VietNam from primitive to Chinese's dominated period (part 1)

INTRODUCTION: Today I’m glad to take you come back history of Viet Nam. We’re Historical museum. There are 12 rooms in there, each of room is appropriate to a period of history, from primitive period to late Nguyen dynasty. I hope you will understand more about Vietnam history as well as Vietnamese.   Firstly, I’m going to introduce to you something interesting in three rooms first, from primitive period to The Bach Dang victory 938. DEVELOPMENT: The primitive period in Vietnam is demonstrated in room number 1. This was the first social regime in human society.  Base on many fossil vestiges, archeologists said that the first men settled in Vietnam about 500,000 years ago. They lived in many places such as Lang Son, Yen Bai, Thanh Hoa, Dong Nai…They just lived on gathering fruits, vegetables and used some pebble implements for hunting.  Step by step, the ancient’s life became better. And about 10,000 years ago, they transferred from gathering to cultivating economy. They lived in bigger groups, moved from mountain to delta. Especially, finding fire marked an important change in primitive man’s life. Beside that, they knew planting, making stone tools to hunt, making pottery and jewelry, having their own religion…The most developed cultures in this period were Hoa Binh, Ba Son, Dong Nai…These cultures became more civilized and developed in Metal Age. Metal Age We move to the second room with Hung Kings period which was famous for Hong river civilization, Sa Huynh culture, Dong Nai culture…  In Hung Kings period the ancients knew using bronze to make weapons. Many small groups gathered into a big community. Three biggest communities were the civilization of Hong river in the North and the North area of the Centre in Vietnam, the culture of Sa Huynh in the Middle East of central Vietnam; the culture of Dong Nai in the East area of the South Vietnam.          These cultures produced many highly original productions. For example, Sa Huynh culture had burial jars, jewelries of glass, precious stones. Dong Nai culture typically had bronze weapon. Hong river civilization’s time corresponded with Hung Kings’ period of Van Lang nation, An Duong Vuong King of Au Lac nation. The most typical production was Dong Son bronze drum. Vietnamese people still worship Hung King as a founder of the nation still today and 10th of March lunar calendar is a anniversary day of Hung King. Tale of Trong Thuy and My Chau (Vietnamese most tragic of love )  There is a tale names Mi Chau & Trong Thuy. It explains about the collapse of Au Lac nation. Trieu Da was the king of the South China Sea. He wanted to occupy the Au Lac nation ruled by An Duong Vuong. But he had failed continuously. After that, Trieu Da pretended wanting to make friend with An Duong Vuong, sent his son to Au Lac in order to get marriage with the princess. His deep plot was that finding out the reason why Au Lac was too powerful for him to defeat. My Chau was the daughter of An Duong Vuong. She loved Trong Thuy so much, was so trusting him that she told him about the magic crossbow which was the precious object help Au Lac cope with its enemies. Then Trong Thuy had exchanged a fake crossbow for the true one and gave it to his dad. Finally, Trieu Da occupied the Au Lac. Very Sadly, Trong Thuy and My Chau died.    Bach Dang battle:   In 938, Ngo Quyen expelled completely the Chinese aggressor on the historical Bach Dang river, ended 1000 years domination by northern invaders, began the era of the freedom and independence for Vietnamese. (You can see model in there : left side is Vietnamese army, and right sight is Chinese army – Nam Han army. Ngo Quyen took advantage tide in order to create spike-traps. When high-tide, spike-traps would be discovered. Because Chinese ships were big, it was difficult to them to escape those spike-traps when low-tide and the result was that their ships were stroked by spikes in the river…)  CONCLUSION In sum, Viet Nam from primitive period to The Bach Dang victory 938 spent many ups and downs but Vietnamese always keep themselves patriotism, valiance, solidarity, never submit to difficult circumstances. And in the next part, I’ll present to you the next period of Vietnam history and you”ll realize those things clearly. Junior Guide Class (Tường Vi-Nguyên Vũ-Lê Thị Hạnh) Source: Museum of history in HCM city.

      

Mekong River is the World’s 10^th longest river and the 7^th longest in Asia.

The great river is the source of living for more than 80 million people of the world. It’s also the cradle of Asian civilization. The general information about this river will open the door of knowledge to various aspects as its people and customs.

It runs through Yunnan Province of China, Burma, Lao, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Its estimated length is 4,909 km. It drains an area about 795,000km², discharging 475,000,000,000 m³ (475km³) of water annually.

There are over 1,200 species of fish in the river. The Mekong Delta in Vietnam is about 40,000km²

Mekong delta contributes 50% of rice output, 50% of shrimp output and 100% catfish output for the whole country.

According to the census in 2009 there were about 17,100,000 inhabitants. They are Vietnamese, Chinese, Khmer and Cham Islam. 150,000 Chinese (they live in the city and town) 1,400,000 Khmer, they live in the villages, 14,000 Cham Islam (Sunni) living in the villages. 80% of population in Mekong Delta is farmers.

The religion practices are Buddhism, Catholic, Protestant, Cao Dai, Islam, Hoa Hao,...

Each village has a kindergarten built, each ward has a primary school and a secondary school, and several wards have a high school. Most of them are public schools. Can Tho is the center of education with many university and few uni in other province.

Mekong delta is the very fertile region. 60% of population is young and very dynamic.

 45% of people pre-graduated primary level of education,14,15% in the percentage of student drop out from school yearly at all levels. The Mekong delta education is estimated 5 to 10 years behind Red river delta and the central of Vietnam. The education of Mekong delta is less competitive than any other part of country because of the history. The agricultural mind set is one the problem.

The transportation of Mekong delta is less convenient than other region, with the complicated of water ways many communes don’t have primary and high school, student have to go to main town if want study higher.

 Ancestor worship

Traditionally, the Southern Vietnamese worship and honor the spirits of their ancestors on a regular basis, especially on the anniversary of their dead. Week worship or the anniversary of the dead person holds on 49-day, 81-day, 100-day, 1 year, 2-year from the date of dying. After coming out of mourning, on the anniversary of the dead person, children and relatives organize the anniversary of the dead person. 

In the past, the altar was put on the bed of the death with consciousness the death was still there, slowly replaced by a short table which closed to wattle wall, when they organized the anniversary of the dead person, food was put on that table. Later the table was replaced by an altar.

On the altar there is a thurible, a picture of the dead person. There are 3-4 dead persons are correlative thuribles, if the dead person did not have picture but thurible is indispensable.

In front there are two candlestick make by bronze or precious wood, in the middle there 3 small cups for tea or wine, an oil lamp, a flower vase,... if the dead person is still in mourning then the oil lamp burns continuously. There is also a plate of fruits.

Conclusion:

The Mekong river is the 10^th longest river in the world, it’s a cradle of earliest civilization and some are still undiscovered. Vietnam is the lucky country as the country of the river’s end. Through million of years, silt of the river has been forming up the delta which is one of the most fertile and very rich in diversity. The tropical wet mangrove forest of the delta is the one of the richest of natural resource (Tram Chim Tam Nong). Beside that, Mekong delta also has a lot of local custom such as ancestor worship which reflects the remembrance of the first pioneers who came to this wild land and scarified for the transformation process. The Mekong delta is rich in nature. However, if faces a lot of problem with education. The region is lowest in the country for education.

 Vu Ba Ngoc (Travel Indochina guide)

Source: internet

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