International title helps Hue ancient capital revive heritage

Tourists visit Hue Imperial City. (Photo: Mai Trang/VNA)

Thua Thien-Hue is currently the only locality in Vietnam as well as Southeast Asia with 6 World Cultural Heritages recognized by UNESCO: Hue Monuments Complex, Hue Royal Court Music, Nguyen Dynasty Woodblocks, Nguyen Dynasty Official Records, Poetry and Literature on Hue Royal Architecture and Plates cast on nine bronze cauldrons in Hue Imperial Palace.

Possessing many international titles has affirmed the unique cultural values of the ancient capital, bringing many different benefits.

However, this also places high demands on effectively exploiting UNESCO titles to become resources for development and brands serving the cultural industry.

More than 30 years ago, when the Complex of Hue Monuments was honored by UNESCO as Vietnam's first World Cultural Heritage, it showed that the international community highly appreciated the value and stature of Hue Capital in the flow of human culture.

With this international title, the work of preserving and maintaining the Nguyen Dynasty's cultural heritage has entered a new phase, contributing to Hue's integration with the world and creating a foundation for local socio -economic development.

Advantages of UNESCO title

In the process of industrialization, modernization and deep international integration today, Vietnam is proud to have an ancient Hue Imperial City with a 143-year history, a place that preserves the traces of 13 Nguyen Dynasty kings with a massive cultural heritage system.

This is an important link between the past, present and future of Thua Thien-Hue in particular and the country in general.

In the UNESCO system of titles, world heritage is the most prestigious and oldest title. Director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Thua Thien-Hue Phan Thanh Hai emphasized that the cultural heritages of the ancient capital of Hue after being recognized by UNESCO create a good opportunity to preserve, conserve, restore and promote the value of heritage; enhance the position of Hue as a unique cultural center of the country; at the same time create an international brand to make Hue an attractive destination on the Vietnam tourism map.

In particular, this honor helps Thua Thien-Hue clearly define its development path, considering cultural heritage as the foundation and nucleus for comprehensive and sustainable development, contributing to realizing the goal of becoming a centrally-run city on the basis of preserving and promoting the value of the ancient capital's heritage and Hue's cultural identity.

Experiencing many historical events, the heavy impact of war, harsh weather..., the royal architectural works of the ancient capital of Hue have been devastated, degraded, and seriously damaged.

In that context, UNESCO's recognition of the Complex of Hue Monuments as a World Cultural Heritage in 1993 marked an important milestone in the restoration of Hue's heritage. Up to now, the conservation and restoration of the monument has achieved many proud results with more than 200 works and construction items preserved, renovated and restored; including typical works such as Kien Trung Palace, Ngo Mon Gate, Thai Hoa Palace, Hien Lam Pavilion, The Mieu, and tombs.

Kien Trung Palace was once completely destroyed, leaving only the foundation and has been successfully restored. (Photo: Tuong Vi/VNA)

According to UNESCO's assessment, the conservation of Hue monuments is currently moving into a phase of stability and sustainable development. With outstanding global values, Hue cultural heritage always attracts the attention of the international community and the support of many experts in the field of heritage research and restoration.

The journey of more than 20 years of attachment and support for relic restoration by expert Andrea Teufel, Chief Representative of the German Association for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, is one of the meaningful stories in the journey of preserving and integrating Hue heritage into the world.

Since her first participation in the restoration of ancient murals at An Dinh Palace in 2003, Ms. Andrea Teufel has completed 6 restoration projects with about 50 locations in the Complex of Hue Monuments. She has also opened 5 restoration training courses for dozens of skilled workers, contributing to building human resources for long-term heritage conservation in Vietnam.

In 2024, she was awarded the title "Honorary Citizen of Thua Thien-Hue Province."

Ms. Andrea Teufel shared that Hue is a very interesting place, not only containing many historical relics of Vietnam but also unique in the world. However, many relics are damaged, degraded, even existing only through old documents and images. She wishes to contribute to Hue to restore and "revive" those relics.

In addition, through training human resources in the work of preserving and restoring relics combined with heritage education for students, she hopes to arouse the passion for heritage among young people to join hands in preserving and maintaining the precious cultural heritage left by our ancestors.

According to Director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Center Hoang Viet Trung, over the past 40 years, UNESCO's support and connections have provided practical and effective support to Hue's cultural heritage: 15 governments, 50 non-governmental organizations, and more than 10 international professional consulting organizations have established relationships and provided technical and financial support with a total budget of more than 10 million USD.

The Center has signed cooperation agreements with 21 international agencies and organizations and 9 domestic agencies and organizations; 55 international cooperation programs and projects on research, restoration and large-scale human resource training.

In 2023, at the 30th Anniversary of the Complex of Hue Monuments and the 20th Anniversary of Vietnamese Court Music being recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, Director General of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre Lazare Eloundou Assomo delivered a message of appreciation that the Hue Imperial City has transformed from a devastated heritage treasure into an outstanding symbol of heritage conservation.

This World Heritage success story has provided valuable hope and inspiration for protecting World Heritage sites in today's challenging context.

Adapting to the flow of contemporary culture

With a rich cultural heritage, Thua Thien-Hue province always strives to invest, harmonizing conservation and exploitation so that cultural heritage shines in the flow of contemporary culture.

Over the past two decades, local authorities, especially artisans, artists and musicians, have joined hands to preserve and promote the value of Hue Royal Court Music - a heritage recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity - closer to the public.

Not only investing in more performance environments for Nha Nhac, the Hue Royal Traditional Arts Theater and the Hue Monuments Conservation Center are trying to gradually search for related musical documents both domestically and overseas; meeting with elderly artisans who participated in the royal dance and singing activities to ask for records, compare, and find the accuracy before restoring a complete dance.

nha nhac cung dinh Hue.jpg — Performance of Hue Royal Court Music. (Source: VNA)

In particular, to help Hue royal court music "revive" after a period of oblivion, there is also the attachment and perseverance of many royal court music families "passing on from father to son" to prolong the flow of heritage such as the families of the late artisans Lu Huu Thi, Tran Kich, and La Chau.

Director of Hue Royal Traditional Arts Theater Hoang Trong Cuong said that the unit always focuses on researching, collecting, building scientific records of Nha Nhac songs and performing them.

Nowadays, Royal Court Music has abundant conditions and performance spaces; especially when the Hue Monuments Conservation Center maintains the performance space that existed in the past at Duyet Thi Duong Theater, Hue Imperial City.

From here, artists have a stable stage to perform, and visitors can enjoy and understand more about the soul of Hue Royal Court Music. In the current process of integration and cultural exchange, Hue cultural heritage is also considered a special cultural diplomacy channel of Vietnam.

Promoting the advantages of the heritage land, Thua Thien-Hue is the first locality in Vietnam to create a contemporary festival form and successfully build the brand "Hue Festival" on the foundation of culture and heritage.

First held in 2000, Hue Festival has gradually affirmed itself as a national and international festival; bringing visitors new and unique experiences of culture, history and art; being a place for convergence and artistic exchange between cultures from many countries.

Over 24 years with 12 editions, the Hue Festival Organizing Committee has strived to adjust the content and organization methods, create unique tourism products, create the brand "Hue - Festival City" as well as make practical contributions to the picture of local economic and social development.

According to Phan Thanh Hai, Director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Thua Thien-Hue, festivals are an important element in developing the cultural industry. From 2022, the province plans to organize the Hue Festival in a four-season manner to help make the most of the locality's rich festival heritage with about 500 festivals.

From there, create attractive tourism products so that Hue always brings newness, dynamism, and appeal to tourists. In particular, the province also focuses on community-building the products of the Festival, so that people are truly the subjects of the heritage, of the festival, and at the same time are the beneficiaries, deciding the success of the festival.

Permanent Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Thua Thien-Hue province Nguyen Thanh Binh said that building brands for a heritage city and a tourist city is very important.

Recently, the province has reported to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Vietnam Commission for UNESCO to participate in building Hue into a city in the UNESCO creative network in terms of cuisine.

This is a material, a great strength of Hue, besides titles such as ASEAN cultural city, green tourism city.

The cultural heritages of the ancient capital of Hue, after being recognized by UNESCO, have become extremely valuable resources for exploiting and developing the local socio-economy; contributing to creating a foundation for building attractive tourism products associated with the brand "The ancient capital of Hue - 1 destination, 6 world heritages"./.