The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee recently instructed that the Tran Nguyen Han statue in the city’s downtown district 1, which had one of its legs fallen off in late July, be fixed and reinforced in no time.

Le Hoang Quan, chair of HCMC People’s Committee instructed the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and District 1’s People’s Committee to fix the breakage and reinforce the entire statue as soon as possible. Quan also requested that the repair and reinforcement be done neatly and with caution so as not to disrupt safety and the urban landscape.

When a group of sightseers were taking photos in front of the statue, located above the roundabout in front of Ben Thanh market early in late July, the right leg of the statue, which pays tribute to general Tran Nguyen Han in the 15th century, without warning, broke and fell onto the ground. A mess of scattered cement and strings of iron were seen following the breakage. 

The breakage, however, came as no surprise to local sculptors and experts, who said that along with several others in the area, the Tran Nguyen Han statue was erected prior to 1975 and has seen serious deterioration. Like other old concrete memorials, the monument is nearing the end of its lifespan of some 50 years only and may crumple at any time.

The concerned agencies, architects and sculptors maintained that though the city planned to relocate the Tran Nguyen Han monument when the Ben Thanh metro station is built, as the relocation takes several months to carry out regarding procedures and planning, the immediate solution should be to fix the leg and reinforce the monument before getting on with the relocation.

At the recent meeting, the city’s People’s Committee also instructed its culture department to step up the planning of the city’s statue and monument system, particularly the solutions to those which were built prior to 1975 and are on the brink of collapse, as well as the construction of new ones.