Exploring amazing museums in Hanoi

Women's Museum

This morning I went to the Women's Museum in Hanoi, an experience that touched me quite a lot.

I knew women participated in the Vietnam war, but I didn't have any idea about how crucial their role was. Besides being soldiers on the battlefields, women led associations; planted and transported almost all the food; sewed the clothes; built 10.000 km of tunnels for protection, transport and education; took care of the wounded; and delivered messages to soldiers pretty much everywhere.

The most amazing thing, though, is not what they did, but how they did it: with love, without losing the tenderness, in spite of the terrible circumstances (as we can perceive from the pictures, objects and diaries in the exhibition). They sewed while in prison, wrote letters to elders and loved ones, served food with a smile and, with all that, kept everybody connected, hopeful and enjoying brief moments of joy.


Museum of Ethnology

In the afternoon it was time for the Ethnology Museum, with information, pictures, objects and constructions - both in and outdoors - from the various ethnic groups that formed the Vietnamese nation.

The part that I liked the most was the open-air exhibitions, particularly one building: the Central Highlanders' communal centre.

For those tribes, the highest, biggest, most beautiful and most important construction was the space that hosted spiritual ceremonies, parties and community gatherings, which also represented the male power.

Although the villages remain nowadays, these sort of spaces are rapidly disappearing, whereas other symbols of status (e.g. the individuals' house windows) are more evident than before, probably showing us that we've not always been taking the wisest path.