Long Bien, this historical place is linked with the uprising of the two Sisters Trung at the beginning of the christian era, a place with historical cultural values of a rich tradition region, a région where the land is sacred anf the men are heroes. To-day, Long Bien is a newly
Long Bien, this historical place is linked with the uprising of the two Sisters Trung at the beginning of the christian era, a place with historical cultural values of a rich tradition region, a région where the land is sacred anf the men are heroes. To-day, Long Bien is a newly founded district on the basis of the detachment of part of the territory and the population of the huyen of Gia Lâm, situated on the left bank of the Red River, which was an important node of economic and cultural communication of the country.
According to the Historical Cultural Vestiges of the Revolution and of the Resistance of the quan de Long Bien (National Political Editions, 2006), on the territory of Long Bien there are 77 historical cultural vestiges, among which there are 36 communal houses, 34 pagodas, 7 temples and altars, beside the system of vestiges of the revolution and of the resistance… disseminated on the territory of the quan. At this time, nearly all the vestiges have had a scientific file and are noted in the plan of restoration and valorization.
The preliminary exploration has shown that the historical cultural vestiges have preserved a great quantity of ancient objects, in the manner of a “museum on the spot”, reflecting the long existence of each vestige in particular as well as of the whole region of Long Bien in general. The ancient objects belong to different periods; they are mainly wooden objects, gilded and red lacquered, comprising bouddha statues and worshipping objects, horizontal panels and parallel sentences, stone objects such as steles, statues, incense vases, paper and stuff objects such as decrees, genealogical booklets, clothes, boots… , very rich and varied in types and forms, the figures of decoration and the historical notes are truly the “basic core”, the “soul” of the vestige.
In the actual situation, before the trend of development of the modern society, the problem of managing, conservation and valorization of the system of historical cultural vestiges on the territory of the quan of Long Bien is becoming an urgent requirement. This work is the more significant that the population of the capital as well as of the whole country is looking forward to the millenary of Thang Long – Hanoi. That is why the Popular Committee of the quan of Long Bien has set up the Programme of study and arbitration of the ancient objects of the sites on the territory of de quan of Long Bien. The National Museum of Vietnamese History, specialized in archaeological studies, in coordination with the Bureau of Culture, Information and Sports of the quan of Long Bien, is undertaking the realization of this programme of study, with the participation of the Technical Council, composed with specialists from the Council of Arbitration of ancient objects (Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism), from the Institute of Archaeology, from the High School of Social and Human Sciences, from the High School of Culture…
In the realization of the programme of study, the specialists will do the arbitration of all the system of ancient objects of the sites by usual archaeological methods with statistics, classifications, descriptions, drawings, photos, reproductions of decorations, characters and notations, document filing… combined with multi-branch methods: archaeology, ethnography, sociology, popular culture, chinese literature, religion, in the study, the questionaries, the gathering of relative informations, as well as the “socialization” of the conscience of preservation and valorization of sites and vestiges. By this means, one determines the relative and absolute date of each object and each group of objects on the basis of comparison of documents (of sites in Hanoi and in the whole country, the notes of annals on the relative problems). By this, the scientific document file is settled for the objects of each site, the historic cultural values are estimated, the actual status and the propositions of conservation are considered. The document file of the objects will be an important help in the study of the time of existence of each object in history, with great changes having influence on architecture and the landscape of the sites in particular and of the region of Long Bien in general.
According to the plan, the programme of study and arbitration of the sites on the territory of the quan of Long Bien will be realized in 3 years, from 2007 to 2009, comprising the study, the exploration, the arbitration and the establishment of the scientific files of the ancient objects of 41 sites (in 2007: 10 sites; in 2008: 16 sites; in 2009: 15 sites). At the same time as the study and the arbitration, will be carried out the collecting, the perfecting of the manuscript and the publication of the book presenting the ancient objects of Long bien on the occasion of the millenary of Thang Long – Hanoi.
Nguyễn Văn Đoàn