Sapa Ancient Rock Field is an area of about 8 km² located in Muong Hoa Valley, spreading over the three communes of Hao Thao, Su Pan and Ta Van, in Sa Pa district, Lao Cai province [1]. The Ancient Rock Field is about 8 km from Sa Pa.
In October 1994, the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and Information recognized the Sa Pa Ancient Rock Field as a national historical vestige of Vietnam. In November 1997, the government submitted a request for UNESCO listing as a World Heritage Site but failed (see World Heritage Sites in Vietnam).
Sa Pa Ancient Rock Field is one of the valuable natural heritage, not only convey the pristine beauty of the land but also attract tourists.
Research and discovery edit
Sa Pa ancient rock field was discovered in 1925 by the Russian-French archaeologist Victor Goloubev, a member of the French School of the Far East (École française d'Extrême-Orient). He came up with theories explaining the patterns on the stones.
The rock field stretches of 8 km² with nearly 200 stones is a sequel to the human presence from the ancient time. There are exotic patterns on the rocks with many shapes: stairs, people, roads, letters, etc. There are circular grooves that are quite similar to the sun symbol, mating couples - symbol of reproduction, and many fancy lines. However, when it comes to identifying when it started to exist and under what circumstances, deciphering the symbolic meaning, there is no consistent result and only a hypothesis.
The research of local residents, H'Mong people in the village of Hau Thao, said that this is the largest "book" that our ancestors left. Some other scientists assume that this is an ancient map of the H'Mong people or is probably an ancient book introducing the prehistoric battles.
More ancient rock fields have been discovered recently in Ta Phin commune (Lao Cai) and Nam Dan ancient rock field (Xin Man, Ha Giang), along with mysterious patterns and arrangements.
In 2006, Phillipe Le Failler, a researcher of the École française d'Extrême-Orient planned to carry out sampling of these rocks. And when the work is completed, he will have in his hand the entire system of ancient rock patterns discovered in Vietnam. Along with updating these researches and data on computers, Phillipe believed that the mysteries that the ancients placed on these stones would inevitably be decoded in the near future.
Deformation edit
These ancient rock fields are at risk of deformation and destruction due to time and human activities. Some motifs are blurred because of the weather. Some are deformed due to the negative impacts of visitors, climbing the rocks or carving new engravings.
The hydropower development project, Su Pan 1 hydropower, is expected to be built on the main stream of Bo, on the Sapa ancient rock field, and on the tourism development area, which has caused controversy. Especially the opinion "the project investors sue the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Department will lose for sure". However, "many experts say that hydroelectricity cannot co-exist with ecotourism because visitors want to see the natural and indigenous culture, which would be destroyed by hydropower projects," therefore, Su Pan 1 is considered stopped.
Other explanations edit
Some Vietnamese scholars have involved in deciphering these mysterious engravings on the rocks, but all are hypotheses.
Researcher Đỗ Văn Xuyền has published the book "The journey to find the Ancient Vietnamese Glyphs" in January 2013. Accordingly, the UNESCO Center for the conservation of Ancient Vietnamese Glyphs introduced:
- "Since BC, the Vietnamese had already had the syllabic symbols - the type of written symbols that represent (or approximate) syllables, which make up words.". This is reflected on the artifacts of the Đông Sơn period such as plowshares, especially bronze drums ... as well as the drawings on ancient stones in Sa Pa, Xin Man, Pa Mang ... in a consistent system, all of which expresses the ancient writings from the pre-literary period, developed gradually into the Khoa Đẩu writing system. This is the type of writing symbols handed down from the Hùng King time, shaped like tadpoles.
It is unclear whether the rock fields were in the territory of the ancient Vietnamese or not, and this was related to the origin of the Vietnamese peoples, which is also a challenge that was not fully resolved.
References edit
- ^ Lời kêu cứu từ bãi đá cổ Sa Pa. Dantri, 26/12/2011. Truy cập 12/12/2016.