An old man has devoted his life to search out and preserve the culture of Ly Son Island and document historical evidence on Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands.
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Mr. Paracel and his antiques. |
Over 60 years old and living on Ly Son Island, which is 30 nautical miles from the mainland, Mr. Pham Thoai Tuyen is the owner of a “treasure” of nearly 1,000 antiques belonging to the Sa Huynh Culture. These include pottery, objects of worship, ancient coins, Cham statues, royal seals, Han Nom documents. Among them are antiques of up to 3,000 years old.
Tuyen also has a collection of ancient documents about Hoang Sa and Truong Sa (Spratly), Ly Son island, including King Gia Long’s exclusive documents in which the King declared the people who guarded the
In a living-room of less than 30sq.m, where he keeps his antiques, Tuyen showed VietNamNet’s reporters his most valuable document – the documents of the Hoang Sa flotilla, which was set up by the Nguyen Dynasty to protect the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa islands.
“In the 16th century, the Nguyen Lords set up the Hoang Sa flotilla to guard the sea and islands. Most of the soldiers were recruited from An Vinh village on Ly Son Island. From February to March, this team had to cross the sea to the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa Islands as well as other islands in the south to survey, protect and catch fish,” Tuyen said.
Many generations of Ly Son’s people joined this special flotilla to defend the country. Many people were named in royals documents and many others sacrificed in the sea.
Tombs without remains on Ly Son Island.
Tuyen said that there are many tombs on Ly Son Island, which are called mo chieu hon (tombs for souls), set up by local residents to worship dead soldiers of the Hoang Sa flotilla. These tombs are very special because they don’t contain remains of soldiers, only dummies made of white clay taken from the highest mountains on Ly Son and mixed with egg white.
For local people, these tombs remain very significant in their spiritual lives and they ensure they are cared for and regularly worship at them.
On the first day of each lunar month, Tuyen burns incense at these tombs. Every lunar 11th month, Ly Son people organize a thanksgiving ceremony to wish for a peaceful life and boats full of fish and shrimps. The second day of the 12th lunar month is the death anniversary of Ly Son people’s ancestors and soldiers of the Hoang Sa fortilla.
Tuyen represented the Pham family, a long-standing family on Ly Son Island which had many members that were soldiers of the Hoang Sa flotilla, in asking the authorities to build stones for these tombs. Every April, Ly Son people hold le khao the, a special ceremony to show gratitude to Hoang Sa flotilla soldiers who were sacrificed for the peace of Ly Son and the country.
Besides the antiques, Tuyen also collects documents and articles about Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. Whenever authors of these articles or researchers pay visits to Ly Son, Tuyen sees them and asked for their signatures under their articles. He has hundreds of articles about Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.
Tuyen said that he archives these documents very carefully because they contain valuable information for future generations. He even makes several copies of these documents to lend to researchers.
Any visitor to Ly Son can ask Tuyen to help as a guide. For his enthusiasm and his contribution to preserving documents and items about the Hoang Sa flotilla, local people call him Mr. Hoang Sa of Ly Son island.
Digging a tunnel to archive documents about Hoang Sa
Mr. Paracel burned incense at the tomb of a soldier of the Hoang Sa fortilla.
Since 1990 many experts have gone to Ly Son Island to seek documents and evidence about the Hoang Sa flotilla. Among them are famous cultural and historical researchers like Professor Tran Quoc Vuong from the
Many journalists have also visited the island to see Tuyen to learn about Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. Tuyen is considered a living museum while his collections are valuable evidence of
Tuyen said he began collecting in 1975. Many items were found when local farmers hoed land to grow garlic (Ly Son’s garlic is very famous). They didn’t know the value of these objects and wanted to throw them away. Tuyen instead, begged for, or bought the items.
Thanks to Tuyen’s efforts, many valuable documents about Hoang Sa have been discovered and preserved.
Ly Son Island recently suffered from two terrified typhoons, which caused great losses for the island. During the natural disasters, the old man didn’t think of his life but firstly how to protect documents about Hoang Sa. He said: “To protect the nation’s sovereignty, we have to protect and preserve cultural values and heritages of the ancestors at first”. Tuyen dug a trench to preserve documents and antiques.
“I will continue this job so people on this island and visitors will have the opportunity to know about the culture of Ly Son. My aspiration is to devote these collections to the state so many people will know about the traditional values and strengths of our ancestors. I hope many young generations on the island will continue my job,” Tuyen said.
Bao Hoa
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