Cultural Heritage Sites in Vietnam
Vietnam tourism heritage is a particularly important component of the culture in the country. Each heritage has a story of its own, including the origin, formation and its adherence to human life during long process of formation and development of history and culture. For tourism, cultural heritage is a never less attractive source to tourists. Thanks to the legacy and the story around it that the number of tourists, the amount of tourism income is becoming increasingly abundant.
CITADEL OF THE HO DYNASTY
In history of Vietnamese capital cities, each capital citadel was positioned and built in a certain geo-cultural context, which represents its own characteristic and played an invaluable role in national history and culture. Although it was relatively short-lived, the Citadel of the Ho Dynasty has presented outstanding cultural value of not only Vietnam but also the East Asia and Southeast Asia region.
1. Introduction
The Citadel of the Ho Dynasty is situated in hamlets of Tay Giai, Xuan Giai (VinhTien Commune) and Dong Mon (Vinh Long Commune), Vinh Loc District, Thanh Hoa Province, in Vietnam North central coast region. It is over 150 km away from Hanoi.
The citadel of the Ho Dynasty was built in 1397 by Ho Quy Ly, who was the highest-ranking mandarin of the Tran Dynasty at the time. After the citadel was completed, Ho Quy Ly forced King Tran Thuan Tong to move the capital from the citadel of Thang Long (Ha Noi) to Thanh Hoa. In the second month of the year of Dragon (1400), after coming to the crown to replace the King Tran, Ho Quy Ly renamed the country Dai Ngu (1400-1407), and then the citadel of the Ho Dynasty officially became the capital citadel. The citadel of the Ho Dynasty is also known as names of An Ton, Tay Do, Tay Kinh, Tay Giai, Thach Thanh. The Citadel was inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage Sites on June 27, 2011.
2. Specific description about the citadel of Ho dynasty
According to historical documents, ancient bibliographies and archaeological research, the complex of the citadel of the Ho Dynasty includes Thanh Noi (Inner Citadel and also known as Imperial Citadel) with the remains of the royal palaces and temples inside; La Thanh and Nam Giao Altar (for worshipping the heaven).
In terms of Thanh Noi, it is a unique architectural work, with its wall and four main gates made of green square stone plates which are beautifully carved and overlapped tightly one after another. Its four domed gates are called the Southern, Northern, Western and Eastern gates (also known as the Front, Back, Left and Right gates). The stone plates on the dome are carved as sections of a grapefruit, tightly overlapping. The Front gate in the south is the main gate and has three doors. Each of three remaining gates has only one door..jpg)
Hao Thanh is the system of water trench which surrounds the Thanh Noi and connects with Buoi River through a canal at the southeast corner of the citadel. Hao Thanh had four stone bridges. Nowadays, many parts of the Hao Thanh have been filled and dried. However, the traces of the Hao Thanh still can be seen very clearly in the north, east and south of the citadel. The La Thanh, the outer wall of the citadel built to protect the Thanh Noi was home to residents in the citadel. The La Thanh was approximately 10km in perimeter and its construction based on the natural terrain. The Ho Dynasty built the La Thanh by banking up and making bamboo. Nowadays, the trace of La Thanh in Beo Village (Vinh Long Commune) with a length of 2000m has been localized for protection.
The Nam Giao Altar, an importance royal architectural work, was built in 1402 in the southwest of Don Son Mountain, on the spiritual pathway directly connected with the Southern gate. The Nam Giao Altar has an area of 1.5 hectares. Currently, the altar appears 5 grounds with 5 terraces. The Nam Giao Altar is the place to sacrifice to the heaven, pray for harmonious rain and wind, peaceful country and happy people, prosperous and everlasting dynasty. In addition, the altar is also the place to sacrifice to the soul of dead kings, stars and many other genies. Nam Giao ceremony is considered as a royal ritual. The first Nam Giao ceremony of the Ho Dynasty was held in the same year of constructing the altar.
3. Values of Citadel of Ho Dynasty
The citadel of Ho Dynasty reflects the exchange of the most humanistic values between Vietnam and other countries of Eastern Asia and Southeast Asia in the late of 14th century and the early of 15th century. This citadel is the recognition for the special characteristics at global values, which not only is the pride of Thanh Hoa people but also demonstrates that the level of civilization of Vietnamese people was developed very early.
It is obvious that Citadel of Ho Dynasty has many typical values, especially in terms of architectures, history, culture and tourism.
First of all, Citadel of Ho Dynasty has significant architectural values. It was sited in a landscape of great scenic beauty on an axis joining the Tuong Son and Don Son mountains in a plain between the Ma and Buoi rivers. The citadel buildings represent an outstanding example of a new style of south-east Asian imperial city.
Ho Dynasty Citadel is described not only a big architecture but also a unique and secret one as a great complimentary for the construction. From its secret, Ho Dynasty citadel symbolizes afford of the construction relating to some aspects such as exploitation and construction from some basic materials such as some big stones. The citadel was built using huge square stone stabs which are 5.1 meters long, 1.59 meters wide and 1.3 meters high, some of them weighing 15-20 tons. They overlap each other without any substance to hold them together and have stood strong for six centuries. The architecture represents the ideology of kingship in East Asia, exploiting natural landscape elements and creating a great combination of traditional building knowledge of Eastern Asia, Southeast Asia and Vietnam.
In terms of historic values, Citadel of Ho Dynasty was the capital of Vietnam from 1398 to 1407 and it was also the political, economic and cultural center of North Central of Vietnam from the 16th century to the 18th century. Although the Ho Dynasty only lasted from 1400 to 1407, Emperor Ho left a significant legacy. He is credited for pioneering the circulation of the first banknotes in Vietnam, expanding the network of schools and promoting the use of the Vietnamese Nom ideographic script. The site has been excavated since 2004. Archeologists have found artifacts made from baked bricks, stone marbles, tiles shaped like dragons, stone bullets, arrows and nails and household pottery inside the citadel.
About the cultural values, Citadel of Ho Dynasty is a witness to a critical period in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries’ history when traditional kingship and Buddhist values were giving ways to new trends in technology, commerce and centralized administration. Ho Citadel is an outstanding example of the fusion of different cultures in the past, reflecting the importance of the exchange values of Eastern cultures, especially practiced Confucianism.
As a World’s Cultural Heritage, Ho Citadel has an infinite resource for exploitation, playing an important role in developing tourism. Citadel of Ho Dynasty was built in a very short period of time, only about three months from January to March 1397 and although it was over six centuries passed, some of the remaining parts of this citadel are still relatively unscathed. Ho Citadel is considered as the one and only stone building remaining in Southeast Asia and one of very few remaining stone buildings in the world. On June 27th, 2011, Citadel of Ho Dynasty was recognized by UNESCO as the World’s Cultural Heritage. Therefore, it can satisfy the diversified demands of tourists, bringing income for local people and contributing to conservation activities.
CO LOA CITADEL
1. Introduction
Co Loa citadel is now in Co Loa commune, Dong Anh District, Ha Noi. It used to be the capital of the Au Lac (Vietnam country name at the time) under An Duong Vuong dynasty in about the third century BC and the state Van Xuan under Ngo Quyen dynasty. 
Through a long development process of history, Co Loa citadel was ranked national historical and cultural monument in 1962, and was recognized as special national historic.
2. Description about Co Loa citadel
Co Loa is the archaeological assessment of "the oldest building, the largest scale, well structured kind of the uniqueness in the history of fortifications of the ancient Vietnamese people". When setting up, the ancient Vietnamese knew deeply about the natural terrain, and take advantage of the high hill, mound, adding up to higher ground to build two walls on the outside, so that the two walls were curving lines on the terrain. Material mainly used to build is soil, then the stone and broken pottery. The legend of Co Loa mentioned 9 spirals, but based on the remaining traces, scientists have found three rounds in which the inner ring can be made later. The outer perimeter is about 8 km, 6.5 km of the middle round, 1.6 km of the inner ring, with the center area up to 2 km². The outside of wall is steep, sloping face inside for easily defending and offending. The wall is 4-5m high in average, 20-30m width of foundation, 6 m-12 m width of surface.
- The inner rectangle: average height 5m above the ground, perimeter of 1,650 m and has one door.
- The middle ring: no asymmetric shapes, length of 6,500 m, the highest point is 10m. It has five gates in the east, south, north, west, and southwest. The east gate is straight to the Red River.
- The outer: shape is not clear, more than 8,000m long, 3-4m high in average.
Each ring has a trench surrounding; the average width of those trenches is from 10m to 30m. The trench and are held together with the Hoang River. The combination of rivers, trenches and walls do not have certain shapes, like a maze made of , is a military area has advantages for both good attacking defense. The ancient relic’s complex today has a number of destinations for tourists to visit and learn about the rich history of Vietnam. Besides the rings described above, inside the Co Loa citadel people can see Co Loa temple, An Duong Vuong temple, My Chau princess temple and Co Loa (Bao Son) pagoda.
- Co Loa temple is said to be built on the former foundation of the Royal court with three-door gate (Cổng Tam Quan), the traditional gate construction of Vietnam. Every year, Co Loa festival is taken place here from 6th to 16th in lunar January
- My Chau temple is a small temple located next to Co Loa temple. In the temple there is a headless humanoid stone; people said that it is the incarnation of My Chau princess.
- An Duong Vuong temple is the upper temple through My Chau temple. It is said to be built on the foundation of the old palace, rebuilt in the early 20th century, with two dragon stones at the temple’s three-stair door. In front of the temple is Pearl well where Trong Thuy suicide because of remorse.
- The pagoda has 134 valuable statues and 5 stone gravestones from the 17th century to the 19th century, two big bells casted in the 2nd Gia Long (1803), and many other valuable things. In 1993, the temple has been recognized as national historic - cultural monuments.
All the destinations here are historical in nature; they are the embodiment of a culture that has developed along the history of Viet Nam.
3. Significant values of Co Loa Citadel
Co Loa citadel is an interesting site for the tourists with curiosity and the desire to come back to historical roots that has existed for thousands of years. It is obvious that Co Loa citadel has typical values, especially in term of architecture, history and culture.
First of all, Co Loa citadel has great architectural value. The ancient Vietnamese used the natural terrain advantage, utilized the height of the hill, mounds to build two walls on the outside that was the reason why the two walls had curving lines in the terrain. They also took advantages of Hoang River as a natural barrier to create moats between two walls, which showed the uniqueness, and creativity. The main material used to build the ground was stones and broken pottery that indicated their skillfulness in building technique to avoid the weak structure of the land base. Co Loa citadel comprises legend of nine spirals, but the scientists found that three rings, which are within the interior, would be made later – under Ngo Quyen dynasty. There are long or circular mounds, which are called Dong Dan, Dong Chuong, and Dong Ban. It was used as public saving, coordinated with the moats for the defense and combat during the wartime. It is one of the most unique structures in the history of battlement of Vietnam with high value of aesthetics.
In terms of historic value, Co Loa is an archaeology site for studying about Vietnamese history. The archaeologists study and discover the age of the site by slicing each level of soil. Basing on the characteristics of each slice example, they can evaluate exactly the period correlatively to the slice. It is also the witness of a glory period when the great achievements of building the rampart and making copper arrows. That proves the development of ancient Vietnamese people in inventing tools and weapon to fight against enemy. The making of Co Loa copper drum was the typical example of this period.
About the cultural value, Co Loa citadel provides the evidences about the creativity, technical proficiency as well as the ancient Vietnamese culture. It is the religious center of the area, which brings significant spiritual values. Not only the local people, a lot of tourists also come to the site for worshipping or praying things annually, particularly in the festivals. In addition, the site keeps the traditional culture of local community and it is an ideal destination for tourists from everywhere to explore cultural values, the familiar image of a peaceful village in the North of Vietnam. Every year on the 6th of lunar month, the local residents held a solemn festival to commemorate those who built up citadel, especially show grateful to An Duong Vuong, who gave birth to the Au Lac period. This annual festival is considered as the living museum with ancient rituals and ceremonies. They perform and display to demonstrate the glory through activities: “nghi thuc te”, “le”, “ruoc”, “dang huong”.