After many years of efforts to identify, research, implement and submit documents, in November 2022, ‘Ma Nhai’ (Inscriptions) in ancient Nom and Han Chinese characters on the Marble Mountains in Da Nang was recognised by UNESCO as part of documentary heritage in the Asia - Pacific region. It's also the first UNESCO-recognised world heritage of Da Nang, affirming that the city is not only an economically developed locality, but also a locality with a long history and culture.

Photo: KIM LIEN

Bringing heritage to the world

Over the past nearly 4 decades, ‘Ma Nhai’ on the Marble Mountains is a valuable documentary heritage that is of particular interest to researchers.

The precious documentary heritage consists of 79 documents in Chinese and Nom (Sino-Nom) characters carved on caves of Huyen Khong, Hoa Nghiem, Tang Chon, Van Thong, Linh Nham, and some other locations in the Marble Mountains.

This is a treasure trove of stone inscriptions in Chinese and Nom characters with a large amount dating from the first half of the 17^th century to the 60s of the 20^th century.

These documents have diverse content, unique forms and irreplaceable uniqueness, and were written in all kinds of genres such as inscriptions, chants, poems, titles and couplets high virtues, emperors and mandarins of the Nguyen Dynasty.

Hidden in this documentary heritage is a system of values in many aspects such as history, art, culture and science. Each value is an affirmation of Vietnamese culture in the deep consciousness of local residents.

Aware of this value, the Da Nang government has directed the municipal Department of Culture and Sports to coordinate with the Ngu Hanh Son District authorities to implement many measures to preserve ‘Ma Nhai’.

In 2017 and 2019, the Ngu Hanh Son District authorities worked well with the municipal Department of Culture and Sports, and research organizations and individuals to conduct two scientific seminars to announce research results about ‘Ma Nhai’.

In particular, in order to maximise the value and promote the heritage, since 2019, the municipal government has directed the Department of Culture and Sports to coordinate with related units to build a documentary heritage scientific dossier themed “Ma Nhai on the Marble Mountains” to submit to UNESCO for recognition as a world documentary heritage in the Asia-Pacific region.

This is a great honour and pride of Da Nang in the field of culture. Director of the Museum of Da Nang Huynh Dinh Quoc Thien said that after being recognized, ‘Ma Nhai’ will be supported by UNESCO in planning conservation policies and creating favourable conditions for researchers, scholars and the public to approach to this heritage in the direction of international economic integration. In addition, the documentary heritage will become the object of global efforts to raise awareness and support the preservation.

“This is a huge advantage for Da Nang to exploit, enhance its position and promote heritage values for socio-economic development purposes. At the same time, the government and people of Da Nang will strive to build the city into not only an economic hub, but also a locality with rich history - culture” Mr. Thien emphasised.

An overview of the Marble Mountains

Maximising heritage value

The current and future task of the city is to well preserve and maximise the value of ‘Ma Nhai’ in order to deserve its title of world documentary heritage.

In fact, only 52 out of the 79 ‘Ma Nhai’ documents are still readable. The rest are eroded by time, filled with layers of paint and cement, and cracked due to war. Some were deformed or lost some Chinese characters.

According to researcher Bui Van Tieng, Chairman of the Da Nang Historical Science Association, many ‘Ma Nhai’ documents on the Marble Mountains were injured by time and the ignorance of posterity. Therefore, he stressed the necessity to place the conservation of ‘Ma Nhai’ in the overall conservation of the Marble Mountains in order to take advantage of the legal corridor on preserving cultural heritage for the special national relic site. This way will prevent the destruction of the inscription heritage in particular and the cultural heritage in general on the Marble Mountains.

In addition, the conservation and promotion of the values of ‘Ma Nhai’ also requires a good planning.

The municipal government has directed specialised units to prepare a plan to preserve and restore the Marble Mountains and submit them to the Prime Minister for approval.

In particular, focus is on taking a number of solutions and plans to manage and preserve ‘Ma Nhai’ in a long-term and sustainable manner, including plans to restore the documentary heritage in case of weather and natural disasters.

Mr. Huynh Dinh Quoc Thien said that before ‘Ma Nhai’ became a world documentary heritage, the city’s cultural sector has carried out conservation work and offered many solutions to limit the direct human impact on them.

Specifically, experts and researchers have translated the entire content of ‘Ma Nhai’ documents by stamping the epitaph with specialised paper in heritage conservation. At the same time, the entire content of the ‘Ma Nhai’ text was digitised to preserve the heritage value for future generations.

According to Mr. Thien, the best way to preserve the documentary heritage is to keep the status quo and minimise the use of chemicals and hard objects, with a focus on avoiding the impact of nature as well as direct contact with humans. In addition, lighting dedicated to preserving artifacts should be used to illuminate ‘Ma Nhai’, ensuring no damage to the heritage.

“Every year, we will carry out the cleaning work in accordance with the special preservation plan for ‘Ma Nhai’. For the weathered ones, we will try to preserve and research how to recreate the inscription content by applying advanced technology" Mr. Thien added.

Director of the municipal Department of Culture and Sports Pham Tan Xu underlined a must-do to raise public awareness about the ‘Ma Nhai’ by showing movies about this documentary heritage on TV channels, and compiling and publishing research books about it.

Importance should be attached to organising exhibitions about replicas of ‘Ma Nhai’ at local museums, as well as develop an electronic presentation of ‘Ma Nhai’ with QR codes and multiple languages to serve tourists, he noted.

Reporting by XUAN DUNG - Translating by M.DUNG