Vietnam presents precious map to House of European History

Vice President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam Nguyen Hung Son has presented the “An Nam dai quoc hoa do” (Map of the Great Country of An Nam) to the House of European History in Brussels, Belgium. The presentation is a vivid illustration of the close relations between Vietnam and Belgium in the fields of politics, culture, and history.

The special map, which is 84 cm long and 45 cm wide, was drawn by Jean Louis Taberd from France and published in India’s Serampore city in 1838. It depicts the archipelago of “Paracel seu Cat Vang” - the Hoang Sa archipelago within Vietnamese waters.

It was the largest and most complete map of Vietnam at the time. Its name is written in three languages - Han (Chinese characters), Vietnamese script, and Latin script. All landmarks on the map, including those in China, Laos, and Cambodia, are written in Vietnamese script, while the footnotes are in Vietnamese, Latin and French characters.

The “Paracel seu Cat Vang” written on the map affirms that the archipelago is Cat Vang, or Hoang Sa in Vietnamese.

During his stay in Belgium and Europe, Son also received 13 sets of documents on Vietnamese borders and territory from international law professor Jean Salmon, including a valuable document set on Vietnam’s Hoang Sa archipelago written in 1960./.

VNA