Sep
18
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After Tram Gian temple, another national relic is harmed
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VietNamNet Bridge - While the case of Tram Gian temple has still not settled down, another national relic in Hanoi - Tram Pagoda in Chuong My district, is also blatantly harmed.
“It’s my fault,” says Buddhist nun of 1,000-year-old temple
1,000 year-old pagoda after and before its “restoration"
Plan to save ‘restored' 1000-year-old pagoda
Tram pagoda is seriously being destroyed, especially the Sen (Lotus) Pond in front of the pagoda. The romantic pond is being filled very quickly.
According to many local people, the entrance to the temple consists of three main areas: Tram Mountain, Vu Vi – But Mountains and Sen Pond.
The Sen Pond is semicircle where lotus were planted since 1966. In the middle of the pond is an oval ground, where there are two columns with the temple flag. This ground was shaped from the time of the Le-Trinh dynasty of several centuries ago.
According to VietNamNet’s research, on June 1, 2010, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tuan, a local man, re- hired the land area in front of the Tram pagoda until 31/12/2012, from another man who was allowed by the Phung Chau commune government to use this area.
However, since he hired the area, Tuan has filled up the pond to make a surface of 300m2. Tuan’s act has made local residents extremely angry.
The authorities of Chuong My District have concluded that the Phung Chau commune government broke the law when it allowed a local man to use the land area in front of the Tram pagoda. The process of awarding the contract and implementation of the contract of the contractor breached the law but the Phung Chau commune government did not handle it.
Mr. Pham Van Dinh, Vice Chair of Phung Chau commune, admitted to VietNamNet that there are many mistakes in signing and implementing this contract, which has harmed the landscape of Tram Pagoda, a national monument.
According to Dinh, Nguyen Dinh Tuan’s leveling of the Sen Pond came from former Chair of Phung Chau commune, Mr. Nguyen Kim Quang’s approval. Before Quang retired, he permitted Tuan to level the lotus pond.
"The commune government has requested the contractor to maintain status quo of the Lotus Pond for investigation. From now to the end of 2012, Tuan must have to finish the contract. After investigation, anyone who broke the law will be punished, including officials who lent a hand to Tuan," Dinh said.
Tram is a national historic site but its boundary has not yet been identified.
Tram Temple is a historic site but its boundary is not defined in any documents and records of this relic of the Phung Chau commune.
According to Mr. Trinh Van Thanh, Head of the Culture Department of Phung Chau commune, the authorities of Chuong My district and Hanoi have only one written document certifying that Tram Pagoda is a national relic but that document does not show the relic’s boundaries.
According to local people, the abused area in front of the temple is around 20.000m2, including 1863m2 of agricultural land assigned to five households and 17,788m2 of public land.
Phung Chau commune’s vice chair Thanh admitted that within the area in front of the temple, there is some area of the national relic being violated but he did not know how wide it is.
When the area in front of Tram pagoda has been blatantly violated, the local authorities kept repeatedly saying: "We do not know where is the boundary of the national relic, and still check?”
Tram Pagoda is located in Phung Chau commune, Chuong My district, Hanoi. It is about 20 km from the center of Hanoi. The relic is ranked as a national cultural historical site.
The temple was built in the early 16th century, by a general-Buddhist. The temple is located at the foot of Tu Tram Son Mount, and is an architectural complex of northern temple architecture and natural mountains, caves.
The temple complex includes many beautiful landscapes: Mau Temple is located halfway up to the mountain; the cave Long Tien has a path up the Tram Mountain and cave leading into the mountain. In the cave there are stone-made statues of Buddhas, fairies, etc. It also hosts ancient poem engraved on rocks, musical stones, bronze bells, etc.
The temple complex used to be the destinations of Kings Le, Lords Trinh thanks to its romantic and elegant landscape. Especially, Tram Pagoda is also known as the place where President Ho Chi Minh read the call for national resistance on the Radio Voice of Vietnam in 1947.
Standing on Tram Mountain one can see the panoramic land and neighboring scenic spots such as Vo Vi or Tram Gian Pagodas.
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Sep
18
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Sea Festival 2013 to be held in June
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VietNamNet Bridge - The organizers of the Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa Sea Festival has held its first meeting to discuss the Sea Festival 2013 program.
Accordingly, through the experiences from the last five times, the organizing board decided to hold the Sea Festival 2013 over four days, June 8-11 2013.
During the festival, approximately 50 events will take place, including festival activities, performing arts, exhibitions, workshops, food culture, fairs and sports.
The viewpoint of Khanh Hoa authorities is organizing the festival in a very open way, for the participation of all organizations and individuals.
Before the festival, there will be a number of activities such as: an international marine tourism fairs, the activities in response to the World Environment Day June 5. The Sea Festival will be followed by the International Yacht Festival held in early July.
The Sea Festival will have a number of new activities which will be held for the first time, including the open international tourism golf tournament, the selection of "Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa province, 100 exciting destinations."
Khanh Hoa province will also hold the award ceremony for winners of the journalism, literature and art competition focusing on the Spratly Islands on this occasion.
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Sep
18
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US$524mil museum and the shortage of funds for heritage preservation
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VietNamNet Bridge - VND11.27 trillion ($524 million) is the amount of money that will be spent to build the new National Museum of History in Hanoi. Meanwhile, if several billion dong was quickly poured for the renovation of Tram Gian Buddhist Temple, this national relic should have not been harmed.
The perspective of the new National History Museum. The main
building will be built on about 20,483m2.
The current National Museum of History.
A few months ago, when VietNamNet’s correspondents wrote reports on museums in Hanoi, we heard the Deputy Director of the National History Museum to mention about a project to build a new museum on a vast area of land near the West Lake.
And over one week ago, the Ministry of Construction sent to the Ministry of Planning and Investment a report on the construction of the Museum of National History with investment capital up to more than VND11 trillion.
Exactly--this project, with a total investment of up to VND11.28 billion, will be built by capital from the state budget. The museum will be built at the new residential area of West Lake in Hanoi, with a total area of nearly 10 hectares.
The objective of this work is to become a modern museum to meet the conservation, preservation, collection, and display of artifacts to serve the needs of visitors, scientific research, education... and many other functions.
Nobody knows that when the new national history museum opens in 2016, the former National Museum of History will be used for what purpose?
It is known that this massive project will be developed by the Ministry of Construction and be managed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MoCST). The later ministry will be also the developer of some project components (content and form of display).
If this project is carried out in accordance with the roadmap, the construction will last from November 2012 to May 2016.
The National Museum of History will be checked and taken over and then handed over to the MOCST from July 2016. One this work is completed, it promises to be one of the largest museums in the Southeast Asia.
It should be said that the National History Museum is an ambitious work, which is not only large in size but also in terms of investment. Upon hearing information about this museum, a lot of people working in the cultural and museum fields, were very surprised and said that this is like a joke because in the current tough economic times, the amount of money invested in such a museum is too big and too hard to imagine.
But their biggest worry is that when this huge project is completed, how we will operate and manage it to promote its efficiency. And, what will we display in the huge campus of the museum?
The Hanoi Museum was built at the cost of VND2.3 trillion (US$115 million)
without being effectively used.
The Hanoi Museum, with investment capital of up to VND2.3 trillion ($115 million), was inaugurated two years ago. But it is still referred to as a hollow shell without content. This museum has almost no customers and...nothing to display.
It opened two years ago but the Museum of Hanoi is still in the test phase of display and it will officially open in 2014 as planned. After one year and a half opening its door, the museum had only 130,000 visitors. As the museum was so quiet, the management board sometimes hired the museum’s spaces for weddings.
When the lesson from the VND2.3 trillion museum is still burning, the story about a bigger museum, with investment of 5 times higher has caused many people concern. The crucial problem is now how effectively explore existing museums, not to invest trillion dong to build new museums that have nothing to display.
Some experts have expressed their worry about the National History Museum project, especially, how will it be operated? The human resource to manage that huge museum? The plan and display script? The strategy to attract viewers? The project implementation is scheduled to start November 2012 but people do not see any professional activity being started.
In a conversation with VietNamNet about museums in Vietnam, Prof. Nguyen Van Huy, former director of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, a member of the scientific advisory council for the construction and management board of the National History Museum shared as follows:
"Currently we have a movement to build giant museums, which are hollow after being built, because there is nothing to show, there is no person in charge of research and organization of exhibitions. Visitors do not know what to see to fit their needs. "
The question how to make the National History Museum operate efficiently is certainly not easy to answer.
In a separate development which is completely on the opposite, involving a national historic building – Tram Giang temple, is a topic that is still very hot.
Through the presentation of related sides, it turns out that the Chuong My District People's Committee (where hosts Tram Gian temple) asked the Hanoi Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to together petition the Hanoi authorities’ permission to restore Tram Gian Temple and Hanoi government agreed on the policy from November 2009.
But until July 2011, the Hanoi Department Culture, Sports and Tourism proposed the Hanoi administration to allocate funding for the temple’s renovations. One year later, the Hanoi City People's Committee approved the above plan in written. But since then the restoration project remained dormant due to lack of investment capital, although many items of the temple were severely degraded leading to the temple’s management board to arbitrarily raise money, dismantle the main structures, causing the painful story as we have known.
If funding for the restoration was allocated earlier, the temple would have not been harmed.
If only a small amount of capital from museum projects was extracted to invest in restoration of historical monuments, it would have been definitely different.
If money was poured in restoration in time, many structures in the Tram Gian temple would not have been chopped apart.
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First News withdraws comic books ‘Why’
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18/09/2012 09:17:50
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Vietnam, Japan hold friendship music concert
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18/09/2012 09:02:22
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The craft of jewellery making in Chau Khe
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18/09/2012 08:58:37
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Japanese, Taiwanese artists join city’s dan tranh gig
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18/09/2012 08:53:54
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Conde Nast Traveller votes the Nam Hai as Best Overseas Spa Hotel
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18/09/2012 08:47:09
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Con Son Kiep Bac Autumn Festival 2012 to open in late September
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18/09/2012 08:46:09
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Con Son Kiep Bac Autumn Festival 2012 to open in late September
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18/09/2012 08:42:28
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Tourism ministers meet to promote cooperation
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18/09/2012 08:37:44
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Hoang Su Phi terraced fields recognized as national heritage
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18/09/2012 08:32:42
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