Greetings from Hanoi!
04/20/2009
Hanoi, the city of the rising dragon, is steeped in nearly 1000 years of history, the perfect place for a historian to visit. After settling in at my charming hotel in the Old Quarter, I set out by motorbike with Mr. Thuc, a friend of a friend. Our first stop was my favorite, the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. After viewing some wonderful exhibits about Vietnam's ethnic minorities, we went outside to see examples of Cham, Ede, H'mong, and other houses. The picture here is of a stilt house--typical of those found in the Central Highlands, where I'll be traveling next week.
We continued on to the Temple of Literature, founded in 1070 to honor scholars and literary figures. Six years later, Vietnam's first university was established there to educate sons of mandarins. The temple, which is very striking, consists of 5 separate courtyards separated by ornamental gates. The king could walk through the center gate, so as Mr. Thuc said, "we are kings today!" Much of the architecture is original, but the final segment is a reconstruction because it was destroyed by bombs during the American war. As I learned, the wood used in the reconstruction came from Laos because northern Vietnam did not have adequate old growth trees for the project.
Continuing our whirlwind tour, Mr. Thuc took me to the One Pillar Pagoda. Originally constructed in 1049, it was built to resemble a lotus blossom rising out of a sea of sorrow. The French destroyed the pagoda before they left Hanoi in 1954, and the Vietnamese government has since rebuilt it on a much smaller scale.
Just a short distance away stands the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where the former president's embalmed body is on display. We were too late to go inside (you can only do that in the morning), but we saw the guards in their crisp white uniforms standing at attention for 2-hours at a time. The grounds were pristine, even stark. Across from the mausoleum are 79 squares of grass (sort of a park), with each square representing a year in Ho Chi Minh's life.
Today I wandered the crowded and noisy streets of Hanoi's Old Quarter. What a maze! Since I'm not much of a shopper, it was a bit stressful because you must be constantly on the alert for motorbikes and cars and prepared to respond to the many people touting their wares. Shops spill out onto sidewalks, which also serve as parking lots for motorbikes, so you must walk in the street. One street will feature silk, another toys, still others have coutless shops filled with hardware items or plastics. The street pictured here offered all kinds of sewing notions--zippers, sequins, braided cord, but try as I might, I couldn't find any knitting needles!
Tomorrow I'll be attending CONSAL XIV, an international library conference with delegates from ten member countries plus guests like me. More on that next time!
