On the bank of the Perfume River, about 500 meters from Thien Mu Pagoda, there is a very ancient and poetic space of Hue. That is Lan Vien Co Tich, which includes two spaces: the Thai family's ancestral garden house and the Perfume River Ancient Ceramic Museum with more than 5,000 artifacts dating back many years.
This year, I had the opportunity to visit a house imbued with ancient culture in Hue. The house has a solid wooden gate, a spacious garden and stores many ancient artifacts of the ancient capital. It is known that this is a private house and also a private museum of Doctor of Philosophy Thai Kim Lan - who teaches directly at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (Germany).
Ms. Thai Kim Lan returned after 50 years in Germany.
Ms. Thai Kim Lan's decision to open a museum
It was not until a few months after visiting Hue that I had the opportunity to talk to her. She has a gentle voice, full of Hue accent, slowly telling about the reasons and decision to return to Vietnam: "The only motivation when she returned from Germany to Hue, to build a museum right on her family's land, was to build a place to preserve ancient culture, not to let the unique features gradually fade away."
Ms. Kim Lan’s house has many antiques salvaged from the Huong River in Hue: all kinds of pottery, bronze, wood, mother-of-pearl inlaid items… of which pottery is the most numerous. Ancient pottery, glazed pottery, terracotta, porcelain from the earliest times to the most recent. In front of the artifacts, there is always a bamboo tag (museum label) used to describe the type of pottery and the year it appeared.
Private ceramic museum of Doctor of Philosophy Thai Kim Lan.
“She went from Hue to Germany to study and to return to help her country. There is no other purpose than cultural. The culture of her family and Hue must be exploited, opened and developed not only in Hue but she also wants to bring it further internationally. Friends everywhere also need to know that in Hue there are also cultural values that need to be preserved.” - Dr. Thai Kim Lan shared more.
These antiques were salvaged from the riverbed by boatmen and sold to Ms. Lan’s family for many years. While teaching in Germany and traveling between the two countries, Ms. Thai Kim Lan gradually increased her collection. Then one day, the private museum “Huong River Ancient Ceramic Museum” was established under the recognition of the Hue City government.
Doctor of Philosophy Thai Kim Lan has longed for the distant past and has persistently preserved the cultural features of her family and her childhood. She confided: “In the process of arranging the museum, I consider this a silent work, a private decision. I am still preserving and possessing the heritage of my family and myself. My job is simply to rearrange the artifacts.”
- Do you have any plans to develop or expand the museum? - I asked quickly.
- She wants the museum to develop and connect with all cultural activities in the world - Dr. Thai Kim Lan replied.
The Perfume River Ceramic Museum not only preserves artifacts, but also preserves the culture of Hue.
Ms. Thai Kim Lan added: “What is necessary for a museum to survive is to connect with other museums, to involve other cultures and develop other fields. From there, we can exchange experiences about relics, sediments, and world cultural heritage with those who are interested in them.”
"I am in dialogue with myself"
Not only the museum, but also the house she lives in is carefully renovated and preserved by her. During the traditional Lunar New Year, she organizes ancient ceremonies such as the Raising and Lowering of the Neu Ceremony as a way to express her longing and desire to preserve the cultural identity of Hue and the country.
Inside the old house of Ms. Thai Kim Lan.
Ms. Kim Lan has arranged and brought “a different light” to the house’s layout, still keeping the “old house style”. She highlights them but still has a separate layout: “She is someone who has lived abroad for many years, has been exposed to many different cultures and she wants to breathe modernity into this space. Ms. Kim Lan’s grandmother’s old houses were dark, so when she returned here, she opened the doors to let the light in but still left some dark corners.”
She explained to me that in the Western way of decorating a house, there is only light. They want to let all the light into the house. As for the East, everywhere you look you see darkness, darkness is everywhere but the house has many hidden corners where light cannot get in. According to Ms. Thai Kim Lan, the ancients often closed the doors of their houses.
“I don’t chase away the darkness too much, I don’t let in too much light. When I renovated the house, I was determined to keep everything old and meticulous to the end. So the old house has deteriorated over time, but I rebuilt it in a different way to create a fusion between East and West,” she added.
A ceremony at the private residence of Dr. Thai Kim Lan.
The conversation lasted for more than an hour, Ms. Kim Lan told me many stories about the ancient sediments, about the hard but joyful process when Lan Vien Co Tich was formed. Then she confided about the difficulties in building this place. She said that she had to go through many self-questioning, and reflect on the conversations with everyone to make everything as perfect as possible.
During that process, the dialogues gradually became clear. She stopped talking to external influences and decided to turn inward to clarify her findings. She confided that she understood better than her predecessors: "Why did they put the pillars horizontally and vertically like that?" or "Why is the height of the house like that?"...
Ms. Thai Kim Lan had a dialogue with herself.
“I feel like I live in many dimensions: present, past, future, East and West… I find this opens up my world and perspective. I go to many different worlds in a moment. I am optimistic and love life in my work” - she gradually slows down, emphasizing each word, but her voice still makes me both surprised and attached.
Doctor of Philosophy Thai Kim Lan also hopes that her efforts will create much-needed cultural bridges in the world. Then suddenly she shared a philosophical idea that has been a topic she has researched for nearly half her life: “People can be more peaceful, less selfish, more tolerant and more secure in their lives instead of having to stay in a corner or take things that do not belong to them.”
