“Ma nhai” Steles in Da Nang included in Asia-Pacific documentary heritage list
The People’s Committee of central Da Nang city on March 1 received a certificate recognising 78 “ma nhai” steles on its Ngu Hanh Son Mountain as part of documentary heritage under the Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP).
Da Nang (VNA) – The People’s Committee ofcentral Da Nang city on March 1 received a certificate recognising 78 “manhai” steles on its Ngu Hanh Son Mountain as part of documentary heritage underthe Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP).
The steles feature writings in a variety of genres in literature by kings and mandarins of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802 - 1945), monks, and scholars from the first half of the 17thcentury up to the 1960s.
They comprise 76 steles with writings in the Chinesescript and two in the Nom - an old script of Vietnam - according to the CulturalHeritage Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Apart from reflecting the history, geography, and culture in Vietnam during the feudal period, the steles mirroreconomic, cultural, and social exchanges between Southeast Asian nations going back to the 17th century.
They won recognition at the 9th general meetingof the MOWCAP in Andong city, the Republic of Korea, last year.
Speaking at the hand-over ceremony, Vice Chairwomanof the municipal People’s Committee Ngo Thi Kim Yen called the recognition ahighlight helping promote national culture as well as local tourism.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism HoangDao Cuong asked Da Nang to review documentary heritage in the locality andsketch out a preservation project while working to raise publicawareness of the preservation work.
Miki Nozawa, head of the Education Department of the UNESCOOffice in Vietnam, emphasised that the “ma nhai” documentary heritage is significantto the Asia-Pacific region.
Vietnam now has nine documentary heritages on the list of UNESCO, including three at the world level and six in the Asia-Pacific list.
Established in 1998, MOWCAP is a regional forumfor UNESCO’s global Memory of the World (MOW) Programme.
MOWCAP aims to assist with the preservation of anduniversal access to documentary heritage of the Asia-Pacific region, and alsoto increase awareness of the existence and significance of the heritage./.
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At the hand-over ceremony (Photo: VNA) 
