Shoddy workmanship 'destroys' national
treasure in
The Sung Thien Dien Linh stele at Long
Doi Son Pagoda prior to its ‘restoration’ PHOTO COURTESY OF VOV ONLINE
Thousand-year
old engravings on an ancient stele in Ha
Attendees at a ceremony
held last Friday at the Long Doi Son Pagoda were greatly dismayed
to find it had been severely marred by amateur efforts to restore it.
Built in 1121 during the Ly Dynasty (1009-1225), the
Sung Thien Dien Linh stele was among the additional 37 artifacts recognized
as the national treasures by the nation's Prime Minister late last year.
During a ceremony held in Duy Tien District on the
morning of April 18, the stele was said to have been badly damaged.
“The national treasure has been destroyed,” said
researcher Tran Trong Duong at the Hanoi-based Han Nom Institute.
According to Duong, local residents reported that a
group of workers hired by the district culture department used a grindstone,
sandpaper and iron brushes to ‘clean’ moss from the stele's surface.
“It was their ignorance that destroyed the treasure,”
he said.
Many smaller stelae in the area have
been damaged by similarly slapdash efforts.
Part of the flawed process involved
removing a protective fence amid protests from the pagoda's management, VOV
Online quoted monk Thich Thanh Vu at Long Doi Son
Pagoda as saying.
Since the fence's removal, the monk
has noted new graffiti carvings on its surface.
Invaluable treasure
Long Doi Son Pagoda was built in
1054, under the reign of King Ly Thanh Tong, and was expanded in 1121 during
the Ly Nhan Tong Dynasty.
It measures 2.88m in height and
1.40m in width and is famous for fine carvings of dragons, clouds and
water, which were characteristic features of the art of Ly's reign.
According to Pham Van Anh, of the Literature Institute,
King Ly Nhan Tong visited the site in 1118 and decided to build a large tower
there called Sung Thien Dien Linh Bao Thap. After work on the tower finished,
the king assigned two high-ranking mandarins, Nguyen Cong Bat and Ly Bao
Khung, to carve a stele to place inside the tower.
Prior to the shoddy "restoration," the
stele’s face featured more than 4,000 carved Chinese symbols describing the
life of King Ly Nhan Tong, his propagation of Buddhism and the process of
building the Sung Thien Dien Linh Tower.
The top features text by Ly Nhan Tong based on phi
bach, a type of ancient calligraphy popular among the Ly’s noble class.
The stele has proven a crucial resource for scholars of calligraphy.
“It is considered the best stele in Vietnamese history.
It is a unique historical document from King Ly Nhan Tong, who was also
described as the country’s first musical composer, an outstanding
calligrapher and the founder of water puppet performance,” researcher Duong
said.
Duong added that the Sung Thien Dien
Linh also features important historical documents, including notes on the
construction of Dien Huu, or Mot Cot (One Pillar) Pagoda (now in
It also contains notes on the
production of warships during the Ly Dynasty, and battles against the
northern invaders.
The back of the stele contains scripts featuring major
political, historical and cultural events during the Ly Dynasty which were
engraved under Ly Nhan Tong’s successors.
Restore the stele impossible
Associate Processor Tong Trung Tin expressed surprise
at the methods used to “clean” the Sung Thien Dien Linh stele.
“The stele was badly damaged by the use of caustic
cleaning objects. If you want to remove moss or preserve the stele, you must
consult experts,” said Tin, a member of the Science Council that approved the
recognition of Sung Thien Dien Linh as a national treasure.
Pham Van Anh at the Literature Institute said soft
towels would have gotten the job done.
Architect Le Thanh Vinh, head of the Relics
Preservation Institute, said the cleaning process should follow a careful and
multi-step process..
“We must analyze the types of fungi on each stele so
that we can use appropriate fungicide,” Vinh said.
Regarding a way to restore the stele, Vinh said: “It’s
impossible to restore the stele as its surface was deeply marred.”
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Thứ Ba, 22 tháng 4, 2014
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