Carving and cutting designs of the XVIIth

The Museum of Vietnamese History in Hồ Chí Minh city was established on August 23^rd, 1979. It was formerly named "Musée Blanchard de la Brosse" (1929-1956) and then "The national Museum of Việt Nam in Sài Gòn" (1956-1975), mainly displaying ancient arts of some Asian coutries.

Since its foundation, aimed at introduing Vietnamese history and culture to Vietnamese people and foreingers, the museum has expanded its area to form a new system of exhibition, reflecting both characteristics of national history and culture and typical cultural features of Southern provinces and Asian countries.

At present, there are two main display sections in the museum :

Section 1 : The display of Vietnamese history form the first human vestiges (circa 500,000 years ago) until the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Việt Nam on September 2^nd, 1945.

• The Primitive period (circa 500,000 to 2,700 years ago)
• The Hùng Kings period (circa 2,700 years ago to 179 BC)
• The period of struggles for national independence (2^nd century BC-10^th century)
• The Lý dynasty (11^th-13^th century)
• The Trần dynasty (13^th-14^th century)
• The Lê dynasty (15^th-18^th century)
• The Tây Sơn dynasty (18^th century)
• The Nguyễn dynasty (19^th-early 20^th century)

Section 2 : The display of special subjects reflecting the typical characteristics of Southern Vietnam and some Asian countries

• The ceramics of some Asian countries (7^th-19^th century)
• The Óc Eo culture (1^st-6^th century)
• The stone sculpture of Mekong Delta (7^th-17^th century)
• The Vương Hồng Sển’s collection
• The art of Champa (2^nd-17^th century)
• The culture of Southern Việt Nam ethnic groups
• The Buddha statues of some Asian countries (15^th-19^th century)
• The "embalmer" in the "Cải" hamlet in Hồ Chí Minh city
• The stone sculpture of Cambodia (10^th-13^th century)
• Cannons (18^th-19^th century)

Carving and cutting designs of the XVIIth

With the above display content, the Museum of Vietnamese History in Hồ Chí Minh city hopes to partly meet the need of her visitors who would like to explore Vietnamese history and culture as well as to make cultural exchanges between Vietnam and other countries in the region and in the world.

1. . Introduction

The archeological finds of the Pithecine teeth in the Thẩm Khuyên and Thẩm Hai caves (Lạng Sơn), in the Hùm cave (Yên Bái) and the crudely-flaked stone tools with prehistoric -people–made traits in Mount Đọ, Mount Nuông (Thanh Hóa) and Mount Đất (Đồng Nai) etc. prove that there existed human beings living in many parts of Việt Nam in the early Palaeolithic Age over 500,000–400,000 years ago.

In the Neolithic Age, circa about 10,000 years ago, ground stone implements, crude sherds of pottery of the Hòa Bình, Bắc Sơn and Quỳnh Văn cultures suggested that Vietnamese prehistoric inhabitants had been tranforming from the hunting and gathering to agricultural lifestyle.

2. . Artifacts and other references on display

In this room the following documents are on display-the world and Việt Nam maps of some Palaeolithic sites; the Neolithic sites in Việt Nam; the painting of prehistoric people making stone tools, using fire and hunting; the photographs of some excavating sites and Paleolithic artifacts such as the Mount Đọ site (Thanh Hóa) and the Mount Đọ stone nucleus; the model of Mount Đất in Đồng Nai province, the Lạng Nắc cave (Lạng Sơn), the Hùm cave (Yên Bái) etc. Those of the Neolithic Age includes sites of the Đồng Nội cave and the Phúc Lương cave (Hòa Bình), giant clam shell mounds (Đa Bút-Thanh Hóa), Mount Voi (Thanh Hóa), the Con Moong cave (Hòa Bình) photographs of an animal face on the wall in the Đồng Nội cave (Hòa Bình), photographs of stone carving in the "Ky"site (Thái Nguyên), how to fasten a stone axe to a handle, jewelry (Tràng Kênh-Hải Phòng), stone axes and pottery pots (Khe Tong, Quảng Ninh), the sites in the Thẩm Khoách cave (Phố Bình Gia-Lạng Sơn).

In addition to those documents, there are 149 originals on display in this room, including 135 stone artifacts, 3 terra-cotta artifacts, 1 ivory artifect, 10 artifacts of mollusc shells. They are of various kinds such as crude choppers, flaked implements, flakes of stone, stone nucleus, edge-ground stone axes, shouldered axes, stone chisels, pestles, grinding board, stone with parallel twin-concave Bacsonian marks, pearl shells, snails, ochre and sherds of pottery.

Besides, the replicas of various kinds are also displayed in this room. They are the statues of a Sinanthropus head (Bejing) and a Neanderthal head (Germany), stone core, axes, choppers and scrapers, flakes of stone (Đồng Nai-Lâm Đồng-Bình Dương), sherds of pottery .etc.

3. . Some typical artifacts :

1.3.1 Crude choppers in Mount Đọ (Thanh Hóa)

These tools were made of big flakes of stone by rough-hewing along a protruding edge. Tools made in this way were heavy and crude with the weight of 1.5-2 kg and their shapes were fashioned casually. They were used for chopping or cutting.

These tools were made of pebbles by rough-hewing one end or one side of a pebble into a blade, and the rest of the pebble was uses as a hanble. The tools were sometimes made of ½ or ¼ pieces of pebble of which the blade or the two egdes were in a right angle position. They were used for chopping and cutting.

They are typical artifacts of Bắc Sơn culture. To make the axe, the Neolithic first seclected a long pebble, then trimed it rudimentally on the two faces and the edges to make the axe symetric. After that, they made the hilt smaller. Finally, a sharp blade was made by grinding an edge of the axe. The edge-ground stone axes in Bắc Sơn show us that tool making had reached to a more advanced level in this period.

 Room 2 THE HUNG KINGS PERIOD

In the Metal Age, dating back to 4,000-2,000 years ago, it emerged in Vietnam the Red River ancient civilization in the North and the North of Central Vietnam, the Sa Huỳnh culture in the central parts of Vietnam and the Đồng Nai culture in the South Eastern parts of Việt Nam.

The Red River ancient civilization underwent four cultural phases–Phùng Nguyên, Đồng Đậu, Gò Mun, Đông Sơn-of which the development corresponded to social and political events such as Hùng Kings’foundation of the Văn Lang Kingdom and King An Dương‘s foundation of the Âu Lạc Kingdom. Thousands of artifacts of this period have been unearthed, including stone tools, pottery and most of all, brone artifacts which were used for laboring, fighting and for daily activities, especially the renown bronze drums. The Sa Huỳnh culture is original with jar coffin, glass jewelry and gems. Stone moulds and bronze weapons were popular in the Đồng Nai culture. It is these cultures that formed the tradition and traits of Vietnamese people.

The following documents are on display-The map of cultural centers in Metal Age in Việt Nam, the map of cultural site of the Đông Sơn culture in Việt Nam, some photographs of excavating sites, for instance the Phùng Nguyên site (Phú Thọ), the Gò Mun site (Phú Thọ), the Đông Sơn site (Thanh Hóa), the Việt Khê and Thiệu Dương tombs (Thanh Hóa) and the Châu Can tomb (Hà Tây). The photographs of artifacts include the paddles for impressing decoration, spindle whorls, pottery vases and so on, which were made of terra cotta; and various kinds of bronze bells, sickles, body armors, arrow stocks etc. Also, there are photographs of hooks and sinkers, ear-rings, hammers, chisels, dippers, weights, grain, how to play musical instruments, costumes of the Đông Sơn culture, decorative motifs on the Phùng Nguyên pottery, decorative motifs on the body and the tympanum of the Ngọc Lũ drum (Hà Nam) and a model of the sites of Đông Sơn culture (Thanh Hoá).

In addition to those documents, there are 157 original on display, including 78 bronze artifacts, 42 pottery artefacts, 6 agate artifacts, 7 jade artifacts, 6 mollusk shell artifacts and one iron artifact. They are of various classes and materials. Stone artifacts, for instance axes, grinding boards, chisels, moulds, hand pestles, sherds of a necklace, bracelets, strings of beads, two-animal-headed ear-rings, three-node ear-rings etc. were made of gold. Many others were made of bronze such as ploughshares, spearheads, daggers, swords, javelins, fighting axes, sickles, miniature drums, musical drums, small bells etc. The others-plates, stands, spindle whorls, pots, footed plates, sherds of earthen stoves, small balls etc.-were made of terra cotta; and shellfish shells.

Besides, there are 63 replicas of artifacts. They include bronze slag, axes, axe moulds, human-like dagger hilts, the statue of a man sitting on another man’s back blowing trumpets, the Việt Khê canoe coffin, the Đào Thịnh bronze jar (Yên Bái), three-node earrings, bracelets, two animal-headed earrings, spindle whorls.

Stone dragons at One Hundred - Bay pagoda

Found in Sơn Tây province – Hà Nội in 1923, the drum is 40cm high with the diameter of 53 cm. In the center of the face, there is a 14-point star and many concurrent circles. The first circle is not clear enough to recognize the decorative designs and motifs. The second one was lively with bird motifs. Furthermore, there are the dotted lines on the third and the seventh, the serrated motifs on the fourth and the sixth and the circle motifs on the fifth. Besides, the body of the drum engraved motifs of birds, human figures and boats beside the geometric designs. This is the drum of type 1 according to the F. Heger’s classification.

Bronze drum is the symbol of the Đông Sơn culture and of the ancient Vietnamese’s labor fruit and artwork. The fact that the face and the body of the drum were engraved with various well-composed decorative designs and motifs provides us with a vivid and lively picture on people and society in the Hùng Kings period, many aspects of their life-labor, fighting and their spiritual life through ritual ceremonies and festivals.

Bronze drums were also used as musical instruments in the ritual ceremonies or in festivals, a symbol of rulers’power to rally the mass or to give orders in the army. Bronze drums were also used for exchanging and their miniatures were made to serve as burial objects.

It is the typical artifact of Sa Huỳnh culture, found in the terra-cotta jars in the Sa Huỳnh burial area. The ear-rings, made of glass with the two ends, carved an animal with a and long curved horn. Archaeologists are wondering if it is the buffalo head. The earrings are 4.6 cm wide and 3.5 cm high. Only one earring was worn in the festivals and earrings not in daily life.

The Giồng Cá Vồ site is a burial jar in a large dense area. The jar, found in the above- mentioned site, has a date of 3000-2000 years. The jar is rather big, 65 cm high with the widest diameter of the body of 75 cm long and with the diameter of the face of 40c. The jar has no cover. Inside the jar, there is a rather intact human remain with many stone and glass jewelry. This discovery shows us a special way of burying the corpse in Cần Giờ in the South of Việt Nam, which is similar to that of the Sa Huỳnh culture in the Central parts of Viet Nam.

Room 3 : THE PERIOD OF STRUGGLING FOR NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE (1^st-10^th Cen.)

Since King An Dương failed in the revolt against Triệu Đà (179 BC), Vietnam was ruled, exploited and assimilated by Chinese feudal groups.

For more than one thousand years Vietnamese people had struggled persistently to preserve their own traditional culture and their mother tongue; meanwhile, they absorbed and Vietnamized many Chinese cultural elements. At the same time, hundreds of revolts against foreign invaders, first of which was the revolt of the two Trưng Sisters (40-43 A.D), broke out to form an independent government.

With the Bạch Đằng historical victory in 938, led by Ngô Quyền, Vietnamese people had driven away all the Chinese dominators and started a new era of national independence and freedom for their homeland.

The following documents are displayed in this room-the map of revolts against the Chinese feudal groups (1^st-10^th century), the bronze painting depicting the revolt of the two Trưng Sisters (40-43 A.D), the national heroine, Triệu Thị Trinh’s quotation in 248, the photographs of temples of national heroes and the sites of this period, the model depicting the Bạch Đằng victory in 938.

Enclosed with these documents, there are 42 originals on display to introduce culture and art of this period, including 31 bronze artifacts and 11 terra-cotta artifacts. They are of various kinds. Those of the bronze artifact include drums, drum basins, belt-hooks, a mirror, weapons, bells, lamp, tree-pod incense burners, a miniature drum, bracelets, tureens, pots, big bowls, wine bottle, containers etc. Pottery artifacts are jars, pots, stove models, bowls, human figurines, horse figurine, house model, basin and so on.

This artefact was unearthed in Thanh Hóa province. It is 15.5 cm high with the face diameter of 41cm and the bottom diameter of 17 cm; it looks like a basin with designs on the bottom surface. At the center of the face, two fish, which are of typical Chinese cultural elements, were inlaid. However, the outer surface of the bottom was carved with motifs like those on the Đông Sơn drum, that is to say, an 8-point star in the center and long–beaked birds.

These kinds of basins were made for daily use. However, when necessary, they were turned up side down to become a bronze drum. It is a form of expressing the persistent spirit of Vietnamese people to preserve traditional culture in the period of feudal northern domination. In the meantime, it suggested that there were cultural exchanges among Chinese and Vietnamese people in this period.

This artifact was found in a Chinese tomb in Thanh Hóa province with these dimentions-19cm long, 14cm wide and 16.5 cm high. The roof is 27.5 cm long, 12 cm wide and 1.2 cm thick.

The house model has the shape of a rectangular cubic with three sections and the two tile roofs. The roof and the frame are detached. Clay walls were inlaid with bricklike stripes. At the front of the house model are a rectangular door and two symmetrical arched windows in the No. 8 shape. It is a pink house model, made of blackish smooth terra cotta meat covered with an uneven white powder slip.

This is a house of the upper class in Vietnam from the 1st Century to the 3rd Century. Their miniatures were made to serve as burial gifts.

 Room 4 THE LY DYNASTY (11^th-13^th Century)

From the beginning of the independent era, under the Ngô dynasty (939-968), the Đinh dynasty (968-981) and the Tiền Lê dynasty, Vietnamese people continued to resist to the tendency to the partition of the country to defend national unification and fought against the Sung aggressors (981) to firmly preserve their national independence.

Since the foundation of the Ly dynasty in 1009, national development had been enhanced. Thus, under the Lý dynasty an accomplished structure of administration was set up, the first written penal code was promulgated, regular army was established, irrigation schemes were constructed and many measures were taken to promote agriculture, handicrafts, merchandising and trading. Also, the Royal College was established and periodic Civil Examinations were held to select talents. Furthermore, culture and art flourished. During that time the Sung aggressors had been driven away (in 1077).

To the end of the Lý Dynasty, the Đại Việt civilization emerged to have been formed, based on a powerful state, so-called Đại Việt.

In this room, the museum displays some references of the Đinh, Tiền Lê and Lý dynasties such as the wall photographs of the Hoa Lư citadel (Ninh Bình), the portrait of King Lê Đại Hành (941-1005), King Lý Thái Tổ’s royal edict of moving the capital, the quotation of mandarins’ ranks in the Lý dynasty, the quotation of the constructing of the Vân Đồn port (Quảng Ninh), the pictures of the Temple of Confucius, the Royal College in Hà Nội (1070), the map of the victory over the Sung army (1076-1077), the model of the "defensive line along the Cầu river" (1077) and Lý Thường Kiệt’s poem "Nam Quốc Sơn Hà".

In addition to those references, 37 originals are also displayed to introduce culture and art in this period. They include 5 bronze artifacts, 01 stone artifact, 21 ceramic artifacts and 10 terra-cotta artifacts. They are of various categories-bronze coins; stone lotus block; kettles, big bowls, tureens, boxes, a pot, ornamental fragments. etc. made of ceramics; and lotus pedestals, figurines, fragments of a porch, ornamental pieces, bodhi-leaflike ornamental fragments, wall bricks, paved bricks, duck figurines .etc., which were made of terra cotta.

Besides, in this room there are also 16 replicas of Linh Xứng doctoral stele, weapons and Amitabha statues on display.

The coins are disc-shaped pieces of bronze with the diameter of 2.3 cm and there is a square hole at the centre representing the Heaven and the Earth. Four words "Thái Bình Hưng Bảo" were incripted on one face of the coin.

The "Thái Bình Hưng Bảo" coins were casted in the third reign year, so-called the Thái Binh, of King Đinh Tiên Hoàng (970), and they were considered as the first Vietnam coins after the national unificication in the 10^th century.

It is a rectangular brick (44cmx 23.5 cmx5.5 cm) which was found in the Phật Tích pagoda (Bắc Ninh). There are two lines in Chinese characters from right to left being incripted in relief on the main surface of the brick :

" Lý Gia đệ tam Đế Chương

Thánh Gia Khánh thất niên tạo"

Meaning : "made in the seventh royal year "Chương Thánh Gia Khánh" during the reign of the third king of the Lý dynasty (or King Ký Thánh Tông) in 1065".

Products of this kind were made upon the royal order and were used for building palaces, pagodas, buddhist temples or stupas.

3. Dragon ornamental brick-terra-cotta-11^th-12^th Century.

It is an octagonal brick with the dimensions of 6-11 cm long and 4.5 cm thick. On the surface of the brick depicts two dancing dragons in relief in the symmetrical position across a Bodhi leaf with the dragon heads rising up at the centre of the brick. The dragons are snakelike, slender and they have pointed tails, small necks and four-claw protruding feet. The edge of the Bodhi leaf was engraved with wave motifs and the sides of the brick are straight and plain.

These products, with typical dragon motifs of the Lý dynasty, were also used in the Lý dynasty.

4. Teapot-ceramics-11^th-12^th Century

It is a teapot with the diameter of the rim of 2 cm, the diameter of the bottom of 4.2 cm and the height of 6cm. This small teapot was covered in ivory glaze many areas of which detatched from the teapot. The teapot has a body like a pumpkin, a waisted neck, a short spout and a small handle on the shoulder of the teapot.

This is a typical teapot of the Lý dynasty.

 Room 5 THE TRẦN DYNASTY

(13^th-14^th century)

Since the Trần Dynasty succeeded the Lý Dynasty in 1225, the government had developed and expanded the countries in all aspects of life.

Under the Trần dynasty, the structure of administration was consolidated and perfected; the army was well-organized. Agriculture, handicrafts, merchandizing and trading had gained a lot of achievements. Furthermore, many educational institutions, for instance the Royal College and Halls for Martial Arts Training were established, technology had advanced and culture and art had flourished. As a result, well-known literary works, poems and masterpieces of artwork came into beings. Especially, the Nôm started to be applied in literature.

Those achievements improved the lives of Vietnamese people, helped Đại Việt civilization to reach its zenith and aroused from Vietnamese people such power that they defeated three Mongolian invasions (1258,1825,1288) to preserve their national sovereignty, to contribute partly to the world efforts to put an end the ambition of the Mongolian Empire, the mightiest in those days, to expanse to the rest of the world.

The following references are displayed in this room-the maps of the itinerary of Mongolian invasions from Asia to Europe in the 13^th century and of Đại Việt people’s victories over the three Mongolian invasions (1258, 1285, 1288); the quotation of General Trần Hưng Đạo’s "Hịch Tướng Sĩ" (an appeal to all the military officers and soldiers), model depicting the Vạn Kiếp battle in Hải Dương (1285), the paintings depicting the Bạch Đằng victory in 1288 as well as some renown figures in the Trần dynasty, the diachronic of the Trần dynasty and some other pictures of the Trần Dynasty in the 13^th and 14^th centuries.

 In addition to the above-mentioned references, there are 44 originals on display introducing history, culture and art of this period such as 3 wooden artifacts, 36 ceramic and terra-cotta artifacts and 5 bronze artifacts. They are of various categories-the Bạch Đằng wooden flakes; bronze coins; celadon utensils like bowls, plates, basins, jars and small bowls in the glaze of different colors - jade, brown, blue and white; paved brick, ornamental pottery pieces with a face of a beast and some other decorative pottery pieces used in architecture.

Besides, in this room there are 19 replicas on display of various sorts such as loudspeakers, shields, weapons, hooked tiles, the Phổ Minh tower model, the Bình Sơn tower model, a brown urn, the stone tiger on the Trần Thủ Độ memorial stupa, the wooden door of the Phổ Minh tower and a wooden painting depicting a scene of martial art fighting in the 13^th century.

The stake is 3m high with a pointed end and with a bark-detached and cracked trunk. Such stakes were used in the resistance against the third Mongolian invasion in 1288.

Led by General Trần Quốc Tuấn, the Đại Việt people defeated the third Mongolian invasion. General Trần Quốc Tuấn reused Ngô Quyền’s military tactic to have defeated the Southern Han navy troop massively years before, so he had his followers flake iron-tipped wooden stakes, and then plant them into the bed of the river to form a wide expanse of barriers so that enemy fleets would be obscured in the lower tide; thus, in this way his soldiers could ambush to counterattack and to destroy the Mongolian navy troops.

The brick was found in the Thiên Trường royal palace (Nam Định) where the remains of the Trần Dynasty originated. It is a square brick of big size with the side of 39.5 cm long. The brick was engraved with relief decorative motifs in inner circles and in outer squares. At the center of the decorative brick, there is a stylized chrysanthemum, four groups of flower motifs in a symmetrical position and curving refined lithe lines. At the four right angles, thick flower and leaf motifs were depicted.

This kind of tile was used for paving floors whenever a palace or a mansion was erected. It was made with elaborate description in a nice shape, which proved that architecture of the Trần dynasty had reached a high level.

 Room 6 THE LÊ DYNASTY

 6.1 Introduction:

After Hồ Quý Ly overthrew the Trần dynasty and then failed in the revolt against the Ming army (1407), the Đại Việt fell under the feudal Northern Chinese domination.

Nevertheless, the power of Đại Việt was proved by the fact that successive uprising against foreign invaders broke out. The leading Lam Sơn uprising (1418-1425) among them, led by Lê Lợi, defeated the Ming troops and regained the national sovereignty.

In 1428, Lê Lợi founded the Lê Dynasty and started restructuring the country. During the Lê dynasty, land exploitation and establishment of new villages were speeded up and many socio-economic policies were adopted. Education, literature and art also flourished. Thus, the Đại Việt civilization entered a new phase of development.

Since Mạc Đăng Dung usurped the throne in 1527, the Đại Việt kingdom had fallen into a serious crisis. The Nguyễn clan and the Trịnh clan tried to restore the Lê Dynasty, causing the civil wars between the Lê-Mạc (1527-1529) and between the Trịnh-Nguyễn (1627-1672) which led to the national partition. Everywhere farmers stood up in protest to the oppression of the authoritarian monarchy.

During this time, the Đại Việt people had accomplished the exploitation of new land in the South and the first contacts to the West were made. The Quốc ngữ (national language) or Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese), the current Latinized Vietnamese alphabetical order, came into being.

The following references are displayed in this room-the diachronic of the Ho dynasty, the map of revolts against the Ming (1407-1413) and of the Lam Sơn Uprising (1418-1427), the model of the battle at the Chi Lăng Pass (Lạng Sơn-1427), the photograph of the Lam Sơn resistance, the quotation of the Nguyễn Trãi’s "Cáo Bình Ngô"and his portrait, the diachronic of the early Lê and Mạc dynasties (1428-1529), the photographs of the early Lê and Mạc dynasties (15^th-16^th Century), the land system of the Lê dynasty, the administrative structure in the reign of King Lê Thánh Tôn (1460-1497), the diachronic of Lê Trung Hưng reign (1533-1788), typical eminent figures (15^th-18^th century) and some photographs of the Lê Trung Hưng reign (16^th-18^th century).

In addition to the above-mentioned references, there are 80 originals on display in this room introducing culture and art of this period. They include bronze artefacts such as coins, seals, kettles, lion cubs, pot in elephant shape, incense burners and so on; those of Chu Đậu and Bát Tràng ceramics, for instance big bowls, small bowls, plates, lamp stands, incense burners; and some Chinese ceramic products made upon the Trịnh Lords’ order in the 18^th century.

Besides, in this room there are also some other replicas on this play, including weapons, the statue of KwanYin Bodhisatva with one thousand eyes and one thousand arms (Bút Tháp pagoda-Bắc Ninh), the dragon head, the unicorn, the doctoral stele of those who passed the Court Civil Service Examination in the Temple of Confucius and in the Royal College (Hà Nội).

Found in the Quảng Ngãi province in 1988, it is a square bronze seal with the dimensions of the sides of 8x8 cm long and 1 cm thick, and with a flat protruding handle of 8 cm high. The seal engraved some Chinese characters on its surface which means "The Seal of the Consult Department ruling Quảng Nam region-made by the Supreme Treasure Department in the second reign year, so-called Hồng Đức" (Lê Thánh Tông-1471).

This seal confirms the Đại Việt sovereignty in Quảng Nam, a newly-established region (in 1470).

 6.3.2 Lamp stand-Bát Tràng ceramics-16^th century

The lamp stand is 90 cm high with two parts put on each other–the reservoir and the base.

The reservoir is in the shape of broad shoulders with the waisted bottom like a flower placed on a high stand multilayer truncated cone.

The base consists of three parts. The top part is a plate like a full lotus pedestal. The central part is a round, long and slender cylinder. And the bottom part, which just fitted the mouth of the reservoir, is solid and looks like a drum with the height of the stand of 7 cm. By using the techniques of relief, glazing and inlaid lines, the lamp stand had elaborated and refined decoration.

This big lamp stand was used in huge mansions, pagodas or temples. The fact that it was made in an elaborate way and big size suggested that that lamp stand be used not only as a source of lighting but also as an ornamental object. This kind of lamp stand was rather typical in the Lê-Mạc dynasties.

The plate has the face diameter of 30.7 cm, a thin bronze-inlaid rim, a bending body and a deep bottom. Inside the plate depicts two men sitting on a cliff edge fishing under the lithe willows. Above the scene are a 16-ray sun and a poem in Chinese characters as followed:

Meaning: Golden waves were gliding with radiating light

The waves were dancing whenever the wind breezed

Oh fish, you should know whether I am pleased or not

Otherwise, the affluent would laugh at common people

(Vương Hồng Sển)

The outer surface of the plate depicts the scene of a mature conifer beside the cliff edge, a high towerlike pavilion and the images of two servants following two men riding on horses galloping past a bridge. On the other bank, a man enjoyed fresh breezing wind. Above him, there was the following two-line verse:

Meaning:

Mountains and rivers are all showing their beauty

Good smell from their clothes left behind, the horse hooves were galloping fast ahead.

(after Vương Hồng Sển)

The outer base of the plate engraved four Chinese characters "Nội Phủ Thị Bắc". This is a Chinese ceramic product, made upon the Trịnh lords’ orders for use in royal palaces.

 Room 7 THE TÂY SƠN DYNASTY

 7.1. Introduction :

In the 8^th century, in the momentum of the peasant moverment to protest the partition influential forces of the Lê-Trịnh clans (in the North) and the Nguyễn clan (in the South) which had caused the national partition, the Tây Sơn uprising broke out in Quy Nhơn in 1771.

With the massive support from people of different social classes, the Tây Sơn uprising, led by Nguyễn Nhạc and Nguyễn Huệ, spread out very soon and was able to carry out its historical missions to overturn the Nguyễn Lords, to defeat the Siem troop, to subvert the Trịnh Lords and to put an end to the Lê dynasty, to defeat the Chin; thus, credited the first merit in the preservation of the national independence and unification.

In 1778 Nguyễn Nhạc founded the Tây Sơn dynasty. Since Nguyễn Huệ succeeded the throne in 1778, the Tây Sơn government strived to restore the national economy, to revitalize culture and to adopt many positive reformations in governing the country.

This room displays the following references – the map introducing Vietnamese peasant revolts in the 18^th century, the victory over the Siem aggression (1784-1785), the paintings depicting the Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút battle on the Tiền river, the quotation of King Quang Trung’s public promulgation to fight against the Ch’ing as well as his royal proclamation, the painting of Quang Trung defeating the Ch’ing troop massively (Kỷ Dậu Spring, 1789); the relief painting of the Ngọc Hồi victory in Hà Nội, the bronze painting depicting the victory of the Tây Sơn troop marching to the Thăng Long citadel in a season full of peach blossoms; and the diachronic and renown figures of the Tây Sơn dynasty.

Together with the above-mentioned references, there are 68 originals on display introducing history, culture and art in this period. They include coins, weapons (swords, scimitars etc.), small bells, pots etc., made of bronze; incense burners, lamps, pots, wine bottle, big bowls, small bowls etc., made of pottery; wooden Buddha and Arahat statues.

In his five-year reign, King Quang Trung had different types of coins casted and issued. The collection of coins on display here is of "Quang Trung Thông Bảo" type. The coins were made of brone, rather thin with a square at the centre of the coin and they were of uneven sizes with diameters ranging from 23-25 mm. The face of the coin bore four Chinese characters "Quang Trung Thông Bảo". The rim of the coin was plain with two outer protruding edges surrounding an inter square edge. Not only the sizes of "Quang Trung Thông Bảo" coin type are casual but their thickness, edges and squares were uneven as well. The fact that "Quang Trung Thông Bảo" coins were issued after the devastating war revealed King Quang Trung‘s attempts to end up political turmoils, to give an impetus to the economic growth and to develop the nation in many other aspects as well.

2. The sword (the end of the 18^th century)

The blade and sheeth on diplay here still remain intact.

This sharp blade was made of good steel with the dimensions of 95cm long and 3cm wide and it has a sharp pointed tip, tilted and hooked toward the edge of the sword. The hilt was made of ivory, and the handle was a silver block which looked like a dragon with detailed parts of body such as eyes, a nose, ears, a mane and so on. The beard of the dragon was made from a bronze bar, fixing and coiling from the jaw to the upper parts, which also served as the handle protecting users’ hands.

The sheeth was made of wood and was inlaid in silver at the two ends and in the middle of the sheeth depicting motifs of flying dragons or tree branches and leaves arranged in the shape of a dragon.

The shape, materials and dragon motifs on the sword suggested that the sword used to belong to a higher military officier or an acritocracy.

3. Incense burner-ceramics-late 18^th century

The incense burner is cylindrical (flat and protruding at the top and the bottom, and waisted along the body) with the top diameter of 25 cm and the height of 30cm (including the stand). The whole body of the incense burner was glazed in eel skin color. Decorative motifs are dragons in relief in the symetrical positions to the front and back parts of the incence burner. On the front and back parts of the incense burner, there were two parallel four-claw dragons with the full description of parts of body reaching the sun. The Chinese character "Thọ" (or longevity) was engraved in relief in a circle above the sun and beneath it was a direct dragon face in relief. Two handles, in facts two dragons sticked to the top edge with their heads rising above the burner were also fixed .

This incense burner originated from Phú Lãng (Bắc Ninh).

In 1802, Nguyễn Ánh, a descendant of the Nguyễn clan, subverted the Tây Sơn dynasty and founded the Nguyễn dynasty. In the early phase of the dynasty, despite the efforts to restructure the unified government, to promote land clearance and to develop culture, the Nguyễn dynasty failed in reforming the country and surrendered French colonizers soon afterward while Vietnamese people all were rising up to struggle against foreign invaders.

Since 1883 Vietnamese people had been fighting in a comprehensive battle in order to preserve their own cultural identity as well as to absorb Western cultural elements selectively. At the same time, many uprisings of different ideologies occurred to drive away French colonizers and the bourgeoisie to regain national independence.

In 1930 the Indochinese communist party was formed, then a wise platform was proposed. It had been 15 years under the leadership of the Party that Vietnamese people could carry out the August 1945 revolution successfully and overthrow the feudal and colonial regime to give way to the establishment of the Republic of Vietnam, starting a new era for the whole nation.

In this room, the Museum displays many references about the Nguyễn dynasty- photographs relating to the eco-political and socio-cultural settings, and to nationalist movements against the French colony, the maps on the revolts against the French colony, the photographs of the nationwide August Revolution in 1945, the diachronic of the Nguyễn dynasty and renown figures of the Nguyễn dynasty.

In addition to the above-mentioned references, the Museum also displays 126 originals. These artefacts clearly reflected history, technology, culture and art of the Nguyễn dynasty. They include 10 wooden artifacts, 39 bronze artifacts’ one cloths artifact, 8 shell-lacquered artifacts; 9 ivory artifacts, 31 Bát Tràng ceramic artifacts and Chinese ceramic products made in China upon orders, 5 silver pieces, 14 kinds of musical instruments, insurgents’ and the French’s weapons etc., a miniature altar cupboard, wooden screens, ivory-lacquered beds, books, money, bells, bronze rattles, irons, gongs etc. made of bronze; the king’s royal robe, rulers for measuring, a tray, wooden slippers etc. made of wood; big bowls, plates, pots, a ceramic tea set; different kinds of monochord, sixteen string zithers, two-string zithers, flutes, two-piece percussion instruments etc.; rifles, swords etc.

Since the new dynasty was founded, the Nguyễn kings and other mandarins continued to order Chinese blue and white Chinese ceramics for daily uses, one of which was the "Apricot-flamingo" bowls. It was incripted with "Ngoạn ngọc" in Chinese characters on the outer bottom surface. The bowl has the mouth diameter of 18.5 cm, the height of 6.3 cm and a thin rim. On the outer surface depicted an old curving apricot tree with a rough tree trunk and with many flourishing flowers on the branches. Near the root, there was a big stone on which a flamingo was standing on one leg with the head tilting to one side. On the left of the flamingo, there was a two-line Nôm verse as followed:

Ngêu ngao vui thú san hà

Mai là bạn cũ, hạc là người quen

Meaning: I wander to enjoy life and the beauty of nature

Apricot tree is my friend, crane is my acquaintance

The scene "apricot-flamingo" is very familiar to the daily life of Vietnamese people. Such a poetic scene influenced forms of art expression in poetry, literature and fine art.

 This screen was given to the National Museum of Vietnam in 1956 by Mr. Douguet, a French navy command-in-chief.

The shape of the screen is similar to that of a three-entrance gate, so it has three flaps with dimensions of the whole screen of 240cm wide and 210 cm high, the middle flap is larger than the two side flaps. Basically, it served as a screen to conceal furniture but in fact with its elaborate decoration it is a perfect sculpture work both in the structure and in each specific carving by using the relief, inlaid embossed techniques. Decorative designs on the wooden screen reflected typical feature of Vietnamese culture and tradition such as the "Four Sacred Animals", "Two Dragons Reaching the Sun","Conifer-Deer", "Apricot-Flamingo" etc. Especially, on the middle flap of the wooden screen artisans carved a small palace above which was a line in Chinese character "Tường vân phủng nguyệt", or clear cloud rising up the moon. In the middle of the palace, there was a throne with phoenix motifs. On the throne a woman wearing a hat was sitting; her royal clothes was embroidered with a Chinese character "Tho", or longevity. To her sides, there were two servants holding fans. To each side of the crown, there were eight women in baggy clothes holding feather dusters in their hands, picking up some lotus flowers, and they were waiting for her instruction. A farther look to the picture shows us that behind the fruit plate there was a man wearing a hat with two paddles which flapped and standing on his knees submitting a petition to her.

From the meanings of these decorative motifs, their structure and the carving techniques of this wooden screen we might suggest that King Tự Đức had this wooden screen made to give to his beloved mother who endured much hardship to bring him up.

This loose-sleeve royal robe was made of yellow natural cotton with the dimensions of 250cm wide and 120 cm long. Many parts of the royal robe is now decayed and the thread is worn out. A royal robe was worn by the king like an overcoat. The body and the sleeves of the royal robe are lengthy and loose with the cloths-made buttons fastened to one side from the armpit to the shoulder. The decorative designs were made by embroidering them in colorful threads, including dense motifs such as dragons, clouds, waves, the Chinese character "Thọ"(or longevity) or geometric designs etc. Especially, eight dragons are embroidered at the front, the back and on the two arms of the royal robe. The dragons were depicted with detailed parts of body such as eyes, nose, beard, fins and so on. The dragons on the royal robe are the 5-claw ones with big heads and curving bodies, mysteriously hiding and appearing among the clouds. In Vietnam, dragons represented the mighty power of rulers. On the other hand, the materials of the royal clothes and embroidered threads showed us the high dexterity of Vietnamese artisans in weaving, embroidering and sewing.

This is a Vietnamese unique and rather simple musical instrument. The sound box, on which the motifs of flower and leaves were lacquered, is a wooden log of approximately 1m long. The sound box of the monochord was made of wood and looks like a part of calabash. The sound sensor is made of bending bamboo. There is only one string on the monochord but with skillful hands monochord players could create dozens of lyrics with melodious, rising and falling, touching sounds which moved audiences deeply.

Generations after generations passed by but the monochord has still been attaching to daily life of Vietnamese people from their childhood to old age, from the royal palaces in the capital to the countryside. There is a popular Vietnamese folksong (or ca dao) as followed:

Đàn bầu ai gảy thì nghe

Làm thân con gái chớ nghe đàn bầu

Meaning:

We can listen to it when one plays the monochord

But a lady had better not listen to the monochord

Room 9 : THE CERAMICS OF SOME ASIAN COUNTRIES

Ceramics, developed about 10.000 years ago, is a kind of products made of sticky clay, then baked in fire before being used as a container or as materials in decoration and architecture. In the developmental process, although there have been distinctive differences in shapes, decorative designs from one country to another, ceramics have been perfected to make human lives more convenient for their various uses not only in storing grain and; religion and belief; construction etc. but also in industries most of which has become historical and cultural remains and in valuable art works.

This showroom displays terra-cotta and ceramics products of some Asian countries such as China, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam so that they help us to get a better understanding on the developmental process of pottery and ceramics and to recognize national characteristics of each nation expressed in a simple but original way.

2. Artifacts and references on display

This room displays 200 pottery originals of different countries as followed:

-17 Japanese artefacts, dating from 17^th century to early 20^th century including pots, plates, big bowls, small bowls etc. in blue and white glaze or in five-color glaze and they belong to the Hizen and Satsuma type. There are many motifs depicting landscapes in Japan and Japanese people on these pottery and ceramic products.

-21 Cambodian artifacts, dating from 11^th century to 18^th century, which were mainly made for daily uses or for serving ritual ceremonies. A large amount of pottery in brown glaze or in eel skin glaze were introduced. They originated from Kulen, Baphuon. Besides, there are also pottery products in five-color glaze with high stands.

-27 Thai artifacts, dating from 15^th to 18^th centuries, pottery products of Sawankhalok and Bencharng types. There are some other Sawankhalok celadon, unearthed from a wrecked ship in Hòn Dầm (the Dầm islet in Kiên Giang, Việt Nam).

-55 Vietnamese artifacts, dating from the 11^th to 19^th centuries- these kinds of Vietnamese pottery are made for daily uses and for ritual ceremonies such as incense burners, censers. They originated from Chu Đậu kilns (Hải Dương), Bát Tràng kilns (Hà Nội) and some other China products made in China upon the Nguyễn Kings’ and madarins’orders.

-80 Chinese artifacts, dating from17th to 19^th centuries (from the Tang dynasty to the Ch’ing dynasty)-China products on display here are of various shapes, sizes, colors and designs and they originated from the kilns in Giang Tây, Phúc Kiến and Quảng Đông provinces and so on. Some of them were removed from an old wrecked ship in Hòn Cầu (the Cầu islet in Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu-Việt Nam). These China products were made in the Cảnh Đức kiln (Giang Tây) upon the order of some European countries.

3. Some typical artifacts

The plate is round with cobalt blue decoration and in white glaze. The mouth diameter is 26.5 cm long and the plate is 4cm high with a gold-inlaid mouth rim. Inside the plate the landscape scenes such as sea and rivers, hills of trees, the sun and clouds etc were depicted. The interior bottom depicted a hopea odorata, a kind of tree giving very good wood, which protrudes six small foliages. The bare tree trunk was very thin as if it had been standing alone in a cold winter. It might be a peach tree. Furthermore, in such a vast scene, we could see the three-peak Fuji range full of white snow appear from the distance.

The plate was of the Hizen type with rather thin and fine clay body. The plate showed us that the stylized techniques that the Japanese artisans used to express the beauty of their homeland were very successful and impressive and their technique of pottery making reached a high level

The pottery pot has a high neck, small mouth, protruding shoulders and is smaller and smaller from the top to the bottom. The mouth diameter is 4.5 cm and the base one 9.5 and the pot is 17.5 cm high. The body of the pot is covered with a brown blackish glaze. Decoration was focused in the neck and the shoulder of the pot. However, these designs are very simple with ten protruding lines surrounding the neck of the pot.

It is a kind of pottery with low firing temperature degree and its clay body is thin, heavy. These kinds of pots were made a lot in Cambodia from the 10^th century to the 13^th century. Pottery pots of this kind is often used for containing water or fermented fish in daily life of Cambodian people.

9.3.3.Celadon plate-Thailand-15^th Century

The plate has the mouth diameter of 30cm. Like other celadon of Sawankhalok type of Thailand, this plate was removed from an old wrecked ship in the water area around the Dam islet or Hòn Dầm (Kiên Giang–Việt Nam) in 1991. This plate has a rim, which is thick, heavy and crude. It was engraved with inlaid designs. The interior wall of the pot depicts wave motifs and the exterior wall depicts the parallel line motif; the interior surface of the base is a flower and the exterior one is unglazed, exposing the pink and grayish clay body.

The display of Thai celadon here enables us to make an interesting comparison. In the 15^th century, China became renown all over the world for producing famous blue and white ceramics; Vietnam produced pottery of high quality for export in Chu Đậu; Thailand made a lot of thick, heavy and crude celadon.

9.3.4 Ceramic jars in ivory glaze-China-17^th Century

This two-handle ceramic jar in ivory glaze was broken and fitted together again. The pot has a protruding top face, a longer cylindrical neck than the body and a broad shoulder. From the shoulder of the jar, two dragons in opposite position rising up to the jar mouth become two handles. Six Chinese coins bearing the letters "Ngũ thù" from the ancient time were carved in relief around the jars.

This is one of the typical pottery products of the Tang dynasty (China)

 Room 10 THE ÓC EO CULTURE

(1^st –6^th centuries)

 10.1 Introduction:

The Óc Eo culture which flourished the most in the ancient time years ago, emerged from the 1^st century to the 6^th century A.D in the Mekong Delta.

The sites of this ancient culture could be found in Ba Thê, Óc Eo, Mount Sam, Lò Mo (An Giang); in Nền Chùa, Canh Đền, Mốp Văn etc. (Kiên Giang); and in Gò Tháp (Đồng Tháp). Up till now thousands of artifacts of Óc Eo culture have been excavated, including stone axes, earthenware, statues made of wood, stone or bronze; stone, glass, gold or silver jewelry, old rice seeds; human and animal remains. Moreover, vestiges of old architecture, old tombs etc. could also been found. These finds proved that the Óc Eo culture had with a developed economy, a prosperous commercial center and had exclusive trading tie and cultural exchanges with other countries in the Southeast Asia, China, India, Persian and in Mediterranean regions.

The Óc Eo culture plays a crucial role in the exploration to history, culture and ethnic peoples in the Mekong Delta and in its international relations in the early centuries AD.

This room displays the following artifacts-the maps of the locations of Óc Eo site in the Western and Southeastern parts of Vietnam; the picture of some rare and original remains, designs on Óc Eo pottery and an oil painting depicting an Óc Eo site in which an old tomb was being excavated.

In addition to the above-mentioned references, 244 originals on display here will provide us with a lively socio-economic picture of the Phù Nam Kingdom. They include artifacts which were made from different materials such as stone (27), bronze, pottery (39), wood (5), gold (29), gems (36), crystal (3), other metals (75)-zinc, silver, tin and so on. They are of various categories–grinding boards, grinding pestles, jewelry moulds, bracelets etc made of stone; sorts of bronze artifacts such as dishes, belt hooks, small bells, the statues of Visnu, Nadin etc.; pottery utensils and other pottery products such as big bowls, golden sheets, rings casting the image of a Nadin, coin etc. made of gold; string of beads, bracelets, seals etc. made of germ; and different kinds of coins, relief objects, made of zinc, silver etc.

This sheet of gold weighs 2.28 gram. It is thin, rectangular with the length of 3.8 cm and the width of 2.5 cm.

One face is plain and the other carved an image of a woman standing on her knees playing a musical instrument. The woman on the gold sheet was depicted elaborately with an oval smiling face, her hair combed into two symmetrical parts from the middle, high half-moon eyebrows and scholars are wondering if the two flowerlike circles to the sides of her neck are adorned marks? Furthermore, her breast was naked and full. Her left hand was touching the strings and her right one was holding the handle of the musical instrument with her finger pressing on the strings. The handle of the musical instrument rose up to the right corner of the gold sheet.

This gold sheet was discovered in the Oùc Eo site by L. Malleret, a French archaeologists in 1944. The fact that there existed many sheets of gold at the Oùc Eo site shows us the dexterity of Oùc Eo inhabitants in jewelry making in the early centuries AD. The specific details on the gold sheets also reflect certain aspects of spiritual life of Óc Eo inhabitants.

10.3.2 Buddha statues-wood- 5^th Century

The statue found in Đồng Tháp province (in the South of Vietnam) was made of Hopea dorata wood. The statue was of 1m59 high and was carved in a standing position on a lotus platform with smiling face expressing his loving-kindness. The left hand was protruding to the front with fingers put in the Vertada position. There is a unisa and a long earlobe. The body is covered with a frock down to has feet. Some researchers argued that this Buddha statue was made in the Amaravati style (of Southern India).

The existence of wooden Buddha statues there suggested that besides Hinduism, people in Phù Nam Kingdom also welcomed Buddhism.

10.3.3 Oùc Eo coins-silver

The coin was casted in silver with the diameter of 3.5 cm. The center of the coin was thick but it was thinner and thinner to the outer rim. The coin had neither a hole at the center nor a thin relief line around its circumference like current Chinese coin. The face of the coin had an image of a halfsun with 6 rays radiating above the sun and a relief dot in every other line. There were 16 relief dots scattered around the coin and on the surface depicted an image of a man stretching out their arms and legs.

These coins could be cut into small pieces for trading or for bartering. The fact that these kind of coins were found a lot in the Oùc Eo sites suggests that trading used to flourish in this region.

 11.1 Introduction

After the" Óc Eo culture" from the 6^th to the 13th century, local inhabitants in the Mekong delta were developing their own cultural traditions concerning to religion, art etc. and absorbed new linguistics elements from Chân Lạp; meanwhile, it was influenced by the architecture of the Champ culture.

In this period, influenced by Brahmanism and Budhism, local inhabitants here had erected many buildings using brick, stone and square plans, made many statues of Buddha, Visnu and Siva, the last of which represented Lingua, Mukha Linga or Yony Linga and many figurines of Hari-Hara God–embodying the combination between Visnu and Siva. Especially, they made very nice man and woman statues, too.

From the 7^th to the 17^th centuries, ancient culture in the Mekong River was diverse and original. An exploration on this culture would help us get a certain background on culture and history in the Mekong Delta.

This showroom introduced photographs of cultural relics and archeological remains in Southern provinces of Vietnam, dated from 7^th to 17^th centuries.

In addition to those references, there are 49 originals on display here, including 48 stone artifacts and one bronze artifact. They are of various sorts-the statues of Visnu, Linga, Yoni, Linga-Yoni, Agnes, Umagodess, Surya, Avalokitesvara, gods and goddesses, horse heads, pestles, grinding board, memorial stele, stilts, mortar and so on, made of stone; and a bronze Goddess figurine.

Visnu is the Ultimate God in Brahmanism.

Stone statues of God Visnu with the height from 40 cm to 105 cm could be found in An Giang, Bến Tre and Long An provinces with the date back to the 8^th to 12^th centuries. The statue was carved in a standing position with a thoughtful face, a cylindrical hat on the head, a naked body and four hands holding God Visnu’s four typical objects as followed:

A shell representing five elements

A round plate representing the Sun, God of Wisdom

A lotus bud representing the laws operating the universe

A club representing ego or the original source of knowledge.

Linga is the symbol of a male reproductive organ. Yoni is the symbol of the female reproductive organ.

Linga is 43 cm high with the diameter of 24 cm; Yoni is 134 cm high, 90 cm wide and 10cm thick.

The Linga-Yoni compound expresses the idea that Linga always intertwines with Yoni. The top ball of Linga with a broken piece was carved with an image of God Siva wearing a pointed hat. This image shows us the customs of worshiping God Siva by inhabitants in the Mekong Delta in the form of Linga-Yoni. The combination between Linga and Yoni is an artistic form representing the two opposite features of Siva- creativity v.s destruction. Putting an image of creativity next to destruction in this way also expresses certain philosophical significance of Brahmanism.

It is also a form of belief in fecundity, which had a great impact on the spiritual life of residents in the Mekong Delta.

Found in Ngãi Hòa Thượng, Trà Vinh with the height of 90 cm The head of the statue put on a top hat bearing an image of the Bodhivatsa sitting on the lotus pedestal at the front side. She had a smiling face radiating her loving-kindness, a half-naked body, and symbolizing trousers. It is a four-hand statue with two front hands in the Vertada position and two back hands leaned on a stand-the right hand holding a string of beads and the left one holding a lotus flower.

This artifact suggests that residents in the Mekong Delta mingle Brahmanism with Buddhism in their practice.

 Room 12 THE VƯƠNG HỒNG SỂN’S COLLECTION

 12.1 Introduction

Vương Hồng Sển (1902-1996) is a cultural researcher and a famous collector of antiquity in the South of Việt Nam.

In all his life he was always interested in antique objects and collected more than 800 antique objects, the most typical among which were the blue and white ceramics of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. He made a good contribution to finding the dates of some ceramics and shared his experiences to those who like collecting antiquities. His researches were highly evaluated by the professionals and scholars. To the rest of his life, he wrote a will to give the whole collection and books to the government with the expectation to preserve his collection for good.

This room displays artefacts from Vietnam, China, Japan, Thailand, France, produced from the 10th-the 14^th century, in the Vương Hồng Sển’s collection to admire his valuable collection as well as to appreciate his devotion to researching and preserving national cultural heritages.

This room introduces Vương Hồng Sển’s bibliography; some references and pictures relating to his collection.

In spite of the humble area of this room, the Museum displays up to 347 artefacts in the Vương Hồng Sển’s collection. This collection could be classified in brief as followed:

296 pottery artifacts of different kinds such as pots, basins, big-bellied jars terra-cotta support for flower pots, big bowls, small bowls, plates, glasses, teapot, flower vases, ink sets etc. These ceramics originated from different countries such as Vietnam, China, Japan, and Europe. These ceramics had their dates from the 11^th century to the 19^th century and were covered in various kinds of glazes and motifs.

Besides there are 51 artefacts made of stone, wood, horn, glass, bronze, shell or turtle lacquerwares etc. Among them, the lion statues, horizontal lacquered board, two parallel wooden panels incripted with vertical Chinese sentences etc., made of wood; deer horn, combs etc made of tortoise shells; plates, glasses with high stand etc were made of glass; a snuff bottle, a small plate, small bowls etc were made of stone; trays, boxes etc made of shell-lacquered wood. Also, many manuals taking notes on antique objects and Mr.Vương Hồng Sển’s books were introduced.

Dimensions: it has the mouth diameter of 10.5 cm, the height of 4.7 cm and was partly broken. The shape of this bowl is a bit strange. The wall of the bowl is high and looks like an up-side-down chopped cone. These kinds of bowls were used for eating cooked rice and for drinking green tea or liquor.

The shape and the glaze of this bowl add up to variety of the collection of pottery at the Museum.

It was a kind of big bowl with the mouth diameter of 29cm and the height of 8cm. Mr. Vương Hồng Sển bought this bowl in Sài Gòn in 1965. Some parts of the bowl were cracked. On the inner and outer walls of the bowl depicted dragons and phoenix reaching the sun. They were five-claw flying dragons hiding and appearing suddenly in the clouds. The words " Nội Phủ Thị Tứ" in Chinese character were engraved on the stand.

Because of its big size, some people disagreed to call it a big bowl, but rather the basin for face-washing. It might be a kind of "plate-tray" carrying betels or ritual presents.

Those artifacts which were inscripted with "Nội Hữu Thị Hữu" together with others like "Nội Hữu Thị Tả", "Nội Hữu Thị Trung", "Nội Hữu Thị Đoài", "Nội Phủ Thị Bắc", "Nội Phủ Thị Đông", "Nội Phủ Thị Nam", "Khánh Xuân Thị Tả" were special products that Trịnh Lords ordered from China for uses only in the royal palace.

The plate had the mouth diameter of 12cm and was depicted with the landscapes of mountains to mountains, of farms and houses etc. On the plate, a boat had just arrived and the rower’s hands were holding a wooden stick firmly so that the guests in the boat could get off the boat to step in the land. Above the bank we could see houses and a back yard. The house leaned on mature conifers shadowing the ground. In the yard there were two sitting men, chatting or discussing something. A little boy was waving a fan at the stove. This symbolic setting is very close to the realistic scenes in Huế.

This is a product, which the Huế monarchy ordered from China only for uses in the royal palaces.

This is a thick oval three-stand plate with a tilted bottom surface. It has the mouth diameter of 45cm and the height of 6 cm. Inside the disk are two deep ditches in the shape of the letter "thập" so that water could drip onto a small hollow.

The plate was depicted 9 cells, the cell at the center is in oval shape with the symbolic images of a tiger and an elephant depicting on the white glaze. The eight surrounding cells were like fans. All the cells were engraved with many colorful motifs of flowers and leaves.

This is the plate of European style, which the Đông Aán Co. from Holand ordered China to produce.

 Room 13 THE ART OF THE CHAMP KINGDOM

 13.1 Introduction

The Champ Kingdom emerged and developed from the 2^nd century to the 17^th century in the areas from Quảng Bình to Binh Thuận provinces of Việt Nam nowadays.

Inherited from the Sa Huỳnh culture and influenced by Indian culture, people in the Champ Kingdom has created their own distinctive culture with unique temples and towers in their architecture; with lively and realistic stone scultures; with sophisticated products made of metals -gold, bronze and silver etc.; especially famous Gò Sành pottery products exported to the Southeast Asian region from the 13^th to the 15^th centuries etc.

Their relics and remains, existing to the present days, partly reflect the hey day of the ancient Champ Art.

In this room, the Museum displays the map of cultural relics of the Champ Kingdom and an oil painting of the Mỹ Sơn Duy Xuyên relics (Quảng Nam).

In addition to the above-mentioned references, 59 originals are displayed here, including 40 stone artifacts, 7 brone artifacts, 2 silver artifacts and 10 earthenware and terra-cotta artifacts. They are statues of Gods and godess such as Lasksmis, Dêvi, Ganesa, Indra, Visnu or the Siva head, Asura devils, Garuda sacred birds, Nadin oxes, shines worshiping 9 gods, lion statues, a statue of a dancer, a statue of a priest, the statues of Makara and Kala etc. made of stone; the Đồng Dương Buddha statues, the statue of Lokesvara, the statue of Avalokitesvara etc. made of bronze; bowl, jar etc. made of silver; a pottery jar, a bowl, a plate, earthened tiles etc.

The statue was standing straight on a lotus pedestal, with spriral wavy hair and a unisa on the top head. The statue had a round face radiating loving-kindness, half-open eyes with a straight look, high and connected eyesbrows, a long earlobe (the left one was broken). The Buddha was wearing a robe which reveals one side of his shoulder. He gave his hand to the front in the Vertada position and his left hand was holding a flap of a frock.

The Đồng Dương Buddha statue, together with other Buddha statues on stock in the Historical Museum of Vietnam and in other Museums, proved that in early days Buddhism had influenced on the spiritual life of the Champ people and their casting techniques had reached a high level.

13.3.2 The Devi godess – Stone- Hương Quế-Quảng Nam-19^th century.

It was a round semi statue with a big piece detatched from the forehead. The hat on her head was in a curbed pyramid shape of Java type. Her hair was plaited into small three layer beams. The statue had a harmonious halfsmile kind-hearted face, open eyes, high connected eyesbrow and full symetrical breasts.

According to reliable references, Devi goddess might be the queen of King Indravarman II. Because in all her life she had done many good deeds, King Yayashiha Varman (893-903) had her statue carved to worship her like other godesses. At the same time, the statue of Devi goddess is a masterpiece in the stone sculpture of the Champ kingdom.

 Room 14

Vietnam is a country of many ethnic groups. Currently, there are about 54 ehnic groups living all over the country, of which the most crowded is the Việt (about 65 million people) and the least is the Ơđu (of aproximately 200 people).That these communities had lived together in the same territory for thousands of years has resulted in the brotherhood and tremendous porwer of consolidation.

In Vietnamese history, the Southern provinces has been the residental areas to peoples of the South Asian and Malayo Polynesian language groups. Since the 16^th century Vietnamese and Chinese people came here to exploit wild land in this area. After 1975, relocation of population happened to meet the needs of socio-economic development. As a result, many groups of people in the Northern communities moved to the South and settled there.

This showroom introduces some culture features of the Southern ethnic groups living in the Southern provinces.

This room displays some references such as : the map of the distribution of Vietnamese ethnic groups, the photographs of 54 ethnic groups classified according to their language groups and population, the quotation of President Hồ Chí Minh’s letter to the Conference of Ethnic Groups in the South in 1949.

In addtion to these references this room also displays 250 originals made of pottery, bronze, wood, bamboo, silver, cloths, iron etc of the Việt (belonging to the South Asian language group-the Việt-Mường group); of the Bana, Cơ ho, Gié triêng, Khmer, Mạ, Mnông, Xơ đăng, Xtiêng (belonging to the South Asian language group-Mon-Khmer group), the Chinese (belonging to the Han-Tibeto family of language) and the Cham, Churu, Êđê, Gia Rai, Rag Lai (belonging to the Malayo-Polynesian language system).

They are various kinds of men and women clothes, hats, belts etc; tools for farming such as sickles, dibbles, hose, scyths etc.; implements for hunting and fishing such as a bow, arrows, a crossbow, a fishing case, various kinds of fishing traps, a fishing spear, a shrimp catching net, chicken cages etc., weapons such as a sword, a dagger, shields etc; cooking utensils such as pots, a steamer, small trays, big trays, cake moulds, a plate, bowls, a container etc.; jewelry such as earrings, bracelets, leg bracelets,a string of beads etc., ritual objects such as a Buddha statue, an urn, God’s jewels, a funeral statue etc.; musical instruments and other things for performance such as kinds of musical instruments, trumpets, drums, cymbals, small bells, horns, flutes, masks etc., implements for weaving such as tools for weaving, tools for grinding cotton etc.; kinds of canoe models, houses on tilts etc., other implements for production such as water buckets, bark-breaking implements, a basket, a sieve, wine containers, pestles, rice motars; utensils such as dossiers, basins, bags, boxes, pipes, stools, a betel spittoon and so on.

The wedding gown consists of a long skirt, three shorter brocade robes embroidered in red, and a short robe in five-color brocade with a straight colar in the middle, big cloths-made buttons long and the baggy sleeves, and the third white robe. The robes and skirt were embroidered in relief phoenix motifs, so it was also called "phùng xám". The red color of the gown expressed the longing for Good luck and happiness.

These kinds of wedding gown were worn by Chinese brides (Quảng Đông) when they were welcomed to their family-in-laws’s houses.

Dimensions : the length of 105 cm, the face diameter of 90cm

It was chiseled out of a wooden log with the diameter of 1m. The face was covered with elephant skin.

This drum belongs to the Pơtaupui clan (King of Fire) in Ajunpa district, Gia Lai province.

It was used on ceremonial days when the Pơtaupuis prayed for a prosperous and well-being village, at New Year or in the right of passages in one’s life.

The Ka nhi consists of a sound box made of turtle shell and an attatched wooden neck with the fingerboard of 66cm and with many thin strings, the other end with 2 tremolos to adjust the sound level.

Ka nhi is a kind of musical instrument used in Katê festival and in the funeral of the Champ.

 Room 15: THE BUDDHA STATUES OF SOME ASIAN COUNTRIES

(12^th-19^th Century)

In the early A.D centuries Indian Buddhist monks followed merchants, envoys either by sea or by land to preach Buddhism in Asian countries. On the other hand, Buddhism was also introduced to these countries via contacts and cultural exchanges.

Buddhism was accepted in each country in a different way depending on its own situation, conditions or on their own culture, customs and tradition. As a result, each country expressed the Buddha statues in an original way. For example, the face of the Chinese Buddha statue is full and harmonious, those of Thailand are slender and refined, those of Japan are full, loving and kind-hearted, those of Cambodia statue is thoughtful and the Vietnamese Buddha statue is gentle, kind and amicable.

This showroom displays some Buddha statues from Vietnam, China, Japan, and Cambodia.

This room displays some references on the pagodas and Buddhist temples in Vietnam, China, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia and India etc.

In addition to this, there are 102 originals on display as followed:

In the Vietnam area, there are 11 artifacts made of wood, bronze, and terra cotta with the dates of 18^th-19^th centuries. They are the statues of Amitaba, Avalokitesvara, infant Sakyamuni, Kundi Bodhisatva, Avalokitesvara holding her baby, Maitreya etc.

In the China area, there are 20 artifacts made of different materials such as stone, bronze, pottery, wood with the dates of 12^th-19^th centuries. They are the statues of Amitaba, Maitreya, Avalokitesvara, Kshitigarbha Bodhisatva, Kundi Bodhisatva, Avalokitesvara holding her baby and Buddha heads etc.

In the Japan area, there are 11 wooden artifacts with the dates from 17^th-19^th century. They are the statues of Amitaba, Avalokitesvara and Buddhist shrines etc.

In the Thailand area, there are 39 artifacts made of different materials such as stone, terra cotta, bronze, silver, and horn with the dates from the12^th-19^th centuries. They are statues of Sakyamuni, reclining Sakyamuni, Sakyamuni on the lotus throne, Buddha head, bas-relief standing Buddha, bas-relief reclining Buddha etc.

In Cambodia area, there are 21 artifacts made of stone, wood, silver with the dates from 17^th-19^th centuries. They are the statues of Buddha in the sitting position, Sakyamuni in the shadow of Nada snake, the Buddha head, the bodhi leaf on which the image of the Buddha was carved.

Dimensions: the height of 196cm and the width of 135 cm. The statue was carved out of the jackfruit tree in red lacquer and emulsified gold with a full face and a unisa on the head top, spiral wavy hair, halp-open eyes, a big straight nose and long earlobe. The statue was sitting in the half-crossed position on the lotus pedestal with the right hand put on the left one and an embossed "vạn" character on his chest and wear a frock with even folded flaps.

King Minh Mạng (1820-1840) gave this statue to the Khải Tường pagoda because it was in his hometown. The Khải Tường pagoda was formerly located in the area of the current Museum of War Memorials. The pagoda was destroyed by the French colonists in the 19^th century. The Buddha statue in this Khải Tường Pagoda was a valuable remains in many aspects, which existed to the present days.

Dimension: the height of 128 cm

The Buddha statue was sitting in a crossed position on a two-layer pedestal, with the up-side-down lower layer, and the upward upper layer. He has a unisa on the head top, half-open eyes looking down and a full face, which shows humanity of peoples in Southern parts of China. The Buddha was wearing with a baggy frock covering his shoulder and left his chest bare. The statue was inlaid in a thin gold layer.

15.3.3 The reclining Sakyamuni statue-Bronze-Thailand-15^th-17^th Century.

Dimension: the height of 30cm and the width of 71cm.

The statue is lying down to the right side on a multistep platform (a big piece (of 30x3.5 cm) of the platform was detached). The top step is like a boat, decorating the lotus petal. The Buddha head leaned on two long round pillows-the bigger one was put on the smaller one-above which cloths was covered. The right hand was pulling inward with loose straight fingers and the left hand was put along the thigh.

The statue had a slender face showing the tranquility of mind with closed eyes. It was casted in bronze with designs of Thais style.

 Topic: THE EMBALMER IN THE XOM CAI VILLAGE

Archaeologists discovered the embalmer in a tomb in January 1994 when the whole area was demolished to build up the Xóm Cải apartment.

The tomb in which two corpses were buried was made of the compound of sand, lime, coal, sugar etc. On the memorial tablet the phrase " Kỷ Tỵ niên"(the year of a snake) could still be recognized. After destroying the tomb compound, two parallel graves were found with the male tomb on the right and the female one on the left. The female embalmer remains almost intact while the male one just leave some bones and burial gifts.

This room displays the whole scene of the tomb before the excavation as well as photographs in the excavating process, the chart of the horizontal section and vertical section.

In addition to this, there are 19 originals on display here, including burial gift in the male tomb (7 gold rings, a silver lime box, a betel spittoon and a horn comb), burial gifts in the female tomb (two gold rings, a necklace, a pair of slippers embroidered in golden thread). Especially, it is in this place that two bottles of solution, one bottle from the male tomb and another from the female tomb, were displayed. The female corpse was put in a glass case together with burial gifts, for instance burial clothes of many silk and brocade layers, a pair of shoes embroidered in golden thread. The coffin and a small wooden sarcophagus were placed to the two sides of the corpse.

1. Lime box-silver- 19^th Century

With the diameter of 5cm and the height of 2.5cm, the box is in the shape of a flat globe and has a cover. There are relief motifs of apricot branches and two walking men on the cover. The body has four segments, each of which depicts lithe lines in relief with flat bottom. The box has handles made of many small chains.

The fact that this lime box was found in the male tomb proved that betel chewing is an old custom of Vietnamese people.

2. Bracelet-gold-19^th century

The bracelet was found in the female tomb.

The interior diameter of 5.2 cm, the exterior diameter of 6.2 cm.

The bracelet is empty with the diameter of the horizontal section of about 1cm, with the plain interior surface and the exterior one depicting thin horizontal lines with two even dot lines at the two ends.

The bracelet was made rather professionally, so it is not quite different from the current gold bracelet.

3. Ring-gold-19^th century

The diameter of the ring is 1,6 cm. The face of the ring was made of stone, which was rectangular, white and a bit transparent, and was surrounded by embossed lithe leaves and creepers with a monster face carved to the two sides.

The ring, with the sophisticated inlaid designs, was found in the male tomb. It proved that the technique of jewelry making in the 19^th century had reached a rather high level.

 THE DISPLAY AREA OF CAMBODIA STONE SCULTURE

The period of 10^th-13^th centuries was the heyday of Cambodia. In this period Cambodian people had been built on the Angkor civilization with many sculpture wonders such as palaces, temples, fortraits and bas-relief round statues etc. made of stone, especially in Angkor Vat and Angkor Thom.

Greatly influenced by the Indian culture and inspired by the religious topics from Buddhism, Brahmanism, Cambodian artesans in the ancient time enabled the art of stone sculture in the Angkor period to reach its zenith with its charm and national traits. Their sculpture works combine the tradditional indegineous culture with exotic religious elements skillfully to express Cambodian people’s tact and sensitivity to fine art and their devout.

This showroom introduces some stone sculture work including the Cambodian round statues, bas -relief statues and so on from the1 10^thto the 13^th centuries.

In total, 16 artifacts are displayed, including some round types such as the Avalokitesvara, the Dravapala statue, the god statue, the statue of Buddha head, the lion statue and some kinds of bas-relief statues such as Garuda and Naga, the nine-god pedestal, Visnu and Laskmi, lintel carving the image of Indra, Yoni etc.

The statue is 145cm high. Its two legs, two hands and the head was broken and fitted again. It was found in Prah Pilai.

The statue imitates the statue of a strong man with broad shoulder, slender waist, a lined high cylindrical hat with some segments, of which the lower part covered the head to reveal hair at the forehead and the nape of the neck.

The statue has a square half-smile face, straight nose, thick beard. The neck was put on with an adorned string in the motif of a six-petal flowers.

The upper part of the statue is naked, the lower part is covered with a Sampot, the front look like a lotus leaf the lower piece looks like an axe. Around the waist wear the a decorative belt of many round pieces with leaf edging.

These kinds of statue were put at the front gate of temples in Cambodia and acts as a guard.

The lintel, found in Vat Kralan, has the dimensions of 140cm long, 57.5 cm high, 20 cm thick on arverage and a trapezium (44x12cm) was detatched at the left corner.

The lintel was embossed with the arrangement of designs as followed : The lower part of 4cm wide, a range of lotus petal tilted outward, the upper part of 10cm wide, a range of Buddhist monks sitting and giving salutation in a triangle hall full of flowers and leaves and there are triangle snakelike flower pedestal on every other monks.

The middle part is widest, 40cm long with the wave motifs on which the Indra God is dancing with 3 gods and two god birds to each side of the Indra. All expressed special hilarious facial expression. Beneath is an ornamental belt with many long section representing Vasuki snake, the middle part coiled around the trunk of the three-head Airavata elephant, rose it up above the water. Two bottom corners depicts a god riding on a galloping horse as if he had given a message. It might be an extract from the Brahman legend of stirring the ocean milk.

The lintel is the top art of a door. Indra is the god of lightning, the god of war as well as a ruler of the Heaven in the Bramanism. Indra was riding on a three-head Airavata elephant. He was as powereful as the Emperor. The lintels of this kind are often found in the main temples in Cambodia.

 An open display area : THE CANNONS

1. Introduction :

The cannons, a kind of long-range weapon, of which the earliest form was stone-shooting device in the ancient time, were developed in the 14^th century in Europe. They were commonly heavy rifles of big size casted from bronze, iron or pig iron; their ammunitions were iron pig or iron balls probelled by the force of stuffed gun powder.

A cannon often consists of a barrel, a swinging core, a flame-throwing point, back block and so on. The back block is air-tight to contain gun powder, the barrel contains bullets, a swinging core to adjust the shooting angle and a flame-throwing point to ignite the cannon. Wheels was fixed to the swinging core to move the cannon.

Till the end of the 19^th century, the cannon had been improved; there were lineal lines to shoot in a longer range and the back block was not air-tight or discret but one more padlock was added. Furthermore solid ammunitons were replaced by explosive ones to increase the devastating efficiency or to destroy the targeted points.

2. Artifacts on display

This display section introduces 15 cannons, 11 of which were made by Vietnamese-three iron cannons (18^th-19^th century), 8 bronze cannons (19^th century)- and the other four cannons were produced by the French at the end of the 19^th century.