admin(No.3, Vol.6,Apr-May 2016 Vietnam Heritage Magazine)
A museum, which opened last year, serves as a spiritual base for the rural ambiance around a beautiful wooden bridge nearby. Villagers regard the museum as the pride of the village, second only to the village’s charming bridge. It’s name is Thanh Toan Museum.
The museum was built with consultation and technical assistance from the staff of the International Labour Organization and UNESCO. Over a period of six months, 35 locals worked to fix, clean and reorganize the farming tools gathered in the house, which is located several steps up from the bridge.
Tran Duy Chien, 66, one among the farmers, showed his delight to see the farming items preserved. “We want to have something traditional to introduce to tourists visiting my home village. But more importantly, this is for the whole community, for older generations to have a look back, for young people to learn,” he says.
Visitors now get a chance to learn stories of how soil is prepared by water buffalo-powered plough and rake, how young rice is planted, how to split rice seeds from its plants and how to blow empty grain away in select rice by manmade, manual tools. Visitors can also have a look at bamboo boats and handmade fishing tools.
The villagers also donated bamboo utensils, earthen rice bowls, and things that reminded people life in the past but could not be produced now.
Life behind the village’s bamboo rampart was peaceful and musical, with folksongs sang by mothers to send their children to sleep. Ho Thi Vui, a local, says she loves to present the type of folk singing that accompanied farming, housework and taking care of children as well as entertaining visitors. She performs “with delight and pride,” she says. Stories of a person’s lifetime are told in an area in the museum near a display of a bamboo cradle, bamboo bed and costumes and props used for traditional wedding procedures.
Pride has continued making the village a charming rural destination in Hue, idyllically entertaining visitors with traditions and homeland faith.
Thanh Toan Museum
Thanh Thuy Chanh Village, Thuy Thanh
Commune, Huong Thuy District, Thua Thien Hue Province
(5km from Trang Tien Bridge)
Open daily from 7am – 5pm