Documents on Vietnam's sovereignty on display
An exhibition showcasing newly-discovered documents relating to Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago opened in the central city of Da Nang on January 20.
The exhibition, the largest of its kind to date, includes 125 collections of maps, three atlases and 102 books published in Western countries during the 18th and 19th centuries. The documents, originally in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Dutch, and translated into Vietnamese, affirm Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagoes.
Scientific studies such as “Vietnam’s Hoang Sa archipelago through archived documents of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam (1954-1975)” and “Documentary fonts on Vietnam ’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa island district – Da Nang city” are also available to visitors.
Visitors can also see the maps “Hoang trieu truc tinh dia du toan do” (a Chinese administrative map of provincial boundaries published under the Qing dynasty), “An Nam dai quoc hoa do” (the Map of the Great Country of An Nam) and “Dai Nam thong nhat toan do” (The Complete Map of Unified Dai Nam), as well as maps of Indochinese weather stations.
The month-long exhibition showcases three atlases and 30 of the 150 maps donated by Tran Thang, an overseas Vietnamese in the US. They were published in the UK , Germany , Australia , Canada , the US and Hong Kong from 1626-1980.
Among these maps, Asia and Southeast Asia commercial and maritime maps depict Hoang Sa and Truong Sa as lying within Vietnam’s territorial waters.