The Hue royal architectures engraved with poetry will be proposed as a
valuable archive in UNESCO’s Memory of the World list, as heard at a
recent workshop held in Hue city in the central province of Thua
Thien- Hue.
The poetries carved on imperial buildings in Hue
comprise selective works by emperors and mandarins from the Nguyen
dynasty dating from 1802-1945. They are carved, encrusted and enamelled
on royal architectures with various materials such as wood, vitreous
enamel and ceramics.
Although Han Chinese
characters were used for the poems, they are different from carved
calligraphy found on ancient buildings in China .
Carved poems can be seen at Thai Hoa Palace, The To Temple,
Hung To Temple inside the former imperial palace, in the mausoleums for
Kings Minh Mang, Thieu Tri, Dong Khanh and Duc Duc, and in pagodas and
residences of royal families and mandarins.
The buildings
encompass all criteria required to receive the honour of a documentary
heritage, including practicality, uniqueness, role internationally,
integrity and endangered status, the Van Hoa (Culture) online newspaper
quoted Professor Dr. Luu Tran Tieu as saying.
At the event, he
highlighted that it is necessary to clarify the uniqueness and
international influence of the archives when presenting them for
consideration of recognition by UNESCO.
Meanwhile, Vu Thi
Minh Huong, Chairwoman of the National Committee for Memory of the
World, said the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre should collaborate
with relevant agencies to protect and promote the archives’ values by
organising workshops and media campaigns.
Leading
conservationists at the workshop agreed that preserving the buildings is
a prerequisite for the protection of the poetry system. They said
practical measures should be taken to protect the carvings from natural
disasters.
Director of the conservation centre Phan Thanh Hai
affirmed that together with profiling crucial documents about the
carvings for UNESCO’s recognition, the centre will digitalise poetries
carved on the heritage buildings to promote their values.
Currently, Vietnam has four documentary heritages recognised as
Memories of the World: the Nguyen dynasty wood blocks, the stone steles
preserved at the Temple of Literature, Buddhist-Sutra woodblocks
stored at Vinh Nghiem Pagoda and Imperial records from the Nguyen
Dynasty.
UNESCO launched the Memory of the World Programme in
1994 to guard against collective amnesia and to call upon the
preservation of valuable archive holdings and library collections all
over the world.-VNA