(VOVworld)-An exhibit devoted to the Nghe animal, a fictional creature with a lion-like head, a long tail and a dog-like body, in ancient Vietnamese sculpture has opened in Ho Chi Minh City. On display are sculptural masterpieces and research on the Nghe animal.
Buffalos and dogs are closely associated with Vietnam. Buffalos help Vietnamese people to do farm work. Dogs guard the house against strangers and wild animals. Vietnamese people often created stone sculptures of dogs and placed them as security guards beside village or house gates. These stone dogs are sometimes cared realistically, but often they are just vaguely dog-shaped rocks. When they are placed in temples or pagodas, they are spiritualized and fictionalized into a creature with a lion-like head, a long tail and a dog-like body, known as a Nghe in Vietnamese. Over the centuries, Nghe has become a sacred animal in Vietnamese culture. Unlike the Chinese unicorn, the Vietnamese Nghe has no horns, a small body, and feet like a dog’s. Nguyen Thanh Tung is a cultural researcher in Ho Chi Minh City: “Our Nghe animal is fictional. It is unlike any other animal. I’m very happy to see young people visiting the exhibit. They are excited to see objects and materials on display inspired by traditional culture”.

In many centuries, stone Nghes have been used as decorations in Vietnamese temples. Images of Nghes are carved on roof beams, on knife handles and on corners of roofs. They can be seen in communal houses in Ha Nam, Thai Binh, Ha Tinh, and Nghe An province.

The exhibit showcases 66 Nghe sculptures made of different materials- stone, pottery, wood, copper, and glazed terra-cotta. A number of scientific documents about Vietnamese sculpture in the Ly, Tran, Le and Nguyen dynasties from the 11^th to the 19^th century are on display. Tran Thi Huynh Mai is a student in the Fine Arts Faculty of Van Lang University in Ho Chi Minh City: “Visiting the exhibit, I learned how images and symbols depicted in Vietnamese sculpture are different from those elsewhere in Southeast Asia and China. This will be very helpful in my work”.

In the face of increasing intrusion of foreign culture into Vietnam, it’s important to promote traditional Vietnamese culture more widely. Exhibits like this will help to popularize Vietnam’s arts and increase the public’s respect for Vietnamese culture.