A Year In Indochina: A sweep of Vietnamese history

Today I went to the History museum of Ho Chi Minh City, which offers a broad span of Vietnamese history from the palaeolithic period circa 500,000 years ago until the early 20th century. The museum focuses on the political and cultural development of Vietnam and the influence neighbouring nations have had, from Chinese and Mongolian invasions to cultural and religious influences that arrived through commerce with India. I was impressed with the museum and put it as the second museum I have seen in the city that I would recommend, after the War Remnants Museum. In fact, it was a welcome relief for me to learn about something other than the war.

I ended up walking the museum in reverse order because, when I arrived, a large group of schoolchildren were occupying the floor of the prehistoric room and I didn't fancy climbing over them. I started from the last room and worked my way back in time, although I didn't manage to escape the plague of schoolchildren wearing green sweatpants and red neck-ties, who noisily flooded almost every room. They say that if you look at picture upside down it forces you to study it more closely. I wondered whether learning Vietnam's history in reverse order would have the same effect. I can't be sure, but I certainly had to concentrate.

When seen in the correct order, the museum opens with an introduction to the pre-historic land now known as Vietnam. Vietnam is one the few countries in the world where evidence of palaeolithic man, in the form of stone tools, has been discovered. Next arrives the metal age of 4,000-2,000 years ago, when Vietnam consisted of three civilizations, a civilization around the Hong river in the north, the Sa Huynh culture in the centre and the Dong Nai culture in the south-east. The first dynasty of Vietnam is believed to have begun in 2879 BC, when a tribal leader from an area around the Hong river defeated fourteen other tribes and declared himself king with the title of Hung Vuong, beginning what is now known as the Hong Bang dynasty.

The first thousand years of Vietnamese history anno domini can be defined by struggle against Chinese imperialism, and were condensed in the museum to a small side-room with relatively few exhibits. In 111 BC, Vietnam was invaded by armies of the Chinese Han Dynasty. It was not until 939 AD that the Chinese were finally expelled by Ngo Quyen, who then established the Ngo Dynasty, although in 40-43 AD two aristocratic wives of lords, the Trung sisters, famously raised a 30,000 strong army to briefly take back sixty-five citadels from the Chinese. The two sisters are highly revered in Vietnamese societies, and a district in Hanoi and main street in Saigon are named Hai Ba Trung (the two Trung ladies) in honour of the national heroines. Throughout the centuries of Chinese imperialist domination, the Viet people fought to maintain their cultural identity. This fierce nationalism seems to have pervaded throughout the turbulent history of Vietnam, a country forever fighting off imperialist advances and colonial occupation.

The museum covers the following thousand years as dynasties change and further Chinese and Mongolian invasion attempts are repelled, aside for a brief period of Chinese domination from 1407 to 1427. This period sees the development of agriculture, industry, commerce, education and the arts as well as the organisation of the Dai Viet (Vietnam) army. In 1427 the Chinese Ming Dynasty was driven from Dai Viet by Le Loi, the emperor who is now a national hero. In 1527 the Le Dynasty was usurped by the Mac Dynasty, the beginning of six years of struggle, after which the restored Ly Dynasty's power was greatly diminished, with Dai Viet effectively being controlled by the Nguyen Lords in the South and the Trinh Lords in the North. In 1788 the two feudal families were defeated by a peasant uprising led by three brothers from Tay Son village in Binh Dinh province. In turn, the weakened Tay Son dynasty came to an end in 1802 when Nguyen Anh took over control of the country. The Nguyen dynasty was the last to rule in Vietnam, ending when the Emperor Bao Dinh abdicated in 1945 in the face of Japanese surrender and Ho Chi Minh's declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

The highlight of the museum was the collection of Champa and South Vietnamese sculpture. These two rooms must have been newly built as they looked like a modern gallery, in contrast to the old rooms of the rest of the building. One room contained a collection of archaeological finds discovered at the ancient city of Oc Eo in the Mekong Delta. This included three wooden sculptures dating from the 7th-8th centuries, which are the most ancient to be discovered in South East Asia, preserved by the unique climate of the Mekong Delta. It was fascinating to see these, although the eroded faces made them look a bit zombie-like. Next door was a room dedicated to the ancient Champa Kingdom in Vietnam from the 2nd to 17th centuries. This culture originated from Indian influence on coastal parts of Central and South Vietnam that began through commerce. The stone sculptures of Hindu and Buddhist deities is a testament to the religious and cultural influence that India has had on Vietnam.

A final exhibit worth mentioning, and one I was slightly taken aback to discover, was a mummified body on display in a cold, dark side-room. The body was discovered in the Chinatown area of Ho Chi Minh City in 1994 in a mortar compound. It is believed to be that of an aristocratic woman called Xom Cai (it's a pity she wasn't called Xom Bai, I joked to myself), who died at around the age of 60 in 1869. Her body was very well-preserved and was indeed quite startling to see. She was a tiny lady with now blackened hands and feet, a tiny pair of slippers at the end of her casket. The pattern of fabric of the raggedy clothing that hung to her skeletal frame could still be seen; she had a small skull with fused-over eyes and ears and her mouth hung open hideously. A few of the schoolchildren who continuously swirled around me got a bit of a fright when they saw her!