Preserving Heritage Assets Within the Matrix of Contemporary Life

As the sacred ancestral cradle of the Vietnamese nation, Phu Tho has long been celebrated as the custodian of an extraordinary living treasury of cultural heritage, reflecting the profound historical depth, time-honored traditions, and distinct cultural identities of its diverse ethnic communities. Amidst the continuous flow of contemporary life, the dual mission of preserving and unlocking the value of these heritage assets operates not merely as a mandate to protect legacy landmarks of the past, but functions as a critical driver to upscale the spiritual livelihoods of the populace, fuel tourism expansion, and anchor sustainable socio-economic growth.

Educators and students from Tam Son Commune actively explore the historic values and intricate structural architecture of the Binh Son Tower, a practical framework to cultivate patriotism and elevate public accountability in safeguarding the nation’s cultural legacy.

Following the implementation of its historic provincial administrative border consolidation, Phu Tho’s cultural inventory commands a monumental scale: 981 ranked historical sites (including 6 Special National Relics, 176 National Relics, and 799 Provincial-Level Relics), alongside 43 national intangible cultural heritages and 6 officially designated National Treasures. This expansive cultural portfolio represents an invaluable public asset and an institutional economic engine for local development.

Ms. Tran Thi Minh Loi, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, highlighted that in recent years, the province has placed a high premium on marrying conservation with qualitative value maximization. Numerous monument zones have undergone thorough technical restoration and structural overhauls funded by synchronized state budgets and private socialization capital. Traditional folklore festivals are methodically managed to guarantee high solemnity, environmental safety, and fiscal efficiency while strictly preserving authentic ethnic identities. Most notably, safeguarding the living values of the UNESCO-inscribed Belief in Hung Vuong Worship and Phu Tho Xoan Singing continues to mobilize intense focus from line agencies and local communitarian blocks.

Institutionally, while past conservation philosophies centered rigidly around the passive preservation of cultural artifacts, the contemporary strategy treats heritage as an active resource driving regional progress. Iconic cultural landmarks—including the Hung Kings' Temple Historical Relic Site, the Tay Thien Scenic Complex, and the Muong Cultural Space, alongside a dense network of traditional festivals—have turned into premier hubs driving cultural, spiritual, and community-based eco-tourism.

At the Hung Kings' Temple Historical Relic Site, live demonstrations of ancestral rituals, high-protocol Xoan singing performances, and interactive folk exhibitions function as premium cultural products tailored for international and domestic travelers. Beyond broadcasting traditional values, these initiatives upscale grassroots public awareness regarding heritage protection, pooling supplementary capital back into structural conservation funds.

Concurrently, across ethnic Muong territories, traditional heritages—including Mo Muong oral epics, folklore galas, indigenous culinary arts, artisanal handicrafts, and ancient performance arts—are systematically integrated into community-based hospitality grids. This symbiotic framework generates high-quality localized jobs and raises household incomes, while fueling an organic motivation within the community to guard and transmit their ancestral identities to younger generations.

Mr. Luu Van Hai, Chief of the Cultural and Social Division of Dai Dinh Commune, analyzed: "Our administrative framework focuses heavily on positioning the local population as the primary sovereign subject of heritage preservation. Traditional festivals are routinely operationalized, mass folklore clubs are highly active, and specialized transmission masterclasses for folk songs and oral performances are continually organized for youth demographics.

When citizens deeply grasp the internal value of their heritage and directly spearhead its protection, the legacy achieves an unbreakable, timeless vitality. We rigidly dictate that conservation must remain bound to daily livelihoods, ensuring the people operate simultaneously as the ultimate guardians and the primary beneficiaries of local cultural values."

A major institutional highlight driving current preservation velocity is the systematic finalization of financial policies and public security nets. The regional cultural sector has successfully advised the provincial administration to enact Resolution No. 58/2025/NQ-HDND, legally regulating structured financial allowance schemes for personnel directly managing and guarding state-ranked historical relics across the province. Concurrently, line sectors are designing comprehensive support frameworks for certified artisans and intangible cultural heritage clubs, while engineering public funding mechanisms to accelerate the restoration of ranked monuments in the upcoming phase.

Public asset management has been further tightened through rigorous on-the-ground technical audits to map out structural degradation, allowing authorities to construct a precision priority list for capital deployment. This administrative push includes indexing legal dossiers to secure provincial and national-level classifications for multiple sites, while aggressively finalizing the high-protocol nomination files to request a Special National Relic designation for the Tien Pagoda situated within An Nghia Commune.

Embracing the global technology wave, the province is injecting heavy capital into digital conversion. An extensive volume of historical records, national treasures, and intangible cultural heritages have been fully digitized. The entire legal and historical documentation regarding the Belief in Hung Vuong Worship and Xoan Singing has been systematically documented and securely stored within centralized cloud databases.

At prominent relic sites and state museums, standardized QR code systems have been fully commissioned, delivering frictionless information access for travelers. Notably, the Hung Vuong Museum is pioneering multi-lingual QR indexing, full-scale artifact digitization, interactive 3D cinema experiences detailing the dawn of the Hung Kings era, and immersive digital educational programs tailored for university and school student groups. These high-tech solutions not only secure scientific preservation metrics but successfully expand public access to local cultural capital.

Moving forward, the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism will rigidly execute its master roadmaps under a community-centric strategy. Alongside expanding institutional stipends for living artisans and performance clubs, the province will accelerate heritage education across school curricula, intensify advanced scientific applications and cloud-based digitization, and firmly bind heritage assets to the long-term expansion of sustainable, high-yield eco-tourism.

Duong Chung