Hello and welcome to VOV’s Letter Box, a weekly feature dedicated to our listeners throughout the world. We are Mai Phuong and Ngoc Huyen.

A: First on our show today, we’d like to acknowledge listeners who have sent entries to our quiz “What do you know about Vietnam?” this week. Most of them are quite interesting and informative. Many listeners said they are interested in the quiz.

B: Najimuddin, President of the International DX, Radio Listeners Club of India wrote: “We are pleased to hear about the competition: “What do you know about Vietnam?” This is a very big informative competition and we expect listeners all over the world will participate in this wonderful contest. Through this competition, we will learn more about Vietnam. Hopefully, in India many listeners and members of my club will participate. I’m encouraging my colleagues to participate to increase their knowledge about Vietnam. It’s a golden opportunity for us”.

Bougainvillea flowers on Nguyen Van Linh Street, District 7, HCM City

A: Thank you, Najimuddin, for tuning in to VOV. We appreciate your participation in our quiz. SB Sharma of India sent a multi-page entry to the quiz. He wrote: “This contest is an opportunity to learn more about Vietnamese people, culture, music, rituals, tradition, society, tourist attraction and destination. VOV is providing us very precious information, and entertainment. The staff and members of VOV are very hard working and knowledgeable. We thank VOV for providing such a great opportunity to receive interesting stories and information about Vietnam and Vietnamese people”.

B: Ivan Lebedev of Russia said he was interested in the quiz and wanted to share his knowledge about Vietnam. Ivan has sent us a number of emails. In each of them he answered one of the questions in our quiz. Ivan, we’d prefer to receive all of the answers in one email so we don’t misplace any of your answers. Thank you for sharing your knowledge about Vietnam with us and other listeners around the world.

A: We are waiting for more entries to our quiz “What do you know about Vietnam?” from other listeners around the world. Enter to win a trip to Vietnam. For more information about the quiz, please check our website at www.vovworld.vn. 

B: In recent weeks, we have continued to receive feedback from Amir Jameel, President of the Voice of Vietnam Online Visitors Club. In an email to us, Amir wrote: “I listen to the Voice of Vietnam English Program every day and also visit it online very regularly. It’s a very informative website and I really appreciate it. I was so happy to hear about the weather in Hanoi and Vietnam in the listeners’ mail bag program on March 25. I have a suggestion: please include a weather report for Hanoi in your Letter Box more frequently”.

A: Thank you, Amir, for your suggestion. For your information, In April Hanoi is warm with occasional strong wind. The weather is not too different from the previous month when we enjoyed the most beautiful days of spring. Hanoi has been sunny in recent days with temperatures ranging from 16 to 30 degrees Celsius. The weather is quite nice right now. I personally love this sunshine weather. Sunlight enables you to take beautiful snapshots.

Flowers are in full bloom in Hanoi in March and April, creating a peaceful and fresh atmosphere.Loc Vung tree (Barringtonia acutangula) by Hoan Kiem Lake

B: April marks the beginning of the wet season in Ho Chi Minh City. A slight increase in temperature and humidity makes the weather in April a little less comfortable than in previous months. Meanwhile, the rainfall is increasing significantly. If you visit Ho Chi Minh City this month, you should bring an umbrella and a raincoat to stay dry during the sudden downpour. 

Yellow scorpion flowers are very popular on many streets in HCM City

A: Note that April is a month of public holidays: Vietnam Reunification Day falls on April 30th and followed by International Labour Day on May 1st. During this public holiday, streets are decorated with national flags, colorful banners, flowers and surprisingly empty of people. City residents are taking advantage of this long holiday to get away to the beach or nearby mountains. 

B: If you go to Ho Chi Minh City now, you should visit the Reunification Palace and the Cu Chi tunnels to learn more about the war, history and people in Vietnam.  The last month of the dry season is a good time to visit Ho Chi Minh City. 

A: These days Ho Chi Minh City has pleasant weather with temperatures ranging from 25 to 35 Degrees Celsius. This month marks the transition between the dry, cool season and the wet, hot season. It’s also the beginning of tourist season.

A: This week, we received a question from SB Sharma of India about documentary heritages in Vietnam.

B: At the moment, Vietnam has four things designated documentary heritages under the UNESCO Memory of the World Program: the Woodblocks of the Nguyen Dynasty, recognized in 2009; the 82 stone stele records of Royal Examinations of the Le and Mac Dynasties in Hanoi’s Temple of Literature, recognized in 2010; the Woodblocks of Vinh Nghiem Pagoda, recognized in 2012; and the Imperial Records of the Nguyen Dynasty, recognized in 2014. These documentary heritages are particularly valuable records of the history and culture of Viet Nam.

A: Due to our time constraints today we can only give you a brief description of the woodblocks in the Vinh Nghiem Pagoda in Bac Giang Province. We’ll pursue this topic further in later shows.

The blocks were made of “thị” wood taken from the pagoda’s garden, which is soft, smooth, durable, easy to carve on and rarely distorts or cracks

B: The collection of woodblocks, said to have been created in the 13^th, 14^th, 15^th, and 17^th centuries, provides a wealth of information about the foundation, development and ideology of Truc Lam Zen Buddhism, founded by King Tran Nhan Tong in the 13th century.  

A: The uniqueness of the woodblocks lies in that fact that they are the only set of sutra woodblocks to have survived in Vietnam. Researchers say the foundation of Truc Lam Zen in the 13^th century was not only of great importance to Vietnam but also to the region and the world.

B: The blocks are made of “thị” wood from the pagoda’s garden, which is soft, smooth, durable, easy to carve, and rarely warps or cracks. The majority of the blocks feature writing on both sides and have been engraved in Chinese or Nôm (a classic vernacular script of the Vietnamese language). The woodblocks are covered with thick layers of shiny black ink, as they were used to print numerous times.

A: The carving occurred hundreds of years and was inherited through 59 generations of head monks at Vinh Nghiem pagoda. It took a skilled craftsman at least 2 months to carve one block. Each wood block is a piece of sophisticated artwork, reflecting the deftness of Vietnamese craftsmen in the past. The blocks are precious examples of wood carving in Vietnam during the Le and Nguyen dynasty and extremely important to researchers.      

B: Before we go, we’d like to acknowledge letters and emails from Kanchan Chatterjee of India, Jahangir Alam Manto and Mostofa Kamal of Bangladesh, Masaru Sekimoto and Koichi Ekeda of Japan, and Roger Henderson of the US. We’ll send you QSL cards and the souvenirs you requested soon.  

A: We welcome your feedback at: English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. Tune in to our English program on the Internet at vovworld.vn.  Good bye. See you next time.