My Son Sanctuary restoration project completed
Management, storage of artefacts, and technical and personal skills training have been challenges for Quang Nam Province, along with the managing board of My Son Sanctuary, in conservation and protection of heritage sites.
The Director of the University of Polytechnic of Milan's Lerici Foundation, Mauro Cucarzi, spoke at the Safeguard My Son World Heritage site 2003-13 project completion on December 17.
The project, which helped restore G towers, including G1, G2, G3 and G5, at a total cost of over US$1.6 million and funded by the Italian Government, paves the way for a study of brick production skills of Cham people in the past centuries and as an example of conservation and protection of Cham towers throughout the country.
It needs to update the classification periodically and every new entry of material must registered in the inventory, according to the same methodology, Cucarzi said.
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The opening the G Group monuments to the public in June, after 10 years of restoration, was a great effort by government authorities, policymakers, international donors, civil society and the media.
"Over 10 years of work, the Vietnam-Italy-UNESCO tripartite partnership has yielded significant results: the restoration of Group G monuments, a standard documentation of archaeological research, and archaeological excavations of artefacts, said UNESCO's representative and head of the Hanoi Office, Katherine Muller Marin.
The project also helps build My Son risk maps and geographic information system (GIS) monuments, research in material characteristic and building techniques of the ancient Cham builders, she said at the meeting.
She added that it also promotes sustainable tourism development, museum space, capacity building and documentation of lessons learned for production of guidelines for archaeological studies and conservation of Cham monuments.
Quang Nam, home to two World Heritage sites and one Biosphere Reserve, has been a focus of UNESCO support during the past decade.
Sacred area
Group G, which was built during the first half of the 12th century, was selected from the various monuments due to its unique characteristics. The group is located on an elevated area unaffected by seasonal flooding and has never been restored, except for some minor archaeological research in the early 1990s.
Group G, which had likely been originally constructed in one phase, presents an excellent model of how a Cham sacred area is, with typical sacred Cham decorations.