Lang Son: Expanding international cooperation in preserving and promoting cultural heritage

The delegation of UNESCO consultants to build Lang Son Geopark
 did a field survey in Lan Chau village, Huu Lien commune,
Huu Lung district, Lang Son province

Over the years, all levels and branches of Lang Son province have regularly cooperated with international expert and working delegations in the field of heritage conservation in order to promote the values ​​and strengths of Lang Son land. .

Mr. Nguyen Phuc Ha, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said: In recent years, under the direction of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee, the conservation and promotion of cultural heritage values in the province has been actively implemented by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In particular, towards expanding international cooperation, calling for the help of international experts in the conservation of tangible, intangible and documentary heritage is a solution that the industry focuses on promoting. The Department has advised the Provincial People's Committee to carry out diplomatic activities with localities in countries such as Russia, France, Korea... Especially with Guangxi (China).

The main content of exchange and cooperation is: exchange, research, learn about the culture and traditional history of ethnic communities, survey and archaeological excavations; exchange, study and exchange experiences in tourism activities; management, training, performing arts, physical training, sports...

Accordingly, agencies and units in the field of culture have had many effective cooperation activities. Prominent in the field of heritage and archeology, not to mention the cooperation activities carried out by the Provincial Museum in collaboration with the Institute of Archeology and delegations of foreign experts. Specifically, scientists from universities and scientific research centers of the US, France and Australia have repeatedly come to Lang Son to survey and excavate. Through that, a collection of 1,690 artifacts was discovered and handed over to the Provincial Museum. This is a very rich collection of artifacts, including fossils of many animals of the Late Canh Tan period such as orangutans, saber-toothed elephants, Asian elephants, rhinoceros teeth, deer, buffaloes, cows, etc. porcupine, wild boar, bear... In the latest mission at the end of 2022, a group of scientists from the US, Australia and Vietnam focused on studying the tooth samples of Pongo (orangutan).

Mr. Nong Duc Kien, Director of the Provincial Museum said: International cooperation plays an important role in all activities of the unit. International cooperation not only enhances mutual understanding, information sharing, and experience exchange in the fields of museum activities, but also helps museum staff to grasp practical experience, accumulate knowledge to be able to actively implement their professional work. Accordingly, from 2016 up to now, we have welcomed nearly 10 delegations of foreign experts to conduct archaeological surveys at sites and monuments in the area...

Foreign experts and staff of the Institute of Archeology study
animal fossils at Lang Son Provincial Museum

In addition, at present, Lang Son province has been building and developing Lang Son Geopark, building a dossier to submit to UNESCO for recognition as a Global Geopark in order to contribute to the province's sustainable development. Therefore, the functional sector has actively coordinated with the UNESCO Representative Office in Vietnam and the UNESCO consultants to survey and evaluate the values ​​of geological and cultural heritage in service of construction. construction of Lang Son Geopark; consulting investment in building and completing the infrastructure of attractions in the Geopark; develop a dossier of Lang Son Geopark and submit it to UNESCO for recognition as a Global Geopark.

In addition, the industry also links, cooperates, and establishes partnerships to propagate, promote, share management experience, develop, build geopark profiles with geoparks of other countries. Geoparks: Oki Island (Japan), Yanqing (China), Adamello-Brenta (Italy)... participating in annual conferences, seminars and forums of the global network of Geoparks UNESCO, Network UNESCO Global Geopark Network Asia - Pacific, Specialized Subcommittee on UNESCO Global Geoparks Vietnam.

According to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, from 2011 to now, Lang Son province has welcomed 51 delegations, including: 29 Chinese delegations, 18 research groups and archaeologists from Russia and France; 4 delegations from England, France, Australia, Japan and Korea visited and surveyed Lang Son cultural tourism. The province also organized 69 delegations to visit and work abroad; participating in 11 art festivals, exchange programs, introduction and promotion of cultural products abroad.

Thanks to positive solutions, the beauties in the cultural heritage of Lang Son province are more known to the world, such as: Then practice heritage recognized by UNESCO; geological and cultural heritages of Lang Son Geopark... Also through the above cooperation projects, the staff, experts, the culture, sports and tourism industry of Lang Son province have been cultivated and regularly trained in their knowledge. professional advice, procedures, instructions on how to remove difficulties and share some international experiences.

Through this, it can be seen that international cooperation in conservation and promotion has been contributing to spreading the value of Lang's cultural heritage and creating attraction for domestic and foreign tourists since then. contribute to the socio-economic development of the area.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Tan Van, former
 director of the Institute of Geology and Minerals

“Lang Son land has been continuously investigated and surveyed by French, Soviet, Vietnamese geologists for hundreds of years, and many geological units have been studied, investigated and surveyed for the first time. here. Because of that, these geological units are named after places in Lang Son, for example: Mo Jasmine, Tan Lap or Tam Hoa, Bac Son, Lang Son, Dong Dang, Binh Gia... In the above places. , there are many paleontological species have been found and discovered such as: hand roll, bivalve, coral... Most notably in the period from 40 to 20 million years ago, in Lang Son there was an area. Famously known is the Na Duong area, Loc Binh district with many paleontological species discovered for the first time by foreign experts.

In order to promote the value of these geological heritages, through a number of survey programs in Lang Son province over the past time, our delegation of UNESCO consultants including domestic and foreign experts have agreed to choose out a number of potential and promising spots in the districts and cities of Lang Son to build 4 sightseeing routes. In which, each built sightseeing route has paleontological fossil sites, geological heritages of some typical craft villages and at least one relic site associated with Mother Goddess worship. Thereby, actively contributing to the conservation and promotion of cultural heritage values ​​associated with tourism development of the province.

*Writer: Tuyet Mai - Hoang Hieu
*Source: Lang Son Electronic Newspaper - baolangson.vn - Posted on 22/05/2023
*Key word: Lang Son,cultural preservation,cultural heritage,international cooperation,