Discover the oldest stone stele in Vietnam

Director of Bac Ninh Provincial Museum Le Viet Nga said: Bac Ninh has discovered a stone monument dating from 314 to 450 in Thanh Hoai village, Thanh Khuong commune, Thuan Thanh district (Bac Ninh). This is considered the oldest stone stele in Vietnam that has been discovered to this point. Currently Bac Ninh Provincial Museum is completing the display.

A set of Beer and Stone Teaks are preserved in Bac Ninh Museum, discovered in 2012. (Photo: anninhthudo.vn)

The newly discovered stele is a sharp, special shaped beer, unlike any beer found before. Beer structure consists of two parts: beer body and beer base. The beer body is made of a large stone, the front part of the beer is chiseled with two ends into triangles. The base of the beer is a rectangular box of stone. Perhaps due to the strong impact of the war bombs, the stele broke in half. If the beer is still intact, the size of the beer body is nearly 2 meters high, nearly 1 meter wide, 15cm thick; part of the beer base is 1.36 meters long, 1 meter wide and 30cm high.

Due to its early age, the stele is old and porous. Currently, there are about 300 words on both sides of the beer. Each face is written in a different style. The first side has the Kien Hung second year (314) and about 120 words are written in the style of Librarian; the second face dating to the adolescent Juvenile Prison (450) and about 150 words written in the style of the Letter of Exile. The text on both sides is deeply etched.

Previously, in 2012, also in Bac Ninh, the 601-year-old relic tower pillar (considered to be the oldest beer in Vietnam up to that point) was discovered. The stele is the unique physical cultural heritage inscribed on Thien Them Pagoda, Long Bien district's landmark in Giao Chau area, making an important contribution to the identification of Long Bien site and the name of Thien Chung Pagoda. currently under the Northern domination in the 7th century. Thereby, helping us study the political situation, diplomatic relations, Vietnamese Buddhist history in the pre-Ly period.