Truong Luu Ancient Village

A small village in Hà Tĩnh keeps panels of thị wood that were carved by hand more than 200 years ago. They are not digital files, and they are not offset prints, in an age when books increasingly live on screens. They hold the knowledge of many generations of one family. The village is Trường Lưu.

The village lies in the Can Lộc area of Hà Tĩnh Province. It is far more than an ordinary old village. It is the only place in Hà Tĩnh with three documentary heritage collections on UNESCO's Asia-Pacific Memory of the World register. Not one, but three.

The first is the Phúc Giang School Woodblocks. The Nguyễn Huy family founded the Phúc Giang School in the middle of the 18th century, says the Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific, together with a United Nations source in Vietnam. The Memory of the World is UNESCO's program for documentary heritage. From 1758 to 1788, members of the family carved 379 panels of thị wood by hand, to teach with and to keep knowledge safe. The panels hold literature and the Confucian classics. They also record history, politics, culture, the economy and society. The writing is in classical Chinese characters, in fine calligraphy. The collection is especially rare because one family has kept all of it to this day.

The second is Hoàng Hoa sứ trình đồ, a set of maps that records the journey of an envoy from Trường Lưu.

The third is the Hán Nôm Documents of Trường Lưu Village. Nôm is an old character script for writing Vietnamese. This collection holds 48 items that belong to three families of the village. One is the Nguyễn Huy family. The others are the Trần Văn and the Hoàng. The items date from 1689 to 1943. They include 26 royal decrees, 19 administrative documents and 3 hanging banners. Together they read like a living history of the village. They show how the people of Trường Lưu dealt with the royal court, and how they kept village life going, over more than 200 years.

These three treasures did not appear in one village by chance. Trường Lưu has a long tradition of learning and success in the examinations. The Nguyễn Huy family produced many notable people. One is Nguyễn Huy Oánh, who passed the royal examinations with the rank of Thám hoa. Thám hoa was the title given to the third-place graduate of the highest royal examination. Another is Nguyễn Huy Tự, the author of Hoa Tiên. A third is Nguyễn Huy Hổ, the author of Mai đình mộng ký. Their names are set deep in the literary history of Vietnam in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The village also has its communal house. There are halls that honor the notable men of the Nguyễn Huy family, and the remains of the Phúc Giang Library. There is also the Ngọc well. A popular tale is told about the well and the mother of Nguyễn Huy Oánh. It is a tale, not an event that history has verified.

Trường Lưu is a living heritage village. People still live here, and the voices of children still ring through the narrow lanes. In the middle of all these ordinary things, the three listed collections go on existing. They are not in a cold glass museum. They are in the heart of the community that gave them life.

Standing here, one can picture a carver sitting beside an oil lamp, patiently pressing a chisel into a panel of thị wood, one stroke at a time. The carver is not doing it to become famous. It is done so that what deserves remembering will not be forgotten. More than 200 years later, those panels are still here.