Preserve and promote the value of national treasures

Students visit and learn about national treasures at the provincial museum.

Having the opportunity to visit Lam Kinh National Special Relic Site, in addition to immersing yourself in the extremely green and open natural scenery, visitors can also visit and learn about unique architectural works of art, notably the five steles that have been recognized as national treasures, namely Vinh Lang Stele (King Le Thai To), Chieu Lang Stele (King Le Thanh Tong), Du Lang Stele (King Le Hien Tong), Kinh Lang Stele (King Le Tuc Tong), Khon Nguyen Chi Duc Stele (Queen Mother Ngo Thi Ngoc Dao). These steles are all hundreds of years old, and are not only historical documents about the lives of the kings and queens of the Later Le Dynasty but also valuable historical evidence, effectively serving the research and conservation work.

Among the steles - national treasures, the most prominent is the Khon Nguyen Chi Duc stele (Queen Mother Ngo Thi Ngoc Dao) - one of the large steles, sophisticated in sculpture techniques, typical of a complete new art style - the art of the early Le dynasty.

According to historical records: Khon Nguyen Chi Duc Stele is a stele engraved with the achievements of Queen Mother Ngo Thi Ngoc Dao, a virtuous and talented mother of the world. The stele is made of smooth, shiny green stone, 2.8m high, 1.92m wide, 0.27m thick, placed on the back of a stone turtle 2.75m long, 1.92m wide, 0.4m high. Notably, the stele contains 36 poems praising Queen Mother Ngo Thi Ngoc Dao, "Worthy of being the top of the Queens of Dai Viet". The authors of the poems are all famous scholars and scholars.

The two sides of the stele are engraved with Chinese characters, the name of the stele is written in the Trien script, the content of the stele is written in the Khai Chan Chu script. According to the assessment of researchers, the art of carving dragons on the Khon Nguyen Chi Duc stele has changed to a completely different artistic style, with sophistication in lines and shaping. The lines are sharp, decisive, the layout is meticulous and refined, breaking away from the shape and expression of dragons in the Ly and Tran dynasties and is worthy of being representative, clearly revealing the style characteristics of the early Le dynasty. At the base of the stele is a very unique water wave pattern, expressed in 3 layers (tam son), finally a layer of concentric arc waves, to a layer of raised waves opening into a flower shape. This is a special type of water wave, this decoration is only seen in Vietnam at the beginning of the early Le dynasty. In addition, the stele is also decorated with spiral cloud clusters with fire knife shapes. Cloud decoration patterns on steles are quite rich, playing an important role as a link between cloud decoration from the Ly and Tran dynasties to the Mac and Le Trung Hung dynasties.

In addition to the sophisticated carving art, the Khon Nguyen Chi Duc stele is also an authentic historical document, because it was recorded immediately when the event occurred without any copying, so it has important value in supplementing official history.

The steles - national treasures at Lam Kinh Special National Relic are all artifacts "of special rare value typical of the country in terms of history, culture, and science ", therefore, in recent years, the Management Board of Lam Kinh Historical Relic Site has implemented measures to protect and preserve national treasures such as building shelters, with wooden railings to protect the steles to avoid direct impact of the weather; arranging security forces to ensure absolute safety for national treasures and artifacts in the relic; strengthening training for tour guides with in-depth knowledge of national treasures, in order to better serve visitors and researchers on treasures...

The Provincial Museum is currently displaying and preserving three national treasures: the Nua Mountain short sword, the Cam Giang I bronze drum and the Cam Thuy bronze cauldron. According to the Director of the Provincial Museum, Trinh Dinh Duong, the preservation, maintenance and promotion of the value of national treasures play an important role and significance. Because it not only contributes to enriching and diversifying the artifacts at the museum; but also contributes to promoting the beauty of the land and people of Thanh Hoa, rich in historical and cultural traditions, to a large number of domestic and foreign tourists. Therefore, in recent times, the Provincial Museum has paid special attention to preserving, maintaining and promoting the value of national treasures being kept here. Since 2022, the Provincial Museum has completed the digitization of three national treasures, including the Nua Mountain short sword, the Cam Giang I bronze drum and the Cam Thuy bronze cauldron. The application of virtual reality technology has helped visitors approach national treasures in a vivid way, being able to see every detail and pattern on the artifacts instead of just looking and listening to explanations as before. Every year, the Provincial Museum also actively organizes many heritage education activities, experiential activities... to gradually turn the museum into an attractive destination attracting a large number of students from schools in the province to visit and learn. From there, it arouses the pride and sense of responsibility of each individual and the whole community, especially the young generation in protecting and preserving the quintessence of national culture.

In order to preserve, maintain and promote the value of national treasures, in recent times, the cultural sector in the province has also stepped up propaganda and dissemination of strict implementation of the Law on Cultural Heritage and related directives in the work of protecting, preserving and promoting the value of national treasures. At the same time, actively digitizing national treasures, gradually applying new technology to protection and preservation. Along with that, promoting and introducing the value of national treasures on the media, the internet and improving the quality of explanation work associated with tourism development...

Article and photos: Nguyen Dat

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/giu-gin-phat-huy-gia-tri-cac-bao-vat-quoc-gia-257400.htm