Bảo tàng lịch sử Quốc gia

This morning at the Museum of the Choang autonomous people of Kuangsi - China, has taken place the solemn inauguration of the exhibition Treasures of the silk road on sea - Ceramics taken from the wrecked ships on the Vietnamese sea bed. That is an event marking the extremely efficient cooperation between the two museums since years, it is a bridge helping the two peoples to better know the cultural history of the two peoples. On this occasion, the Redaction has the pleasure to present the opening speech of the Director of the National Museum of Vietnames History.

In the fresh air of winter, in the animated atmosphere of the 60^th anniversary of the foundation of the autonomous region, the exhibition “Treasures of the silk road on sea - ceramics taken from wrecked ships of the Vietnam seabed” has been solemnly inaugurated by the National Museum of Vietnamese History and the Museum of the autonomous region of the Choang people of Kuangsi. This result concretizes the efforts of the staffs of the two aforementioned museums, as well as the interest and the help of the functional services of the two countries. In this occasion, I would like, in the name of the National Museum of Vietnamese History, send our sincere gratefulness to the Ministry of culture, to the Cultural Department of the People’s Republic of China, to the Party Committee and to the authorities of the autonomous region of the Choang people of Kuangsi, the Department of Culture and of Cultural objects of Kuangsi, to the Museum of the autonomous region Choang of Kuangsi. the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam, the Department of Cultural Vestiges and other relative organizations.

Five years has passed soon since the day when the friendship and cooperation relations between the National Museum of Vietnamese History and the Museum of the Choang autonomous region of Kuangsi have been raised to a new level - marked by exchanges of exhibition between the two countries. These cultural events have left many indelible marks, precious experiences for us in our speciality.

China is the earliest country to produce silk, the exchanges of silk products and cultural exchanges with other continents since antiquity have given birth to a trade road called “the silk road”. The transport of goods, beside the continental road, uses a maritime road toward various regions of the world, called the “silk road on sea”. The region Hop Pho - Kuangsi, since the first years of the Tay Han, has been a good concentrating place, a node of foreign trade of the region Linh Nam, one of the 3 nodal ports of the southern sea. China is also the earliest country in the world to produce ceramics, ceramics have been the essential goods of foreign trade since the dynasty of Duong, so that the sik road on sea is also called the “ceramics road”. On this silk - ceramics road, the Vietnam sea played an extremely important role - it is the place of furniture of provisions and soft water, of commercial goods in the first stage of the travel, a shelter for the ships against tempests, in a country where weather is changing, considered as the most dangerous of the world. One can say that in ancient times, the Vietnam sea is the door joining China with the rest of the world.

More than one decade has elapsed since the first ancient ship Hon Cau (Ba Ria - Vung Tau) is discovered and explored in 1990. So far 5 ancient ships: Hon Cau, Hon Dam, Cu Lao Cham, Ca Mau, Binh Thuan have been discovered on the seabed of the eastern sea, in the marine space of Vietnam. The ancient objects being ceramics from the time of Khang Hy, alone, amount to 60.000. The ancient ship Ca Mau contains more than 500 thousand ceramics of the time of Ung Chinh. Ceramics, essential goods, contained in the ancient ships, come from the ovens of Canh Duc, of the time of Minh - Thanh. These ceramics are white enamelled, blue decorated, white enamelled, brown, coloured, of the region of Phuc Kien, China, jade enamelled ceramics of Sawankhalok from Thailand. In particular, the presence of vietnamese ceramics of Thang Long - Hai Duong in these exhibition, as goods participating to the silk road, is a proof of the export capacity of the vietnamese ceramics.

The exploration of these ships furnishes to the museum documents and inappreciable objects, new knowledges on archaeology, proving the importance and the role of the Vietnam sea in international trading. With more than 200 specimens selected among hundreds of thousands of objects belonging to 5 wrecked ships from the Vietnam sea, “the treasures of the marine silk road - ceramics taken from the wrecked ships of the Vietnam seabed”, present exportation ceramics from China, Vietnam and Thailand, which, for many reasons, had not been known by the public, the chinese collectors and researchers, and which is a precious source of documentation in the study of the history of ceramics of China and South-east Asia.

This exhibition is a new progress in the friendly cooperation between the two museums, helping the peoples of the two countries to understand each other, to come nearer to each other, to advance together in a stable and prosperous development of the two countries in the world cultural community.