Ancient Hue rises from Vietnam war ruins

Ancient Hue rises from Vietnam war ruins

By Adrian Edwards

HUE, Vietnam (Reuter): Two decades after the Vietnam War reduced vast areas of Hue's imperial city to a rubble-strewn mess on the country's central coast, conservationists are eying grand plans for the city's future.

"We can do it," says Thai Cong Nguyen, director of the Hue Monuments Conservation center. "Already we have results. Hue has been recognized as not just a national treasure, but a treasure for all mankind."

Nguyen was referring to detailed plans for the restoration of Hue's imperial palace and surrounding monuments, collectively recognized by UNESCO in 1993 as a world heritage site.

Work on restoring the various historic monuments strewn across this relaxed city of trees, colonial villas and riverside cafes began about five years ago.

Today, Nguyen says, conservationists are intent on returning Hue's imperial city to the same pristine state in which its ultra-Confucianist 19th century rulers had it maintained.

"Don't step over there," he says as we walk across the grassy palace grounds beneath a blazing mid-afternoon sun. "They still haven't cleared all the landmines."

There's a noticeable difference in today's Vietnam in attitudes towards culture from the country's often painful past.

In the years following the April 1975 end of the Vietnam War the political will and the economic capability to restore Hue -- seen by a newly unified communist Vietnam as a testament to feudalism were absent.

In addition, the Nguyen Kings, who first established the imperial grounds at Hue in 1802, were deemed responsible for having allowed their country to be handed over to French colonialists -- tantamount to treachery.

But such sweeping unease over the country's cultural heritage is gradually changing in 1990s Vietnam. Government campaigns have begun encouraging people in recent years to celebrate Buddhist festivals and other cultural traditions once banned.

Although some folk festivals appeared after the victory over the French in 1954, they were halted again a few years later when Vietnam's communist leaders launched a brutal land reform program. Such things were seen as "reactionary".

Today, however, Hanoi's leadership is placing increasing emphasis on high-profile campaigns aimed at tapping the patriotic vein by shoring up traditional Vietnamese values.

"The thinking in Vietnam is changing towards being more objective and more active," says Nguyen. "The Nguyen dynasty kings left their heritage at Hue to Vietnam. And that's good."

Good news it may indeed be for Hue, but as so often in Vietnam there are dangerous gaps in the woodwork between policy resolve and the country's ability to implement.

In this case it's a question of finding the necessary cash. So far, Hue has received some US$700,000 in international support from countries including Japan, Britain, France and Thailand as well as from international organizations such as UNESCO towards a project expected to cost at least $4 million.

But, say officials, not all the promised funds have arrived. In coming weeks, the French firm Rhone Poulenc plans to launch a program in Hue aimed at ridding several of the imperial city's historic monuments of one of their greatest post-war threats -- termites.

"It's not like in Europe here," says Nguyen. "There you have only two or three termite species. Here we have the tropical climate to contend with and more than 100 termite species."

But despite the difficulties and the ravages of theft and climate, Hue's massively impressive imperial city is once again taking shape.

Restoration of a number of temples and buildings in the main citadel area has already produced results. A 1991 UNESCO project using Japanese funds to restore the city's massive southern gate began the process of repair.

Vietnam's open-door policy introduced in the late 1980s is also helping by drawing increasing numbers of foreign tourists. Local officials in Hue say 140,000 foreigners visited last year in addition to 170,000 domestic tourists.

But, says Nguyen, it's still not enough.

"The Vietnamese government has also given us $2 million over a five year period," he says. "It's big, but for Hue it's not sufficient."