Hoi An Ancient Town

https://hoianheritage.quangnam.gov.vn

Hoi An Ancient Town - Keep the town to preserve and promote

The story of Professor Tomoda Hiromichi - former Head of Institute of International Culture, Showa Women's University (Japan) about the journey to keep Hoi An’s beauty makes us reflect on our own living heritage
Hoi An Ancient Town - World Heritage Site is well preserved by generations - Photo: Quoc Tuan
 
     Professor Tomoda is a Japanese expert who is inextricably bound by with Hoi An heritage for more than 30 years. By the great affection, he has also made many contributions to the research, preservation and promotion of the value of the World Cultural Heritage site of Hoi An Ancient Town from the 90s until today.

     Professor Tomoda shared that the first time he visited Hoi An was in 1992. At that time, most of the ancient houses in Hoi An were degraded. But when observing closely, he still felt the impressive beauty of sophisticated wooden architectural features. He has since conducted many surveys and researches to identify and support the local in cultural heritage preservation, especially for wooden ancient houses.

     “In 1993, we started our work in Hoi An by discussing with local authorities and local communities. It began with solutions for water leakage issues from people’s complaints. We have supported about 20 restoration works for roof system per year on average. These works seemed to lay a foundation for the overall conservation for Hoi An Ancient Town later” Tomoda said.

     In his story, Professor Tomoda Hiromichi also mentioned to Mr. Nguyen Su - former Secretary of the Party Committee of Hoi An with the great appreciation. At the time, on behalf of the Hoi An government, Mr. Su had paid the great attention for cultural heritage. As a result, city government had formulated a set of key regulations for preservation work in Hoi An Ancient Town. The title of UNESCO World Heritage Site is considered as the achievement of a long process where many generations of Hoi An have always strived to preserve and promote.

     In 1986, Hoi An established the first agency which was in charge of managing historical monuments, services and tourism. According to Mr. Su, when tourism developed, local people began to realize and preserve the value of cultural heritage.

     In the present context, Mr. Nguyen Su believes that conservation should be placed in a more important position than tourism development, in order to ensure the authenticity of the heritage, and preserve the heritage for future generations.

     Determining the outstanding value of Hoi An ancient trading port, the local government had drafted the Regulations on the ancient town protection from the very start. In 1987, the Regulations and guidelines on protecting historical monuments in Hoi An Ancient Town were officially issued by the People's Committee of Quang Nam - Da Nang province.

     After that, since December 4, 1999, with the title of a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, Hoi An authorities continued to formulate many other regulations to manage activities in the ancient in a comprehensive way. As of 2020, according to the Law on the Organization of Local Governments, these regulations were integrated into the Regulations on the protection of the World Cultural Heritage – Hoi An Ancient Town issued by the People's Committee of Quang Nam Province.

     The conservation policies was applied vigorously, to keep an ancient town as it is today...

Author: Phan Sơn

Source: .baoquangnam.vn

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