Sea-island culture in Khanh Hoa Province is shown deeply with thousands of valuable items, creating a premise to form a sea-island culture museum in the future...
Sea-island culture in Khanh Hoa Province is shown deeply with thousands of valuable items, creating a premise to form a sea-island culture museum in the future.
Institute of Oceanography of Nha Trang is a place displaying a large number of items related to two archipelagos Spratly and Paracel in an area called Marine Resources of The Spratly and Paracel Archipelagos.
Now, the site features 10,000 specimens of creatures collected from the two archipelagos and some other waters of the countries. This is the result of the hard research and collection of the institute’s staff.
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| Specimens taken from Spratly in 1989. |
There are also a lot of historical documents on Vietnam’s survey and management process of Spratly and Paracel through periods such as bibliographies and documents of Nguyen Dynasty, images of Vietnamese ships in the 17th - 18th centuries and the country’s underwater topography. Especially, there are some images of De Lanessan ship by which surveys on the two archipelagos were made in the early time of the Institute of Oceanography. In only six years from 1927 to 1933, De Lanessan ship came to Spratly waters for surveys. In 1938, the institute set up an oceanographic station on Pattle Island of Paracel Archipelagos. Then, De Lanessan’s operation gave many results.
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| A ship of Vietnamese fleet in Paracel in the 17th - 18 th centuries. |
In addition, geological specimens taken from the two archipelagos can be found here. Remarkable items are coral limestone taken from Spraly in 1989, volcanic bomb from Phan Vinh Island in 1989, a shell 1 meter in length and 145 kilograms in weight from Sinh Ton Island in 1991, mackerel specimen 70 kilograms in weight and 4 meters in length from Spratly in early 2011 and some others.
Beside the Institute of Oceanography, recently, the scientific project themed “Collection and research on features of sea - island culture in Khanh Hoa”, managed by Master Le Van Hoa, the Chief of Khanh Hoa Provincial Culture, Sports and Tourism Department Secretariat, has proved that deep sea - island culture of the province. The project has collected 324 items, 1,500 documentary photos and summary records related to Khanh Hoa sea - island culture. Especially, the spiritual culture has been shown prominently such as the workship custom of Whale, Thien Y Ana Goddess, Island Goddess, the ancestor of salangane nest exploiting, folk games and festivals. According to the project, Khanh Hoa has 1,089 vestiges and spots with relics, 153 of which have been ranked at provincial level and 13 of which are at national level. 75% of the ranked vestiges are located in coastal areas.
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| Many documents prove that Spratly and Paracel belong to Vietnam. |
All above factors create a premise to set up a sea-island culture museum in the future in Khanh Hoa where many potentials and conditions gather. Truong Dang Tuyen, director of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism also said, with natural conditions featuring a coast with the deep sea-island culture and highly-appreciated sea science development of Nha Trang Institute of Oceanography, Khanh Hoa has many advantages to build up a museum for sea-island culture in the Southern Central region.
T.T
