Quang Trung Museum

In 1789, a king led the great Tây Sơn army north. In five days his army broke an invading force at Ngọc Hồi and Đống Đa. On the fifth day of the first lunar month, he entered Thăng Long, the city now called Hanoi, while the war drums were still sounding. He was Emperor Quang Trung, also known as Nguyễn Huệ.

That story began in this very land, in the village of Kiên Mỹ in the Tây Sơn region. The Quang Trung Museum is the place that keeps its memory.

The museum was built from 1977 and opened for use in 1979. The site is a whole memorial complex. There is the museum itself, the Temple of the Three Tây Sơn Heroes, a statue of Emperor Quang Trung, and a house for performances of Tây Sơn martial music. There is also a cultural nhà rông of the ethnic groups of the Central Highlands.

The complex lies about 45 kilometers northwest of the center of Quy Nhơn. After the administrative reorganization, this part of the Tây Sơn land belongs to the new Gia Lai Province. Even so, the museum keeps the same name that the people of Bình Định have used for decades.

The first stop is usually the statue of Emperor Quang Trung in the front courtyard. From there the whole complex comes into view. The temple stands at the center, with smaller buildings beside it and gardens all around. The government ranked the temple a Special National Monument in 2014.

In the main hall, the middle bay is dedicated to Quang Trung. The left bay honors his brother Nguyễn Nhạc, and the right bay honors Nguyễn Lữ. At the two gable ends are altars to the civil officials and military commanders of the Tây Sơn court. The air inside is solemn and quiet, a place of remembrance for three brothers who built a whole dynasty.

The exhibition area has nine rooms arranged by theme, and it follows a timeline. It begins with the uprising of 1771, when the Tây Sơn movement rallied its followers. Two victories come next. The first is Rạch Gầm Xoài Mút. The second is Ngọc Hồi Đống Đa, the victory told at the start of this story. Then comes the Tây Sơn dynasty, which lasted from 1788 to 1802. The museum keeps more than 16,000 objects, images and documents. Among them are war drums, gongs, seals and 18 kinds of simple weapons linked to the Tây Sơn fighters.

The grounds also hold performances of Tây Sơn martial music. The Quang Trung war-drum piece has three parts. The first sends the army out. The second charges into battle and takes the citadel. The third is a song of triumph. The drumming is not a show. It is how the people of Bình Định have used the drum to keep the spirit of the Tây Sơn alive through many generations.

At the far end of the grounds stand an old tamarind tree and an old well in the former garden, two precious traces that remain. The tamarind shades a corner of the yard. Its trunk is so thick, about 3.5 meters around, that it takes several people to hug it. Beside it is a well about 90 centimeters across, built of laterite and later reinforced. The people of Tây Sơn still say that this tamarind and this well are linked with the family of the three brothers in their humble years, a warm memory of village life.

Every year, on the fifth day of the first lunar month, people come from all around to remember the victory at Ngọc Hồi and Đống Đa. The war drums sound again, the red banners fly again, and the whole land returns to the spring of long ago.

Under the old tamarind, with the drums sounding from the performance house, lies the land of Tây Sơn, where a hero in plain cloth once stepped forward and became a legend.