Monday, March 26, 2007

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is both a research centre and a public museum exhibiting the ethnic groups of Vietnam. The mission of the Museum is scientific research, collection, documentation, conservation, exhibition and preserving the cultural and historic patrimony of the nation’s different ethnic groups. The museum also serves to guide research, conservation, and technology that are specific to the work of an ethnographic museum. In its planning for the future, the Museum intends to present the cultures and civilisations of other countries of South-East Asia as well as in the region.


Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is both a research centre and a public museum exhibiting the ethnic groups of Vietnam. The mission of the Museum is scientific research, collection, documentation, conservation, exhibition and preserving the cultural and historic patrimony of the nation’s different ethnic groups. The museum also serves to guide research, conservation, and technology that are specific to the work of an ethnographic museum.  In its planning for the future, the Museum intends to present the cultures and civilisations of other countries of South-East Asia as well as in the region.
Museum - Overview

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
The view of outdoor exhibition

The Museum is located in a large open area on Nguyen Van Huyen Street, Cau Giay District, about 8 km from the city centre. This area used to be paddy field of the local people. During the construction of the Museum, all of the infrastructure was built, including the 700m road from Hoang Quoc Viet Street to the entrance of the Museum. (In the near future, this road will reach the Daewoo Hotel, which is situated between Cau Giay and Lieu Giai Streets)
Viet house

Sedang house is the tallest structure in the village, this communal house is a meeting hall, a site for ceremonies, and a reception hall for visitors. In modern times, family groups live in stilt houses arranged variously around the communal house, although in earlier periods large households used to live in long houses. In Ede house, walls are of plaited bamboo and the structure is raised off the ground on two rows of columns. The roof is straw.
Sedang (left) and Ede (right) communal houses

 The Museum is divided into two parts: an indoor and an outdoor exhibition. The indoor part is composed of the exhibition building, office, research centre, library, storage, technical lab and auditorium. These offices cover 2,480m2, including 750 m2 for storage of artefacts. The outdoor exhibition, which will be accomplished in the first years of the 21st century, is to highlight different types of houses in all parts of Vietnam. Pathways link the indoor and outdoor exhibitions with each other.
??? house

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Nghia Do park, opposite to the museum

More info...

No comments: