A "must see" Vietnam museum of Ethnology in Hanoi city

Vietnam museum of Ethnology in Hanoi offers visitors a glimpse into the tradition and culture of 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam. The museum is also a place to preserve and promote the richness of social and cultural Vietnam to domestic and foreign visitors.
 

Map from Hanoi Old Quarter to Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

Overview
Vietnam museum of ethnology was built in 1981 in Hanoi on an area of nearly 5ha. The museum includes indoor display area and outdoor display area. It shows the history and culture of 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam with many exhibited artifacts from clothes, jewelry, weapons, musical instruments, religions, belief and spiritual activities to the model of the real house in the outdoor display. That makes visitors to be lost in the different ethnic groups in this museum area.

Vietnam museum of ethnology is divided into 3 display areas:

The bronze drum building
This is a work designed by a Tay ethnic architecture – Mr Ha Duc Linh and the French architecture Ms Veronique Dollfus designed the interior.
Displaying about 54  Vietnamese ethnic groups arranged logically .

First floor:  Visitors learn about ethnic groups in Vietnam through pictures, resident locations and then the display will be going into more detail about ethnic groups such as Viet people, Muong, Thai, Mong people…
There are 15 000 artifacts and 42 000 clips and photos describe the daily life, costumes, farming tools and religious beliefs and customs of each ethnic group.
Visitors could visit and easily understand the descriptions as the artifacts are described in 3 languages: English, French and Vietnamese.

Second floor: this is the display area that is always renewed after 1-3 years, the changing according to the theme, events associated with the life of Vietnamese people in each historical period.

A indoor display in Vietnam Museum of Ethology
 

Outdoor display
This area is like a park with 10 traditional houses and religious and belief works of typical ethnic groups with different types of architecture. You will visit and get inside the houses to learn about their architecture and living culture of ethnic groups. You can learn this right in Hanoi city without going to remote villages. You even could take a sit and relax in these houses as they are the real houses which was brought from the villages into the museum.

The outdoor display area of Vietnam museum of Ethnology is fresh green and very quiet that makes visitors feel comfortable when visiting this museum.

A house in outdoor display Vietnam museum of Ethnology

South East Asia display
This is the new area built and operated in 2013 after 6 years of construction. Visitors will understand more about some Southeast Asian countries through the exhibited artifacts.

Some activities in Vietnam museum of Ethnology
Besides the fixed display, the museum often organizes some specialized exhibitions in collaboration with communities to display some projects about handicrafts and different type of folklore. Therefore, many localities in Vietnam and some in Southeast Asian countries bring here to show their cultural and crafted activities.

Water Puppet show in Vietnam museum of Ethnology

Vietnam museum of Ethnology was ranked excellent by Tripadvisor and was voted 6 of the 25 most attractive museums in Asia.
This is really a “must see” place for your trip in Hanoi city