Other's Hometown - Our Common Hometown

The road leading to Hoang Tru and Lang Sen villages winds through the green rice fields. The May sunshine spreads golden light on the undulating fields. Nghe An is a land of scorching Lao winds all year round, with floods and harsh weather, but the countryside is strangely fertile and prosperous. Visitors to Uncle Ho's hometown all have the same feeling, stepping into Hoang Tru and Lang Sen feels like stepping into their own hometown. Right from the road leading to Uncle Ho's house, it feels very familiar. Bamboo banks, hibiscus rows, fragrant areca flowers, grapefruit flowers, small dirt roads, and especially thatched roofs with hammocks swinging on summer afternoons... are very ordinary images, familiar to every Vietnamese person. In that space, the boy Nguyen Sinh Cung grew up with his mother's lullabies, with lyrical folk songs of the fabric guild, and with the hard work of the people of Lang Sen and Hoang Tru villages. Those songs followed him throughout his life, contributing to perfecting the personality of a great cultural figure. "My child, your mother told you this: take care of your studies to have enough food and clothing. When you are hungry, you will be clean, when you are ragged, you will be fragrant. When you have achieved fame, the country will repay you." Admiring Uncle Ho's house, there are still mementos: the desk where Nguyen Sinh Sac used to teach his children, the loom where his mother Hoang Thi Loan used to weave, the wooden bench where patriotic Confucian scholars used to come to discuss the country's current affairs with Uncle Ho's parents... Looking at the objects that were associated with Uncle Ho's childhood and his family, many people cried silently.

Many generations of staff of the Kim Lien Relic Site Management Board were assigned to "represent" Uncle Ho's family to receive guests. Every day, they take care of and preserve the house and the relics of Uncle Ho's family, making the people have the same feeling: Uncle Ho and his family are still there, still welcoming guests with the filial piety of the people of Nghe An. Nguyen An Vinh, a tour guide with a clear, sweet, and affectionate voice, told us about the feelings of visitors from afar: "Every day we welcome our compatriots and international friends to visit Uncle Ho's house, everyone is very moved when they learn more about his family and a part of his childhood in his hometown. Many people who have had the honor to meet, work with Uncle Ho, or research him have told us their memories, and the tour guides have the opportunity to add more materials to serve their introductions to be better and more concise". On the morning we arrived, one of the Japanese guests asked An Vinh for permission to sit on the bamboo bed in Uncle Ho's house. He said: Ho Chi Minh is an example of a leader who devoted himself to the people and the country, and he has long admired, loved, studied and written many articles about him in Japanese newspapers. Now that he has the opportunity to visit Uncle Ho's hometown, he wants to truly feel the warm atmosphere of the family that gave birth to and raised a great man.

The Japanese guest's feelings are also those of everyone visiting the relic site.

In response to this sentiment of the people of the whole country and friends from all over the world, a project has been started since 2005 and will be completed in 2010, the Kim Lien Relic Site Conservation and Restoration Project associated with tourism development. From the overall project, the project owner and construction units have divided it into 3 sub-projects: Conservation and Restoration of Sen Village Relic Site; Conservation and Restoration of Hoang Tru Relic Site and Conservation and Restoration of Hoang Thi Loan Tomb. These three projects are trying to help tourists and cultural and historical researchers learn and explain the factors that contributed to the creation of the national liberation hero, outstanding cultural celebrity Ho Chi Minh and understand more about the prophetic prophecy of Trang Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem at the end of the 18th century "Chung Son Tam Dinh Hinh Vuong Tu" (the three peaks of Chung Mountain form the word Vuong). Remember, when starting to build this Project, the then Secretary of the District Party Committee, Mr. Nguyen The Ky, said: "Industrialization and modernization in the Kim Lien - Nam Dan countryside is an inevitable step, but keeping the peaceful villages quiet, less concretized, with more trees, many large gardens, many bamboo fences, man hao trees, hibiscus is very necessary and urgent. It is very necessary to preserve traditional houses built over 100 years ago in the style of "four pillars, lower cupboard" or "front pillars, rear cupboard" like a few remaining ancient houses". In that spirit, after 3 years of construction, based on the land register of Kim Lien commune in the late 19th century, the project has restored a number of neighboring houses next to Ngoai's hometown relic, creating a close relationship between the relic and these houses "in times of need". Those are the houses of Mr. Hoang Tron, Hoang Nhiem, Hoang Viet.

118 years after the most beautiful Lotus of Sen Village, Tru Village cried out its birth, Kim Lien village is the place that tourists from everywhere come to, so that each pilgrimage, each discovery is a time of nostalgia...

Nguyet Anh