Vietnam, one of the most cultural diversity countries in the Southeast Asia, comprising of 54 ethnic groups of people coexisting is a great destination for research and study about Ethnology. The Museum of Vietnam Ethnology in Hanoi offers some of greatest in-depth explanations about how and what factures that makes Vietnam such a fascinating land of cultural diversity. This Museum has been rated as one of the best Ethnology Museums of the Southeast Asia region to discover and will be a perfect place to include in a day city tour combined with other city’s highlights.
The Museum was first opened in 1996 after ten years of construction. This was built with great partnership and assistance from the French government both technically and financially due to the fact that before 1954 the French colonial government had a special department based in Hanoi which concentrated on researches and study on the native cultures and ancient civilization existed in the Indochina land, they also established the Far-East Oriental Institute for these purposes.
The Museum ground consists of two sections Indoor and Outdoor, the building is for the Indoor and the beautiful garden for the Outdoor one.
From outside, the building looks like a Vietnamese traditional paper fan with the main hall as the handle and the expanded area as the functional displaying chambers. Once walking into the hall, visitors’ eyes will be trapped into looking at a very high ritual tree of hundred decorative patterns reaching from the ground to the arch ceiling. Going clockwise further, visitors will follow the information path displaying some of the most cornerstone information and pictures featuring about the background cultures and history of different ethnic groups of people who coexist in all different regions of Vietnam. Along the visiting path, visitors will learn from where and how some of the hill tribes immigrated into Vietnam and there are many displaying livelihood items belonging to various regions and reflecting their believes, ways of living…these items including altar, shaman dress, amulets.
After absorbing the academic part, visitors will discover the Outdoor section which is covered in the green garden. The strolling path winds around under shady trees passing some of the great collections of homes of the people from main regions of Vietnam, the Northern, Central highland and the South. The most interesting and special about this area is all the building, houses, shrines were built by the local authentic craftsmen who live in the area and all the materials for building these structures were from the regions where the houses belong to.
There are several houses to see, however these are some of the most interesting and beautiful to look at as following suggestion.
The house of Ha Nhi, one of the smallest hill tribes in Vietnam, is a thatched roofed house, it has special design with a surrounded thick wall which is compacted clay wall with only one door and a few tiny holes for releasing smoke from the in-house kitchen, no windows like an igloo, this special design helps to cope better with hash weather of extremes hot and cold.
The house of the H’Mong is of a very simple version, in Vietnam this house style is the simplest one to comprise of wooden roof covers the wall of wood planks. In reality, the Hmong still remain the most backward tribes on Vietnam as they live on the highest altitude on the mountainous regions. There has not been much change in the way this tribe live, the women still grow hemp and indigo for making their traditional costumes so that in the house a weaving loom will be seen.
A dozen meters away, visitors will see a great contrast of a very tall building called Nha Rong, this house style is popular in the central part of the country, the house is built very high, it must be the highest one in the local community area, and it is in fact not for residence but functions as a village hall where the elderly gather for important event like communal meeting and most importantly it symbolizes for the area. During festivals this is used as the ceremony ground and festive activities like praying, dancing. Similar to other houses in the museum, this is built by local with authentic material if just bamboo, timber and dried grass. They used no even metal mails but only joints and string tights.
At the end of the visit loop, there is the most typical compounded house of the one from Viet people or Vietnamese as the majority of the population of Vietnam. There is a main house, a kitchen and barn storage arranged in U shape. The main building reflects an elite life style with sophisticated ornate and patterns. In the main hall, there is an ancestral worshiping altar flanked by tea table and opium desk which in the former time was quite luxury habit for the rich class to have.
After the academic discovering, there is a chance to ease with an entertaining cultural show of a Water puppet performance. This is one of Vietnam most famous culture shows featuring the background of the Vietnamese paddy rice culture.
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