The journey to make Yen Tu a world heritage: A story just told

A long and difficult road

Since 2012, the idea of putting Yen Tu and further the scenic spots and relic clusters of neighboring provinces into the Heritage Profile to submit to UNESCO. Two years later, the name Yen Tu appeared in the tentative list of the World Heritage Center. At that time, the entire heritage area was still envisioned quite broadly, many criteria were raised, many relic sites were included. It was the "greed" that later became the thing that had to be removed.

Yen Tu is not a system of pagodas, towers or massive structures. It is a sacred landscape, a natural and cultural whole.

After a period of reviewing the dossier, international experts from IUCN and ICOMOS secretly came to Vietnam, they climbed mountains, waded through streams, visited pagodas, talked with local people, temple keepers and even staff of management boards. The trip lasted a whole month, passing through 20 relics and scenic spots proposed in the dossier. Together with related documents, the experts wrote a detailed report and sent it to the World Heritage Center.

“The most memorable was the meeting with a representative of a country in the Middle East. After just a few stories, the ambassador burst into tears because they admired Vietnam so much. A country that is peaceful and has an undying national spirit. While their country is still unstable, women and children still do not have enough food and clothing.” Mr. Nguyen Viet Dung, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Ninh province

“Their candid comments after the trip made the domestic team silent. A standard dossier often takes many years, sometimes decades. The most important thing is to cut to have a coherent, connected and convincing story,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh, Vice Chairwoman of Quang Ninh Provincial People's Committee, recounted.

Since then, dozens of seminars and academic discussions have followed one another, hundreds of documents have been sent to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and urgent documents have been sent to the Prime Minister. The opinions, debates, additions, and criticisms have all been directed towards one axis, with Yen Tu as the center and Quang Ninh as the "main force".

Yen Tu is a living testament to a Vietnamese Zen tradition, with enough depth to influence contemporary life. To prove this, the dossier cannot rely solely on intuition. It needs geological and geomorphological data to explain how people chose the location for pagodas and towers. It needs archaeology to connect the layers of residence. It needs steles and woodblocks as a red thread connecting generations of scholars and monks. It needs remote sensing maps to see how the forest changes and is preserved.

The working delegation worked with Director of the World Heritage Center Lazare Eloundou Assomo

In the late-night offices, some people diligently reread each word of the Tran Dynasty stele, checking each dot. There were engineers sitting in front of the screen, counting the dry streams around Yen Tu in the dry season to draw a hydrological map. There were archivists, smelling old paper, flipping through each Vinh Nghiem woodblock to compare the text, noting the wear marks on the wood as if noting the passage of time.

“In 2015, international experts from IUCN and ICOMOS secretly visited Vietnam. They climbed mountains, waded through streams, visited pagodas, talked with locals, temple keepers and management board staff. The trip lasted a whole month, visiting 20 relics and scenic spots proposed in the dossier. Together with relevant documents, the experts wrote a detailed report and sent it to the World Heritage Center.”

“From the original 20 points, the people who prepared the dossier had to narrow it down to 12 points. Those 12 points are the 12 key points that keep the story intact. They stand at the exact places where landscape, history, religion and community meet and create a story throughout the heroic historical journey of the nation,” said Mr. Nguyen Viet Dung, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Ninh province.

Dramatic rescue of a profile that was almost eliminated

In early 2024, the Yen Tu dossier was officially sent, with the main text nearly a thousand pages long and a detailed appendix system of photos, drawings, diagrams, zoning maps, and management plans. The dossier not only said "why Yen Tu is worthy" but also answered "how to preserve the heritage". All hopes after more than a decade were kindled and waited for the day when the hammer of the World Heritage Council fell to recognize.

But just a few months later, ICOMOS issued an assessment report for the 47th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and recommended “defer” (postpone consideration/not list at this session) for Vietnam’s Yen Tu dossier. Everything seemed to collapse before our eyes because to be listed, there are 3 steps. The 3rd step is the most important, but ICOMOS issued a recommendation and Yen Tu’s dossier was almost eliminated when it stopped at the 2nd step.

Yen Tu is the mountain of enlightenment, then Vinh Nghiem is the school of Truc Lam.

In the days in Paris in mid-July, when the ICOMOS assessment recommended “defer”, the Vietnamese delegation lived almost in the narrow corridors of UNESCO headquarters. They continuously met with technical groups to “finalize” the narrative around Truc Lam, removing elements that did not sufficiently connect the landscape and values. Then followed by meetings to clarify with the ICOMOS Secretariat and experts to explain the remaining concerns in management and authenticity.

“And the turning point came from heritage diplomacy. The Commissioners, led by India and many co-authors, submitted a revised draft decision 47, changing the opening line from “Defers” to “Inscribes”. The Yen Tu dossier now focused only on the core continuous structure of the Truc Lam space. The moment the revision was made was the result of hours of persistent negotiations, sober technical concessions and a persuasive strategy based on the core values of the Vietnamese delegation,” Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh recalled.

Recalling the “brain-wrenching” meetings with representatives of UNESCO member countries to convince them to support the Yen Tu dossier, Mr. Nguyen Viet Dung could not help but be moved. For him, those were meetings that marked a historic milestone for the heritage of Yen Tu, Vinh Nghiem, and Con Son-Kiep Bac.

“The most memorable was a meeting with a representative from a country in the Middle East. After just a few stories, the ambassador burst into tears because they admired Vietnam so much. A country that is peaceful and has an undying national spirit. While their country is still unstable, women and children still do not have enough food and clothing,” Mr. Dung tearfully recounted.

The story goes from the narrow corridors of UNESCO in Paris to the mossy stone steps of Yen Tu or the thick documents to the unexpected tears of a diplomat living abroad. All are memorable moments after thirteen years of perseverance and never giving up.

The journey of Yen Tu, Vinh Nghiem, Con Son - Kiep Bac has turned a new page. The whole world has known it, humanity has registered its name. Preserving and promoting the value of heritage is preserving a part of the sacred soul of the nation. It is also a journey back to the origin with deep humanistic values and the sustainable living philosophy "Living in the world and enjoying the Dharma" of Buddhist King Tran Nhan Tong.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/hanh-trinh-dua-yen-tu-tro-thanh-di-san-cua-nhan-loai-chuyen-gio-moi-ke-post1773369.tpo