Vietnam relics in desperate need of attention

A large number of relics throughout Vietnam, even recognized ones, are seriously damaged and at risk of collapse.

Relics have been destroyed in one way or another throughout the country, even in the capital. They have been abandoned or taken over by farms, markets, graveyards, and houses.

Marooned, illegally occupied

In Hanoi, Thanh Nhan Pagoda at 68 La Thanh Street, Dong Da District, which was recognized as a national relic in 1990, has been illegally occupied by 22 local families over the past four years.

The families have erected their “houses” within the pagoda’s premises without any prior consent from local authorities. Thirteen people now live next to the pagoda’s sanctum.

Venerable Thich Dam Nguyen, head monk of the pagoda, lamented that although the sanctum has sustained serious damage, the pagoda management cannot have it fixed, as repairs might cause the houses to collapse.

One local household recently put barbed wire around the plot they have occupied.

Venerable Nguyen added that he has petitioned several times to authorities at different levels, but all he heard were empty promises.

Similarly, Luy Lau Citadel in Bac Ninh Province in northern Vietnam, which is a nationally recognized millennium-old relic, has become dilapidated ruins.

Locals have not only erected houses and a cemetery within it, but have turned the solemn relic into a bustling market.

The illegally occupied area is a whopping 30,000m².

Tran Ba Khuc, deputy chair of the Thanh Khuong Commune People’s Committee, said that because of a shortage of funds, his committee has petitioned repeatedly to the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Bac Ninh People’s Committee to restore the relic, but they have yet to get any answers.

In another instance, Dinh Huong Mausoleum, another national relic in northern Vietnam’s Bac Giang Province, has been turned into a foul-smelling cattle and poultry farm and grazing land.

The mausoleum, which was built in 1727 and is home to the remains of an eminent court official, has long been abandoned and is now riddled with cow dung.

Since 1997, the Duc Thang Commune People’s Committee signed a 10-year contract, leasing the relic to a local farmer. The contract was then renewed for another 10 years.

National relics Phan Dong and Mieu Temples also in Bac Ninh Province are now facing imminent risk of being washed away due to rampant sand theft on the Cau River over the past ten years.

With such a large amount of sand stolen, the bamboo clusters and protective walls surrounding the relics have been washed way into the river, making the relics extremely vulnerable to erosion.

Chau Sa Citadel in Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam, the only citadel made from earth left from the Champa reign, is suffering a similar plight.

Locals have also turned the citadel into farming land. Its eastern side has been dug extensively as it is believed there are precious metals beneath it.

The local government has also sold part of the citadel’s land.

Giong Ca Vo Relic in Ho Chi Minh City’s suburban district of Can Gio, which contains 2,500-year-old graves and antiques buried with the dead, has desperately awaited restoration over several years.

The city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism worked out a plan to restore and develop the relic for tourism purposes several years ago, but the plan is still on the drawing board, while the dead’s remains and buried belongings, which hold particular significance to Vietnam’s and Southeast Asia’s archeology, are rapidly decaying.

Collapse at any time

Last month, part of Phu Van Lau, of the Hue Royal Palace in Hue City, the country’s imperial capital, collapsed.

The incident triggered alarm among the local government and residents, as many items of 29 other relics within the UNESCO-recognized Hue Royal Palace have also sustained irreparable damage.

During the rainy season each year, the Hue Relic Conservation Center dispatches teams to check on and provide makeshift supportive beams for the relics, and then remove the beams when the season is over.

Most wood components of Nghinh Luong Dinh, only some dozens of meters from Phu Van Lau, are seriously decayed. Also, the roofs of Thai Hoa Palace and Thai Mieu leak considerably.

“Most relics now need extensive restoration, but we can hardly do it with a mere VND90 billion (US$4.2 million) funding earmarked for the Hue relic conservation each year,” explained Dr. Phan Thanh Hai, head of the Hue Relic Conservation Center.

Roughly 400 temples throughout the province do not fare any better, which comes down to a funding shortage.

Taking matters into their own hands

Frustrated at the relics’ dilapidation and local governments’ lack of care, some locals have taken matters into their own hands.

A unique all-stone mausoleum to court official Pham Huy Dinh (1726-1775) in northern Thai Binh Province has been neglected and fallen into oblivion for some hundred years.

But for the decade-long quest to seek recognition and funding conducted by members of the Pham lineage to restore the relic, the mausoleum would turn to ruins.

Pham Minh Tram, who is most credited with the conservation, said that since he was a child, the relic has been neglected, as his ancestor, Pham Huy Dinh, was considered by the local government to be without merit.

After retiring in 1992, Tram began his quest to seek recognition and due care for his progenitor and the mausoleum.

He wrote a series of articles that were published in local magazines and periodicals, urging for recognition and support.

In 1999, Thai Binh Museum dispatched a team to survey the relic, but this failed to help.

Tram, then 65, decided to take matters into his own hands, traveling alone to Hanoi in the hope of finding sponsorship for his cause.

Luckily, he managed to contact the Sweden-Vietnam Culture Fund in Hoan Kiem District in Hanoi, where he met cultural researcher Huu Ngoc, then head of the fund.

With Ngoc’s guidance, Tram knew where to apply for funding. He was then granted US$3,000.

Though the sum was only enough to restore a small part of the relic, it was a great source of encouragement for Tram to seek out more sponsorship.

After several more months of applying for funding, along with contributions from his own family and others in the lineage, restoration began on the relic and was completed in 2012.

Several local owners of century-old houses in Duong Lam Old Village, a key national relic in Hanoi, also acted on their own initiative and turned down state funding of VND1 billion ($47,170) each to restore their houses.

One of the owners, Ha X. of Mong Phu Hamlet, explained that like other owners of old homes, he was concerned about the negative effects on his house and his family’s daily life which might be brought about by the unorganized and lengthy restoration.

According to Prof. Hoang Dao Kinh, commissioner of the National Cultural Heritage Council—who has been involved in relic conservation for four decades—by the end of 2013, the country boasted a whopping number of 3,200 national relics, larger than that of any first-world country.

Special national relics also amount to almost 100, without including those considered provincial.

It takes some VND50-100 billion (up to $4.7 million), a large amount of quality wood and numerous skilled artisans and experienced workers to properly restore a relic.

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