Ethnology Museum, where story of Vietnam’s National Great Unity is told

Anh Kiet - Photographer: Pham Hung

Dec 24, 2020 / 11:37 AM

The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology offers many activities to help visitors understand more about Vietnamese ethnic culture.

The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, located at No.1 Nguyen Van Huyen street, about 8 kilometers from the city’s downtown, is the largest and undoubtedly the most interesting museum in Hanoi and Vietnam.

Rong house, a variation of stilt houses unique to the Central Highlands in Việt Nam.

Visitors can learn information detailing traditional Vietnamese ways of life, from religious events to the symbolic rituals of all the Vietnamese ethnic groups.

Visitors play ca kheo (walking on stilts), a traditional game of Vietnam.

The museum displays over 15,000 artifacts including photographs and other audiovisual materials. Its indoor exhibition space can be viewed via a virtual tour which displays traits of the Viet, Muong, Tho, Chut, Tav, Thai, Ka Dai, H’Mong-Dao, Tang, San Dui, Ngai, Mon-Khmer, Nam-Dao, Cham, Hoa and Khmer ethnic groups.

All exhibited materials, labels and display signs are translated into French and English.

Foreign visitors are interested in reading information about Vietnamese water puppet, a traditional art and one of the most indigenous cultural traits and folk arts with over 1000 years old.

Children enjoy keo co (tug of war), a traditional game of Vietnam.

Ethnology Museum provides a wide range of traditional Vietnamese ways of life, providing a rich tapestry of the culture melting pot existing in Vietnam.

Visitors are welcome to browse part of the vast research on offer at this public museum, which is also a center for ethnographic research.

On November 12, 1997, on the occasion of the summit of French-speaking nations in Hanoi, the museum was inaugurated in the presence of the then Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh and