40 YEARS OF "UNCLE HO'S MEMORIAL HOUSE" WHERE WE RETURN TO HIM

The people of the Central Highlands in general and the people of Gia Lai in particular have never had the chance to welcome Uncle Ho, but the feelings of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands for Uncle Ho are beyond words or writing. With the thought of "if we cannot welcome Uncle Ho to visit, we will build a house to welcome him back to live", 42 years ago, the project of the Exhibition House of images about the revolutionary life of President Ho Chi Minh in Gia Lai - Kon Tum was started on September 2, 1982. The completed project was inaugurated and put into operation on May 19, 1984, on the occasion of the 94th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's birthday, a place for generations of people, cadres, soldiers, students of Gia Lai province in particular and the Central Highlands provinces in general to return to Uncle Ho.

Groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the Exhibition House on the life and revolutionary career of President Ho Chi Minh

Scene of the inauguration ceremony of the Exhibition House on the life and revolutionary career of President Ho Chi Minh, 1984

On June 4, 1988, the Central Ho Chi Minh Museum issued a decision to recognize the House of Images Exhibition on the revolutionary life of President Ho Chi Minh in Gia Lai - Kon Tum province as a branch of the system of museums and memorial sites of President Ho Chi Minh nationwide. On December 18, 2018, the Chairman of the Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee signed Decision No. 587/QD-UBND on the establishment of Gia Lai Provincial Museum on the basis of merging 3 units: Provincial Museum, Ho Chi Minh Museum Gia Lai - Kon Tum branch, Dai Doan Ket Square (Pleiku City).

Comrade Phan Van Khai visited on May 19, 1984

Comrade Vo Chi Cong - Chairman of the State Council visited on June 2, 1988

It can be affirmed that, over the past 40 years, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, Gia Lai - Kon Tum branch (Uncle Ho's Memorial House) has always been a cultural work with profound historical significance, a placeto educate the revolutionary traditions of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands, and has met the aspirations and sacred feelings of the ethnic groups towards Uncle Ho. "Uncle Ho's House" is forever a precious heritage in the hearts of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands. The Uncle Ho's Memorial House (Ho Chi Minh Museum, Gia Lai - Kon Tum branch) is also a place that most clearly demonstrates the spirit of great solidarity of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands: "Uncle Ho's House" was built on the consensus and solidarity of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands, the people contributed their human and material resources to build it together in joy and excitement. "Uncle Ho's House" is also a place for generations of descendants to return to review the revolutionary traditions of the nation, to report to Uncle Ho... and also a place where once again the sentiments and national solidarity are tightened, more solid than ever.

Leaders of Gia Lai province offer incense to commemorate President Ho Chi Minh at the Museum.

Based on a correct and profound understanding of the significance of the propaganda about the life and revolutionary career of President Ho Chi Minh as well as his ideology, morality and style. Over the past 40 years, the collective leadership and staff of the Ho Chi Minh Museum, Gia Lai - Kon Tum branch (Gia Lai Provincial Museum) have always upheld the sense of responsibility in preserving, conserving, displaying and reviving historical artifacts, spreading the value of Ho Chi Minh's heritage.

In order to do a good job of propaganda and education every year, the Museum has been proactive and active in coordinating with agencies, departments and branches to develop coordination plans in organizing to welcome delegations of visitors, students, and new soldiers to visit and study at the permanent exhibition area. For example, the coordination plan between museums and traditional houses with the Department of Education and Training of Pleiku city in organizing students to visit and study extracurricular activities at the Museum has been implemented for nearly 20 years and brought positive results. Or the coordination program with the 3rd Corps Museum, annually welcoming thousands of new soldiers to visit and study to learn about Uncle Ho. Coordinate with the Kon Tum Social Protection Center, Departments of Education, schools ... to organize tours at the Museum.

For each different type of visitor, the staff carries out propaganda work as well as creates appropriate explanatory content, ensuring that visitors can both learn about Uncle Ho's life and career and integrate his thoughts and feelings with each type and class of people.

Since 2019, the Museum has merged with the Provincial Museum and the Management Board of the Great Unity Square to form a special cultural complex. Therefore, propaganda and education work has also been expanded, combined with guided tours to learn about Uncle Ho, Gia Lai province and the Great Unity Square items. Visitors to the Museum can take part in a diverse and rich tour, contributing to attracting a large number of people to the Museum. From 2021 to 2022, the Provincial Museum welcomed and served about 810,692 visitors. In 2023, there were about 708,000 visitors, including nearly 200 groups with about 120 children's groups and nearly 80 adult groups. In just the first 6 months of 2024, Gia Lai Provincial Museum is expected to welcome about 477,000 visitors, with 81 groups, including 66 children's groups and 15 adult groups.

Along with the form of propaganda, education and guidance for visitors through permanent exhibitions, the Museum also proactively organizes exhibitions and talks at the grassroots level, especially for students and people in remote areas, ethnic minority areas, and border areas of Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces. Through the exhibition, with touching stories about Uncle Ho, about the ideology of great solidarity that Uncle Ho taught, it contributes to propagating and successfully implementing the movement to study and follow the ideology, morality and style of Ho Chi Minh. During the exhibition and talks at the grassroots level, the Museum officials organized small competitions such as "Ring the Golden Bell" and competitions to learn about Uncle Ho. Through the competitions and games, an exciting and vibrant atmosphere was created. The gifts given to the children were publications about Uncle Ho, about the feelings of the people of the Central Highlands and Gia Lai for him, or simply student notebooks with the logo and images of the Museum. Up to now, the Museum has organized exhibitions and talks on President Ho Chi Minh in 17/17 districts and towns of Gia Lai province. The program has received high appreciation from the coordinating units and the served localities, contributing to promoting the image and reputation of the Museum to the public.

In addition to providing guidance at permanent exhibitions or specialized talks at the facility, the Museum also actively coordinates with the Ho Chi Minh Museum (Hanoi) every year to organize specialized exhibitions at the Museum towards important events about Uncle Ho (on the occasion of Uncle Ho's birthday, National Day, etc.) ... typically including the exhibitions "Ho Chi Minh - Sketches of Portraits"; "50 Years of Implementing President Ho Chi Minh's Testament"; "The Man in Search of the Shape of the Country" ... The exhibitions have received the attention of many visitors to the Museum.

Every year, at the solemn space of the Museum, there are often activities of offering incense, flowers, reporting to Uncle Ho by delegations from the Central and local levels, admission ceremonies for the Youth Union, Young Pioneers... or many other cultural and social activities such as Uncle Ho's torch procession, military launch ceremony... of local schools, agencies and departments.

Some typical publications

In order to bring the museum closer to the public, and at the same time to collect and accumulate more documents and stories about Uncle Ho's affection for the people of the Central Highlands as well as the people's trust and respect for Uncle Ho. Over the years, the Museum has actively researched, compiled and coordinated the publication of many valuable publications, such as: in 2000, the book "Where the Central Highlands has Uncle Ho" was published; 2 books "Uncle Ho in the hearts of the Gia Lai people" published in 2001 and 2014 are a collection of stories about the children of Gia Lai and the Central Highlands who met Uncle Ho and the affection of the people of the Central Highlands for Uncle Ho. This is an extremely valuable source of historical documents, educating revolutionary traditions, showing the loyalty of the people of the Gia Lai ethnic groups to forever follow the path that the Party and Uncle Ho have chosen; Next is the book "Honoring veteran revolutionary cadres, pre-uprising cadres, cadres staying in the South (after July 20, 1954) in Gia Lai province" published in 2012; from April 2016 to present, the Museum has always maintained the publication of the Museum's information and document journal, aiming to introduce research on Ho Chi Minh's ideology, ethics, and style, research on exchanging professional work of the Museum, this is also a channel to introduce to the public about the Museum's activities in the past time.

In addition to organizing research, collecting and publishing publications, the Museum also organizes scientific activities and seminars related to the theme of President Ho Chi Minh, Cultural Heritage, and Museum activities. Organizing experiential activities to learn about cultural heritage and President Ho Chi Minh for students in Pleiku city, such as: "Summer with Cultural Heritage" (2020); "Finding Cultural Heritage in 2022" or "Cultural Heritage Festival 2022" program. By organizing games and competitions combined with learning about Uncle Ho's revolutionary career, it contributes to improving the effectiveness of the Museum's propaganda and education work.

In order to meet the needs of visitors, as well as to increasingly supplement and perfect the display, over the past 40 years, generations of professional staff of the Museum have continuously researched and collected documents and artifacts about Uncle Ho. Up to now, the Museum is preserving about 10,895 artifacts, including 748 artifacts, more than 3,000 documentary images about Uncle Ho, about the affection of the Central Highlands people for Uncle Ho. Among them, it is necessary to mention the typical artifacts about the affection of the Central Highlands ethnic groups for Uncle Ho, which can only be found at the "Uncle Ho Memorial House", such as: Uncle Ho's statue made of solid rosewood; Uncle Ho's bronze statue that the E3 commune party cell (now Ia Lang), Duc Co district kept from 1962-1967; The sculpture of Uncle Ho's Will; Uncle Ho's letter to the Southern Ethnic Minorities Congress held in Pleiku on April 19, 1946, engraved on rosewood, modeled after the Central Highlands communal house, and a collection of paintings by artist Xu Man expressing the affection of the Central Highlands people for Uncle Ho, and Uncle Ho for the Central Highlands people. These are also artifacts expressing the spirit of solidarity among the Central Highlands ethnic groups, which are the highlights that the propaganda and education process at the Museum conveys to visitors.

Along with collecting documents and artifacts, in recent years, the Ho Chi Minh Museum Gia Lai - Kon Tum branch (Gia Lai Provincial Museum) has researched and coordinated with the Ho Chi Minh Museum to restore artifacts associated with his life and revolutionary career, in order to complete and supplement the display, while serving the needs of visitors to visit and study. In 2023, the Museum restored and put on display 3 artifacts such as: The Jute Hammock, The Nung Clothes, Ho Chi Minh used during his time in Cao Bang 1944-1945, The heating brick Nguyen Ai Quoc used during his time in Paris (France)...

In the current revolutionary period, the Central Highlands is an important strategic area in terms of economy - culture - society - national security and defense, home to many ethnic groups, while reactionary and hostile forces always seek to exploit ethnic and religious issues to incite, sabotage and divide the great national unity bloc in order to carry out the plot: "Peaceful evolution", so strengthening the work of educating the great national unity bloc is more necessary than ever. In order to promote the value of the relic "Uncle Ho's Memorial House" in educating the great national unity bloc, with the role of a cultural institution with the function of propaganda and education, in the coming time, the collective leadership, officials and workers of the Ho Chi Minh Museum (Gia Lai Provincial Museum) will continue to promote it.

First of all, it is necessary to pay attention to investing in upgrading the synchronous display system at the Museum. It can be said that basically the contents displayed at the museum ensure the themes of the museums in the system. But in general, the display solutions as well as the equipment serving the display and introduction at the museum need to be modernized.

Fully aware of the role of being a bridge between visitors and the relics and artifacts of the Museum, each official doing propaganda and education work and each official doing professional work of the Museum always tries to promote their own capacity, constantly learn from colleagues to improve and meet the requirements of professional tasks.

With the development of mass media and information technology, it is necessary to digitize museums to meet the increasing needs of the public. In 2023, with the attention of all levels, Gia Lai Provincial Museum will initially digitize the museum. However, with the initial funding source, many different artifacts and documents must be shared, so the digitization of artifacts and documents, and the digitization of displays at Uncle Ho's Memorial House are still limited in the number of artifacts and images. In the following years, it is necessary to continue to invest in digitizing images and documents at the museum to meet the needs of the public for visiting and studying.

Research and develop educational propaganda programs at museums and grassroots propaganda. Promote coordination programs with educational institutions in the province, armed forces stationed in the area, and local agencies.

Uncle Ho's Memorial House, built and grown over 40 years, plays an important role in propaganda and education work, guiding people of all walks of life to study and follow Ho Chi Minh's ideology, morality and style. "Uncle Ho's House" is always a place for generations of children to return to Him and further strengthen the spirit of great national unity according to Uncle Ho's instructions.

*Some images of the Museum's educational and propaganda activities