Corpse of Hanoi’s legendary turtle preserved through plastination
The body of the legendary turtle in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake is being preserved through plastination, a lengthy process that began on April 21, officials announced the same day.
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The turtle was found dead on the afternoon of January 19, apparently due to old age as well as the then cold weather in Vietnam’s capital.
The Hoan Kiem turtle, affectionately known as “Cu Rua” (Great-Grandfather Turtle) by the Vietnamese people, had long been a symbol of the capital city, reflecting its culture and long-standing history.
The Vietnam National Museum of Nature (VNMN), where the turtle’s corpse has been kept in cold storage since its death, said it began plastinating the turtle’s body on April 21.
Plastination is a technique for preservation of bodies or body parts where the water and fat are replaced by certain plastics, yielding specimens that can be touched, do not smell or decay, and even retain most properties of the original sample, according to the Journal of the International Society for Plastination.
Two German experts are put in charge of processing the corpse who will be joined by specialists from the Asian Turtle Program and the Institute for Criminal Science under the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security.
Phan Ke Long, deputy director at VNMN, said the plastination process could take from one to one and a half years due to the size of the specimen.
Director of the Hanoi Department of Science and Technology Le Xuan Bao said that the Institute for Criminal Science would take small specimens from the turtle’s corpse for further study and investigation into the cause of its death.
Bao added that very few specimens would be taken so as not to interfere with the plastination process.
The last time the turtle was spotted alive on the surface of the lake was on December 21 last year, newswire VnExpress reported.
As of 2011, the turtle’s body length had been recorded at 185cm, with its weight being 169kg.
The turtle’s shell reached 100cm, while the length of its tail was 35cm.
The Hoan Kiem Lake turtle is linked to a legend about Emperor Le Loi, who reigned over Vietnam during the 15th century.
Legend has it that Le Loi possessed a magic sword given to him by Kim Qui (Golden Turtle God) to repel Chinese invaders.
While the Vietnamese emperor was boating in the Hoan Kiem Lake not long after his victory against the Chinese, a large turtle surfaced, took the magic sword from Le Loi, and dived back into the water.
Le Loi then acknowledged that the Golden Turtle God had reclaimed the sword, thus renaming the lake Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Returned Sword).
