Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

Location: Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is located on Nguyen Van Huyen Street, Cau Giay District, Hanoi.
Characteristic: It contains more than 10,000 objects, 15,000 black and white photos and hundreds of video tapes and cassettes which depict all aspects of life, activities, customs, and habits of the 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam.

The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology opened at the end of 1997. Since then, it has attracted the attention of visitors as well as ethnographers and researchers from all over the world.
The museum has successfully recreated the daily life together with the religious rituals and the symbolic festivals of each ethnic group in Vietnam. Visitors have the opportunity to admire costumes, embroidery as well as outside stilt houses and habitats from the different groups.
All displayed objects mingle and supplement one another to create a colorful and diversified picture of Vietnamese culture. An open-air exhibition in the museum’s spacious and peaceful ground features ethnic houses from all over Vietnam.
The displayed object area is divided into 9 parts:
- Introduction.
- Introduction of Viet (Kinh).
- Introduction of Muong, Tho, Chut ethnic groups.
- The ethnic groups belong to the Tay, Thai, and Kadai groups.

The outdoor exhibition area is only large enough for the most popular architectural styles to be presented. Already presented are the E De long house, the Tay stilt house, the Dao house half on stilts and half on earth, the H' Mong house whose roof is made of pomu wood, the Viet house with tile roof, the Gia Rai tomb, the Ba Na communal house, the Cham traditional house, the Ha Nhi house made with earth-beaten walls.

There are future plans to present the Co Tu tomb and the surrounding completion of the Viet house. Between the houses, there are trees indigenous to the area of each house, zigzagging paths and a meandering stream crossed by small bridges. The outdoor museum is being realized step by step.

Source: Vietnam Administration of Tourism