Visit Truong Son cemetery from the keyboard
The anxiety of many relatives of martyrs at Truong Son martyrs cemetery can now be alleviated when the Truong Son Cemetery website is at the addresshttp://nghiatrangtruongson.quangtri.gov.vncan help people offer incense and commemorate.
On a weekend morning, Mr. Vu Manh Tuan, a teacher in Yen Khanh (Ninh Binh), turned on his computer with a solemn expression. After typing the address and a few clicks, the grave of his uncle - martyr Vu Xuan Lan - gradually appeared on the screen with a simulated image of the grave resting in plot number 2, row C, subdivision II, Ninh Binh area at Truong Son martyrs cemetery.
A group of staff from the Center for Geographic Information System Application (Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City) collected data at the Truong Son martyrs cemetery to create a website - Photo: Quach Dong Thang
Offering incense from thousands of miles away
That grave had incense smoke billowing, a bouquet of flowers that Mr. Tuan had just offered, and words of remembrance: “Dear Uncle! My brothers have visited and burned incense for you. I could not go there because of circumstances. Today, through the website nghiatrangtruongson.quangtri.gov.vn, we found your resting place. We would like to offer incense and flowers to you through this website. I pray that you bless our family...”.
The words of remembrance that Mr. Tuan left behind will be kept and every time martyr Vu Xuan Lan's comrades and friends visit, they will read them, knowing that the martyr's relatives have visited many times and told many more stories about the martyr who is resting.
Not only burning incense, offering flowers and writing down memorial lines every time visiting his uncle's grave, from the Truong Son Cemetery website, Mr. Tuan and his descendants can also visit the entire cemetery from the entrance gate. With a 360-degree panorama image, just drag the mouse, the real images of the Truong Son martyrs cemetery from the monument, the graves, even to each green tree will appear together, no different from the actual space at the cemetery.
From the memorial, Mr. Tuan and his relatives can go through each section of the grave in the direction indicated and stop to burn incense at his uncle's grave. Mr. Tuan emotionally said: "Over the years, I still feel guilty for not being able to go to Quang Nam.
I used to burn incense for my uncle. But now with this website, I feel like I am standing in front of his grave, burning incense for him with my own hands, offering him a bouquet of flowers, something I have never been able to do before.
Similarly, Mr. Ngo Xuan Truong - an IT employee working in District 3 (HCMC) - although he has never been to Truong Son cemetery to visit his grandfather Mai Dinh Luyen who died in 1971, now from the website, he can burn incense, offer flowers and send his grandfather his condolences for the first time.
Mr. Truong said that although it was only online, through his family members who had visited his grandfather's grave, he learned that all the detailed images of the grave on the website were the same as the real grave in the cemetery.
Not only Mr. Truong, Mr. Tuan and the martyrs' relatives in remote areas of the country, many martyrs' relatives living abroad thought that visiting their loved ones resting at Truong Son cemetery was difficult, but through the website, they were able to fulfill part of their wish.
The website's access counting system recorded that relatives of martyrs from more than 30 countries visited to burn incense, offer flowers and leave memorial messages for their loved ones.
Stories to be continued
Mr. Tuan's uncle - martyr Vu Xuan Lan, was unfortunately hit by an American bomb and died in 1966 while transporting weapons to the South.
Mr. Tuan believes that from this website, more stories about his aunt Lan will be told.
And not only the relatives of martyr Vu Xuan Lan but also the relatives of 10,257 martyrs resting in Truong Son cemetery all have stories about the soldiers who sacrificed, the longing and yearning of their loved ones back home waiting to be told and preserved on each grave.
These stories may be very familiar, as told by Ms. Pham Thanh Hang in Dien Chau (Nghe An), a niece of martyr Nguyen Van Nam, who said that he had added 3 years to his age to be able to go to the battlefield. When Ms. Hang's uncle died, he was only 20 years old, not 23 as stated on his tombstone.
It could also be a message like Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan in Hai Duong, daughter-in-law of martyr Nguyen Huu Thu, when she met the grave of a late friend of her father-in-law at Truong Son cemetery, she told the stories of the bond between the two... Or it could just be a correction of information by Mr. Ho Ngoc Luat in Quynh Luu (Nghe An) recorded on the grave of his brother - martyr Ho Van Thi, when his brother's real name was Ho Ngoc Thi, when he joined the unit it was changed back "but the whole family still called him by his familiar name"...
And there are also incomplete stories like that of Mr. Dinh Huu Viet when his two uncles, only one of them, is resting in Truong Son cemetery and sent his condolences: "Dear Uncle! Today, through this website, I offer you three incense sticks. I hope that you will show me the way to find the grave of Uncle Thanh, your older brother...".
These are stories that perhaps no tombstone in any real cemetery could record.
As Nguyen Trung Hieu, a martyr’s relative in Soc Son (Hanoi), wrote on the Truong Son Cemetery website, this is not only a place for martyrs’ relatives to visit every day but also a place for reunion. A place to record all the stories told and untold and to be remembered for everyone.
Meaningful gift
Mr. Pham Quoc Phuong, deputy director of the center, said this is the first time in Vietnam.
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(According to Tuoi Tre)
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