ruled by China.
Independence from China : 10th Century
Ly Dymasty : 1010 - 1225
- First long term independent political power in Vietnam.
Tran Dymasty : 1225 - 1400
- Power was more and more cerntralized in imperial family's.
Ming(China) occypation : 1407 - 1427
- Resistance of Le Loi, and declaration of independence from Ming
Later Le Dynasty : 1428 - 1524

History Museum

Treasure from five shipwrecks
Tay Son Dynasty : 1788 - 1802
- The Nguyen Lords looked for support from foreigner-China, Siam and France
Nguyen Dynasty : 1802 - 1883
- Nguyen Phuc Anh unified the entire country, which was called Viet Nam with Hue as the capital. French were keen to colonize, and in 1883, French controlled all Vietnam.
French Rule : 1883 - 1945
- In 1887, the Indochina Union was founded. In 1930, Nguyen Ai Quoc (future Ho-Chi-Minh) founded Vietnam Communist Party in Hong Kong. From 1940 till 1945, Vietnam was controlled by Japanese and French. In 1945, Viet Minh rose against colonialists in Hanoi, Hue and Saigon.
Democratic Republic of Vietnam : from 1945
- 2nd September 1945 : Ho-Chi-Minh declared independence at Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi.

At the ticket office you should get a leaflet of exhibition map. Artifacts are displayed in chronological order, so you could easy understanding of passage of time. What my pleased were when I found blue-white ceramics at the special exhibition of 'Treasure from five shipwrecks in Vietnam seabed'. I was sure some of them were Japanese.

Fine Art Museum

I walked from old quarter for spend nearly an hour, unfortunately it closed because of a power cut. I forced to shopping around two hours till the Museum reopened. Former French Ministry of Information, colonial building looked like told her history.

Art Museum

Hours : 09:15 - 17:00
Closed : Mondays and the Tet holidays
Admission : 10,000dong

Vietnam's traditional applied decorative arts
Main exhibitions of this Museum are paintings, but I came here to see collection of 'Minority's art'. These articles and ceramics are displayed in an annex. So don't miss them. If you have a time and have interest in ethnic arts of Vietnam I recommend you to visit Vietnam Museum of Ethnology than here.

Next is Ha Long Bay

Vietnam

Japan

Home