When the sun goes down, the Temple of Literature in Hanoi comes alive with modern lighting systems and vivid sound effects that tell the historical story of Vietnam’s learning tradition.
Passing through the main gate, visitors enter a garden of lights where the ancient bodhi tree becomes a projection stage depicting the thousand-year academic history of the Vietnamese people. The images of children studying beside communal yards, banyan trees, village wells, and bamboo-thatched houses are recreated through moving light technology.
“The Temple of Literature night tour begins with the projection show ‘Sweet Lullabies’. The display brings to life images of storks gliding over rice fields and children at play, symbolizing Vietnam’s future scholars,” tour guide Bui Hoang Phong said.
Near the entrance to Khue Van Cac, known as “the Pavilion of the Constellation of Literature”, a short film recounts the legend of scholar Mac Dinh Chi, one of the most famous examples of diligence and perseverance in Vietnamese history. With advanced sound, lighting, and visual effects, the film recreates Mac Dinh Chi’s learning journey between the 13th and 14th centuries.
“The tour not only allows visitors to explore the site at night, but also offers a diverse, multi-sensory journey within a thousand-year-old heritage space. Visitors can enjoy light art and music that enhance the ancient beauty of the relic site while listening to stories about distinguished scholars and intellectuals,” said Nguyen ThanhTung, manager of the night tour.
Visitors can participate in traditional cultural activities such as printing woodblock images of the Pavilion of the Constellation of Literature and using brushes, poonah paper, and ink to create their own calligraphy.
They can also role play a scholar of the past by sitting in an examination tent or riding a horse in reenactment of the “return home in glory” ceremony, converse with the Wise Turtle, or create virtual calligraphy in a VR environment.
“One of the activities is writing calligraphy using virtual reality glasses. It’s a memorable activity because participants write in a virtual space that feels like ancient times, sitting in a traditional scholar’s classroom and holding a calligraphy brush. Although it’s only virtual, the experience feels very realistic. This is a unique and special activity available only on the Temple of Literature night tour,” said tour guide Nguyen Thanh Binh.
The highlight of the tour is the performance space in the Thai Hoc courtyard. The architecture of the Thai Hoc House and the doctoral steles becomes a backdrop for 3D mapping that narrates two stories about historical scholars – “The Essence of Learning” and “Stone Steles Preserving Fame”.
The Temple of Literature night tour has become a popular destination for domestic and international tourists.
“It was very beautiful, it was very impressive. I liked the music at the beginning with the lasers, it was really good. We've seen a lot in Hanoi with the four animals. I like the phoenix and the dragon and the turtle and the unicorn. So it was nice to see how that plays in this bit of the Vietnamese culture as well in the Temple of Literature,” said Coroline, a tourist from the UK.
“The light show again was very interesting, again very cultural and suitable for people of all different ages, mainly with pictures describing what would happen here and the journey of education through towards becoming a very kind of learning teacher or a Mandarin, so it was very interesting to learn about. It was really good to see how traditional sounds and pictures merged with kind of modern day technology and I think it was done in a very tasteful and effective way,” said Harry, a tourist from Australia.
