The Museum's Space: A Harmony of Architecture and Display

     Thanks to thorough preparation - from selecting the site to making a proper design suitable to the surrounding scenery - the Ho Chi Minh Museum is a splendid building. From a distance, it looks like a white lotus flower symbolizing Vietnamese people's hearts:

     In the Plains of Reeds, the most heautiful is lotus flower

     In Viet Nam, the nicest name is Uncle Ho.
    The white lotus is also a metaphor of Ho Chi Minh's noble moral life and his native land - Sen Village in Nghe An Province. The 20-m-tall museum is not higher than the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. It is divided into two
sections: the upper section with slanting sides, a prominent characteristic of ancient Oriental architecture. The Asian decorative motifs are combined with modem geometric features to bring about a harmony of modernity and tradition.

      The building is designed with eight sides - eight lotus petals. The four smaller sides are decorated with stylized patterns, facing four directions - east, west, north and south. The east-west direction becomes the main axis; the eastern gate is the main entrance. Its slanting side is a large-sized embossment displaying national and epochal features. The northern side looks to the house-on-stilts where many artifacts related to the President's life are preserved.

      The Museum covers a total area of 18,000 square metres in which the display area is 4,000 square metres. There is a 400-seat meeting hall and a 100-seat special library. The Museum has also an exhibition hall (400 m2) and a 1,200-m2 storehouse to preserve documents and artifacts. It is one of the biggest and most modem museums in Viet Nam.

     With its large display area, the Ho Chi Minh Museum can serve both visitors and researchers. At the same time, it also ensures the preservation of documents and artifacts in the best conditions. Its large meeting hall with modem sound, lighting, and temperature control systems can serve important international-level seminars and conferences.

      In the Museum, all of its exhibits are arranged aesthetically to highlight the interrelation between President Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese nation and the modem era.

      In the central ceremonial hall - 9 m high and 360 m2 in area - there stands a statue of Ho Chi Minh. Behind the statue, there is a bronze banyan tree and a sun symbolizing the everlasting Vietnamese traditions and light
respectively. Solemn ceremonies are often held here.

      In the old philosophy of Viet Nam, the sky is perceived as being round and the earth square. This is clearly displayed in the Ceremonial Hall: its round ceiling symbolizes the sky and its square floor is decorated with
Viet Nam's flowers and plants. And Ho Chi Minh stands amidst the immense sky and land of Viet Nam.

      From here, the entire history of national construction and protection can be traced. The images of Lac Long Quan  and Au eat, the father and mother of the Vietnamese nation, are in the first section of the museum. The carvings of "Fire Spurting Horse" and "Sword Offering Tortoise" are symbols of the traditions of national protection in Viet Nam.

     The main exhibition space is along the "The Life Path of Ho Chi Minh." The exhibition compartments for specific contents are all closely and properly linked together to highlight the major topic - President Ho Chi
Mirth. The fundamental display content is divided into eight topics:

    - Childhood and youth of Ho Chi Minh and his first patriotic and revolutionary activities (1890-1911)

    - Ho Chi Minh's adoption of Marxism- Leninism and the revolutionary path for Viet Nam (1911-1920)

    - Ho Chi Minh's protection and creative application of V]. Lenin's guidelines on national and colonial issues (1920-1924) 

    - Ho Chi Minh's establishment of the olitical party of Vietnamese workers ( 1924-1930)

    - President Ho Chi Minh - the organizer and leader of the August 1945 Revolution and the founder of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (1930-1945)

     - President Ho Chi Minh - the organizer and leader of the struggle to protect the revolutionary government and the resistance war against French colonists and American interventionists (1945-1954)

    - President Ho Chi Minh's leadership over the socialist revolution in North Viet Nam and the anti-American resistance war for national salvation and reunification in South Viet Nam (1954-1969).