The Vietnamese Traditional Medicine Museum
I love visiting museums that have that musty old smell and feel; museums that make you feel like you can almost taste the history.
Museums that do not hide all their artifacts behind glass cabinets, but place the objects out in the open so that you can get up close and real with a piece of history.
This always makes me feel closer and more in touch with the objects, and the history and stories that these objects contain.
When visiting the museum of Vietnamese Traditional Medicine, this is exactly the feeling you get.
The decor and close proximity of the objects bring the objects and their history more to life in their rustic realness.
Walking through the 5 story building, the museum is an archive of objects and information regarding the development of traditional Vietnamese medicine.
In total the museum occupies 16 rooms, and each room has its own theme.
My favorite room was the room containing the huge 19th century cabinet with its 81 draws for holding herbs.
These cabinets contained every herb that a traditional herbal doctor might need such as dried ginger for warmth, various roots for pain relief, or flowers for blood circulation.
Situated along with the huge wooden cabinet are the tools, boards and seals for preparing remedies, and with everything all on display, it was difficult not to try and think back and imagine what exactly it would have been like for an 18th century peasant to have visited a herbal doctor in those days.
Another of my favorite rooms displayed all the feudal treatments used by the king and his family.
In this room all the chairs are decorated in the royal color, yellow, and on the wall are red-lacquered pictures of the Trinh lord's palace trimmed with gold.
Another interesting room held pictures of 15 famous doctors from the 12th to the 18th century, and a picture bearing the statement of the great Vietnamese physician Tue Tinh: "Nam duoc tri nam nhan", or "The Vietnamese are best treated by Vietnamese herbs."
In this way, each room brings to life and highlights some aspect of Vietnamese traditional medicine, highlighting some of its major practitioners, how it was preformed and the tools and techniques that the practitioners used.
Situated on Hoang Du Khuong Street, all visitors at The Museum of Vietnamese traditional medicine are taken around the museum by a guide; the tour takes approximately one hour. The notes are in both English and Vietnamese, and to visit the museum costs VND 32,000 for adults, and VND 16,000 for children.
41 Hoang Du Khuong, Dist 10
Tel :864 2430
Email: fitomuseum@hcm.fpt.vn
web: www.fitomusem.com.vn
Times: Daily 9am to 5.30pm
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