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Mar 9, 2021

“Travel the world” inside Ho Chi Minh City

Updated: Mar 11, 2021

With the current Covid 19 epidemic, tourism development in Ho Chi Minh would largely depend on domestic tourists. This requires a new perspective, reintroducing Ho Chi Minh City in a new and more attractive direction. One way to do this is to introduce Ho Chi Minh City from a multicultural, multi-ethnic perspective and thereby introduce a multidimensional perspective on the history of the city. Instead of introducing tourists to places related to the Vietnam War, and Kinh people, but expanding to introduce relics of other ethnic groups and cultures that also existed in the city.


One-dimensional perspective on the Ho Chi Minh City


From the tourism point of view of the Vietnamese government, Ho Chi Minh City's tourism currently still introduces Ho Chi Minh's history in one way as only the majority of sites are related to the VietNam war, as well as history is associated with the Kinh people. The following is an intelligent interactive map of tourist attractions - a project approved by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism in 2020 (Link). Of the 17 main locations shown on the map, except for two locations: Jade Emperor Pagoda and Notre-Dame Cathedral, the remaining 15 locations are mostly related to war (Independence Palace, War Remnants Museum, Nha Rong Harbor), a Vietnamese Buddhist temple, or a place of worship of the Kinh People (Vinh Nghiem Pagoda, Hung King temple)





(Photo 1: Map of tourist destinations on the website https://map3d.visithcmc.vn/ - a project approved by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism in 2020)




(Photo 2: Map of tourist destinations on the website https://map3d.visithcmc.vn/ - a project approved by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism in 2020)


Looking at a more concrete example, as the Vietnam History Museum is also a place where tourists can learn about history, one can see a one-way view of Vietnam through the arrangement of galleries. In the museum, we can see that the history of Vietnam is mainly told through the perspective of the Kinh people, from the time of building and defending the country to the Nguyen Dynasty.


(Photo 3: Map of the Vietnam History Museum in Ho Chi Minh City: Source)


Looking at photo 3, we can see that the history of the Kinh people is detailed over time, but the history of Champa and Oc Eo (the ancestor of the Khmer people - Cambodia) is gathered into 3 separate rooms (room 6, 7 & 8). Additionally, entering these rooms visitors see only a general description without any detailed explanations of history. Although, at the VIII century BC - the II century, in the Vietnamese territory in the present, appeared three cultures with the early states: Van Lang - Au Lac on the basis of Dong Son culture in the North, Champa Kingdom on the basis of Sa Huynh culture in the Central and Phu Nam Kingdom on the basis of Dong Nai culture - Oc Eo in the South. (Photo 4). Therefore, the way the histories of these cultures have the same historical value, however, the presentation of this museum shows the intention to consider the history of the land of Vietnam having a unique history of the Kinh people and take lightly the histories of other races that existed on this land.





(Photo 4: Map of Dong Son Culture, Sa Huynh culture, Dong Nai culture in Vietnam History Museum)


Observing the selection of major tourist attractions on the tourist map or the arrangement of the Museum of History reflects the narrative of the Vietnamese government about its own history. A history of Ho Chi Minh City says only the history of war and talks mainly about the Kinh. This phenomenon is mentioned in the book The Past is a Foreign Country, a 1985 book by David Lowenthal through the quote, “Present needs seemed to reshape past remains in a fashion striking analogous to revisions of memory and history.”. The Vietnamese government also reshaped Vietnam's history to create a narrative towards national unity through the creation of a long and unified history of the Kinh, through the defense of the homeland against invaders. This may have been the need of the Communist Party of Vietnam to unite the nation against the war, in the same way that Ho Chi Minh connected the anti-war against the French with the history of King Hung. (Photo 5).




(Photo 5: Uncle Ho visited the army in Hung before returning to take over the capital, in 1954 and said:


"The Hung Kings have made a contribution to the country, we must together keep the country")


However, in the modern era, when the risks of war are no longer present, this is also the right time to look back on Vietnamese history in a more multidimensional way. This is also consistent with Goscha's view of Vietnam.


We need to recognize that the history of Vietnam, like any other place in the world, is a series of interlocking forces and people, occurring and acting at specific points in time and space, each generating its own range of possibilities and eliminating others at the same time.
Vietnam: A New History - Christopher Goscha

Goscha emphasizes the importance of understanding Vietnam through a multidimensional perspective, to see the complexity and richness of Vietnam in it. Similarly, we can apply this perspective to introduce a more diverse and multi-dimensional Ho Chi Minh City.


Multiple Ho Chi Minh Cities


Ho Chi Minh City is the "Melting Pot" of not only people from other regions in Vietnam, but also of many different ethnic groups, cultures and religions. In the text - Bruce Lockhart when it came to Re-assessing the Nguyen Dynasty


The Nguyen Lords presided over the most significant period of territorial expansion in Vietnamese history, annexing and colonizing first the remainder of Champa and then the Mekong Delta, the latter being acquired piece by piece from a drastically weakened Cambodia desperate to use the Nguyen as a counterweight to Siamese power
Bruce Lockhart, Re-assessing the Nguyen Dynasty


The appearance of the Champa and the Khmer is mentioned in the Vietnam History Museum, as well as the Nguyen Dynasty, and it also exists in Ho Chi Minh City in the modern era. It also exists in parallel with many other cultures such as that of the Chinese and the Indians.


In District 1, tourists can find the Jamia Al-Musulman mosque at 66 Dong Du District 1, which is the gathering place for the majority of Cham people of An Giang origin who are Muslim. (Photo 6&7). Right nearby, in District 3, at 45 Truong Dinh Street is the Mariamman Temple, this is the place where the South Indian Indian community came to Saigon to settle and settle in 1835 to pray for peace and thriving business (Photo 7&8). Not far away, at Chantarangsay pagoda located at 164/235 Tran Quoc Thao street, was the first Khmer temple in Saigon (photo 9&10). The pagoda is a religious place of Nam Tong Khmer monks, and is also the place for cultural activities of the majority of the ethnic Khmer in the South. Also in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City, visitors can find Khanh Van Nam Vien - the largest Chinese Taoist temple in Cho Lon (HCMC). (photo 10,11)



(Photo 6 & 7: Cham Muslims are praying during a ceremony at the Jamia Al-Musulman mosque Photo: Hoang Viet - Source)




(Photo 7 & 8: Vietnamese, and Indians often come to the Mariamman Temple to pray - Photo: Hoang Viet - Source. )



(Photo 9 & 10: Khmer people come to Chantarangsay pagoda temple to celebrate Maghapuja, Maghapuja ceremony held on full moon day of January - Photo: Hoang Viet -Source)



(Photo 10,11: The July full moon ceremony at Khanh Van Nam Vien - - the largest Chinese Taoist temple in Cho Lon - Photo: Tran Hoa - Source)


Coming to those places, visitors can easily immerse themselves in the cultures of those ethnic groups, observe the beauty in architecture, customs and culture. Not only that, the tourism value also lies in other factors such as culinary culture and year-round festivals of these ethnic groups. For example, there are some private tours that offer Chinese food tours, spend a day eating Chinese food, and it probably won't be difficult to organize similar food tours on Muslim culture of Cham people, Indian cuisine.


When looking at Saigon from this perspective, we can see Saigon under the multicultural and multi-ethnic perspective in Saigon and most importantly, it brings a new experience to domestic tourists. Translation Covid limits domestic tourists who can travel internationally, however, by this approach, it is possible to create international tours within the city of Saigon. It can also become a contemporary direction, encouraging understanding and appreciating perspectives of ethnic minorities living in Saigon.


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Note: The pictures of other cultures in Saigon are articles from the project that I and my colleagues at VCCorp made in 2018 and 2019.



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