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Guide
Halong Bay Travel Guides
Cultural and Historical Value
             
The beauty of Hạ Long Bay consists in its mountains,
water, clouds, caves and grottoes. Many, however, do not realise that Hạ
Long was also the cradle of an ancient people who helped create the
present Hạ Long culture.
At the end of 1937, a Swedish archaeologist named Anderson, together
with two French archaeologist sisters named Conani, journeyed for months
through Hạ Long sea. They climbed mountains, visited caves and explored
the coastline, finding many stone artefacts: axes, grinding tables,
sewing needles and jewellery. They called the culture that formed these
remnants “Ngọc Vừng” In the months and years following, Vietnamese
archaeologists continued their research and made many excavations;
discovering more archaeological sites, such as Đồng Mang, Xích Thổ and
Soi Nhụ. Through an area of some hundreds of square kilometres, they
discovered many stone artefacts and pieces of broken designed pottery.
Throughout its development, Hạ Long has had a particularly important
position; being situated on the communication routes between China,
Japan and Thailand. Gradually, it became the centre of cultural and
commercial exchanges between these countries and ancient Vietnam. The
book Comprehensive History of Đậi Việt reads: "In the second month of
the spring of the year of Kỷ Tỵ, the 10th year of the reign of Lư Anh
Tông (1149), the commercial port of Vân Đồn was established.” In the
long period overlapping the Lư, Trần and Lê dynasties, Vân Đồn was a
place of busy commercial and cultural exchanges between Vietnam and its
South-East Asian neighbours. A remaining vestige of the ancient
commercial port is Cái Làng Wharf (Quan Lan).
Vân Đồn is also a site that witnessed glorious feats of war against the
invasion of the Yuan-Mongols aggressors. It was here that the enemy,
General Trương Hổ, had an entire fleet of food supply boats set ablaze
by Trần Khánh Dư. This contributed greatly to the victory of Bạch Đằng.
Closely linked to this animated commercial centre were many religious
architectural constructions; built to meet the requirements of both
traders and the population that practised Catholicism and Buddhism.
At Soi Nhụ, researchers found three fossilised human skeletons.
In particular, in the central zone of the present UNESCO World Heritage
Site area, there have been recent discoveries of fascinating
archaeological finds: Mê Cung, Thiên Long and Tiên Ông grottoes. The
quantity of ancient shellfish in the Melina Spring, indicated by the 1.5
m-thick heaps of shells, amounts to hundreds of cubic metres.
The archaeological sites of the Hạ Long culture are distributed
everywhere, but are mostly found on the sandy beaches of the coastline,
and in these caves and grottoes: Ngọc Vừng, Tuần Châu, Xích Thô and Đông
Mang. There are also sites far from the coast, such as Thoi Giêng and
Tiên Ông. Wherever the remnants of the first peoples of Hạ Long are
found, they seem to bear a common characteristic: the same materials,
techniques, forms and designs. Scientists have called it the "Hạ Long
culture of the late period of the new Stone Age.”
In Cái Làng Wharf, along to 200m-long coastline scientists had found
broken pieces of pottery and china forming a 0.6 m-thick layer. Ages
date from between the Lư and Trần dynasties. Here, there are also
foundations of ancient houses once built along the wharf. Apart from
here, many other ancient wharves have been found, such as: Cống Đông,
Công Yên, Ngọc Vừng, Quan Lạn and Cái Bầu. They have featured similar
artefacts.
On Cống Đông Island alone, four pagodas were built. Among them, the Lâm
Pagoda is one of the most ancient in the area. It was built under the
Trần Dynasty with three gates, a shrine to Buddha, anterior cult room
and house of ancestors. On the north-east side of the pagoda was a
tower, the remnants of which indicate it was a large and solemn
construction.
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