Statue of former Vietnamese emperor erected at Ho Chi Minh City university
Sunday, February 21, 2016, 15:27 GMT+7
A 3.06m-tall statue of Emperor Quang Trung, who reigned over Vietnam from 1788 to 1792, was inaugurated on Saturday at the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City.
The statue is placed at the university’s Center for National Defense and Security Education.
The Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, is one of the two largest national universities in Vietnam, offering undergraduate and graduate education to over 35,000 students.
Emperor Quang Trung, also known by his birth name as Nguyen Hue, and his two brothers were the leaders of a famous 18th-century rebellion that overthrew the previous imperial dynasty and two rival feudal houses which divided the country in half, leading to the reunification of Vietnam.
The emperor is considered by many Vietnamese historians one of the most successful military commanders in Vietnam’s history.
The granite statue, weighing seven metric tons and standing in a 5,017m² area, depicts Emperor Quang Trung gripping the hilt of his sheathed sword with his left hand while making an “an dan” (calming the people) gesture with his right hand.
The statue is modeled after its original prototype in the Quang Trung Museum in Tay Son District, Binh Dinh Province, located in south-central Vietnam.
In the back of the statue stands a scroll-shaped monolithic granite wall with Quang Trung’s well-known “Edict of Troop Dispatch” chiseled into it. An English translation of the edict by Tuoi Tre News is as follows:
Fight to keep our hair long,
Fight to keep our teeth black,
Fight so that our enemies won't have a single wheel to come home
Fight so that our enemies won't have any single armor left
Fight so that history will tell that this heroic southern country has its own owners.
The sculpting of the statue took five months to complete with help from the Binh Dinh (Quang Trung’s hometown) Compatriots Union in Ho Chi Minh City. Its placement ground is sponsored by the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City.
The statue serves as a reminder of the merits of grey-collar-born Emperor Quang Trung as a military mastermind during the nation’s patriotic wars against foreign invaders, and is expected to raise students’ sense of patriotism and improve the appeal of the area.
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