2011 was a successful year of Vietnam in terms of cultural diplomacy, as more heritages were recognised by UNESCO, said a senior official.

 

Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Thanh Son, who doubles as Chairman of the Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO, made the comment at a conference to review the commission’s 2011 performance in Hanoi on Jan. 10.

 

Last year, the commission submitted dossiers and successfully campaigned for UNESCO’s recognition of t he Citadel of Ho Dynasty as world cultural heritage and Xoan singing, a vocal art of villages in the ancestral land of Phu Tho, as Intangible Cultural Heritage in need of Urgent Protection.

 

With these results, Vietnam has more cultural heritage honoured by the world. The country’s UNESCO-recognised heritages were introduced in many events, including Vietnamese Culture Days and Weeks in Russia , Japan , the Republic of Korea , Denmark and Norway.

 

The doctor laureate steles in Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam (the Temple of Literature) in Hanoi was included in the world documentary heritage list of UNESCO’s Global Memory of the World Programme after being recognised as a documentary heritage in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

Also in the year, the commission submitted the dossiers of the Buddhist sutra-carved woodblocks at Vinh Nghiem pagoda and “Hoa Lu thi tap”, a collection of poems on the ancient capital of Hoa Lu, to UNESCO for recognition as documentary heritages in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

In addition, several heritage preservation projects were implemented in 2011, including a 1.2 million USD project to conserve the Thang Long-Hanoi cultural heritage area funded by the Japanese Trust Fund and an Italy-funded 1.5 million USD project to restore My Son towers.