HA NOI — Preserving Nguyen Dynasty-era printed wood blocks and other documentary heritage was the topic of an international seminar held here on Wednesday, attracting experts came from Cuba, South Korea and China.
National Archives Centre 4 director Pham Thi Hue said that her centre was storing 34,628 Nguyen Dynasty wood blocks, which have been recognised as World Documentary Heritage by UNESCO.
Copies of many of the blocks were being made using techniques borrowed from South Korea, Hue said, and two books featuring images of the blocks would be published this year.
Cuban Archives Centre director Martha Marina Ferriol Marchena said Viet Nam could learn more about their culture and society by preserving its documentary heritage through different procedures.
"The preservation of the wood blocks faces numerous challenges due to a shortage of documentary heritage researchers," responded Hue.
"Some of blocks have been dispersed among organisations, families and clans around the country," she noted. "It has been difficult for us to collect and catalog all of the misplaced blocks by computer."
A Bible written on wood blocks at Vinh Nghiem Temple in the northern province of Bac Giang has been nominated for recognition as World Documentary Heritage by UNESCO, said the director of the province's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Hoang Thi Hoa, and has passed UNESCO's first round of assessment.
The temple has 3,050 pieces from the Bible carving on wood from a thi tree, some 300 years old.
A scientific seminar on the development of Buddhist culture and history in the province would be held in November, Hoa said.
Experts are also striving to preserve a Bible written on leaves in the southern province of An Giang's Xvayton Temple. The Bible is currently wrapped in cloth and stored in a wooden cupboard.
Monk Chau Ty, who spent 40 years writing the Bible pages, said that the undertaking required patience and passion. — VNS