The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is choosing outstanding relics and antiques to digitize, including the Dong Son bronze drums, ancient statues and Co Loa ancient citadel.

Visitors touch the heads of stone-made turtoises at Hanoi’s Temple of Literature.

The ministry will use three dimension (3D) technologies and many experts have been sent to Japan to learn this modern and complicated technique.

The cost to digitize a relic is estimated at around $100,000, which is not expensive, commented one 3D technician. They do worry, however, about what should be included as many artifacts have disappeared or changed.

Writer and culturist Nguyen Ngoc claimed: “The forest is the soul of the Central Highlands, but I regret to say that the Central Highlands doesn’t have virgin forests any more. So what will we preserve? Please don’t preserve fake heritages.”

“Vietnam’s ancient capitals, except for Hue city, have almost disappeared. There are some remains left, like a piece of a citadel wall, gates or some wall foundations of palaces,” listed Dr. Tong Trung Tin, Rector of the Institute for Archaeology. He cited ancient capitals in Vietnam including Co Loa, Hoa Lu, Thang Long, Hue and the Ho Dynasty citadel.

“Thap Ba tower of the Cham people has been preserved, but they have painted Cham statues and burned incense in the tower while Cham people don’t use incense,” Cham researcher Phu Tram remarked.

Going to Van Mieu, one will see worn-out stone stele and stone turtles with glossy heads because visitors innocently touch them everyday. Van Mieu is the first relic to be digitized, but only parts of it.

3D pictures of relics will be posted on the national website on culture.

PV