Exhibition on President Ho Chi Minh opens

An exhibition entitled “Ho Chi Minh and Lifelong Study” opened in Hanoi on October 2 in response to the “Studying and Following President Ho Chi Minh’s Moral Example” campaign and mark the Vietnam Study Encouragement Day (Oct. 2).

Speaking at the opening ceremony, General Director of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Irina Bokova expressed her respect to President Ho Chi Minh, who founded the independent Vietnam country, saying that firstly being a poet, a journalist and a teacher, Ho Chi Minh was deeply aware of the importance of education for people.

Ho Chi Minh is an example of the lifelong study, she said.

As the UNESCO General Director, Irina Bokova praised Vietnam as it has spent 20 percent of its budget for education and is making every effort to build a studious society.

UNESCO pledges to stand side by side with Vietnam during its cause of educational development and support the country to establish a lifelong study centre in Hanoi, she stressed.

According to Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh, the exhibition is also being held concurrently at the Ho Chi Minh Museum’s branches in Ho Chi Minh City, the central province of Nghe An and the northern mountainous province of Cao Bang.

During her Vietnam visit, the UNESCO leader presented the book of the UNESCO General Assembly resolutions issued during its 24 th session from October 20 and November 20, 1987, including Resolution 18.65 on honouring Ho Chi Minh as a hero of national liberation and a world cultural celebrity./.

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Ancient documents languish on lack of expertise

Ambassadors from ASEAN member countries view Nguyen Dynasty-era carved woodblocks currently being kept in Dalat

Vietnam lacks the expertise required to study and preserve its archival materials, the director of the National Archives Center No. 4, Pham Thi Hue, has said.

Speaking at a conference on preserving historic artifacts in Hanoi Wednesday, she said 34,628 woodblocks inscribed with old Nom [Chinese] characters -- made during the Nguyen Dynasty era between 1802 and 1945 and named a documentary heritage by UNESCO this year -- has yet to be fully studied.

Now being kept at the National Archives Center No. 4 in Dalat, their preservation is also a challenge due to the shortage of experts, she said.

Another UNESCO-recognized documentary heritage, the stone laureate doctor steles in Hanoi, is also at risk of degradation due to environmental factors.

The 82 steles in Van Mieu (Temple of Literature) in Hanoi are carved with the names of 2,313 doctors who passed the court examinations between 1442 and 1779.

Exhibiting them could cause damage but keeping them in a vault will mean not promoting or widely disseminating their values, Hue said.

UNESCO has launched a program to recognize documentary heritages all over the world to promote their preservation and dissemination.

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