city of a thousand years 2

On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Le Petit Prince

When my classmate Kay mentioned her new scholarly interests- anthropology and intangible cultural heritage- one of the culturally significant tales I thought of was the legend of Ho Hoan Kiem or Returned Sword Lake. You can see the lake in the middle ground of the picture, taken on a terrace of an outdoor cafe in Hanoi's historical district.

When I first rode a cyclo around Ho Hoan Kiem, I was reminded of the lake in Burnham Park in the mountain city of Baguio where my brothers and I spent summers biking. I didn't think much of Ho Hoan Kiem until I read about the legend surrounding it that transformed it in my eyes into an emerald jewel: here was an invisible key to understanding Vietnam and its people.

Here is how Nguyen Van Ky tells the legend in the book Hanoi: City of the Rising Dragon, co-authored with Frenchman Georges Boudarel:

One of Hanoi's most famous legends is that of Returned Sword Lake. It is said that a mythical tortoise gave its sacred sword to King Le Lot (r. 1428-33), allowing him to expel the occupying forces of the Chinese Ming dynasty in the fifteenth century after ten years of resistance. The people from Hanoi also love to tell stories about the etymological origins of Thang Long, the city's first name. When the boats of Ly Cong Uan, the founder of the eleventh-century Ly dynasty, arrived on the site from Hoa Lu, a golden dragon appeared to welcome them and then flew off into the sky. This good omen convinced the king to build the capital there, calling it Thang Long, which means "the rising dragon."

The divine sword is said to have been "restored" since, after King Le Lot's victory over foreign invaders and while he was boating on the lake, the golden tortoise emerged from the deep once more and took back the sacred blade that the gods gave the king to save his people.

In the Philippines, an etymological legend about a lake I've come across is that of Lake Lanao- said to have been created by angels- which is why I'm drawn to visit the land of the Maranao, the People of the Lake, someday.

city of a thousand years 1

When I visited Hanoi- the political capital of Vietnam- two years ago, little did I know that it would be celebrating 1000 years this year- from 1 to 10 October 2010. I consider that trip personally significant because it was when I sought to discover my identity as an Asian.

In the university, all of us undergrads took a semester-long foundation subject called Kasaysayan 2 (History 2) on Asian History. In high school, we also tackled important events in the history of the world's largest continent. I was aware of the Srivijaya and Majapahit empires, heritage sites like the Angkor Wat, and religious artifacts like the lingam- but it was all intellectual. I didn't feel very Asian at all- that is, I couldn't relate to neighboring cultures- even if I knew that geographically the Philippines is in Asia: I practiced a religion adopted from the West, spoke English and wrote using the Roman alphabet, and watched Hollywood films. Whenever I travelled to Asian countries- before Vietnam, I had been to China, Thailand and Cambodia, for example- I felt like an observer who was passing through, rather than the bearer of a continental culture.

While Western cultural software gave me self-confidence and opened up capacious worlds, it also led me to ignore traditions and patterns- Malay, Islamic, Confucian and others- that are at least as culturally rich as those from Europe or America, many of which as an Asian are already part of who I am. I've just had to learn to see them.

The above travel video shows Hanoi, city of a thousand years, as well as Ha Long Bay, in my eyes- the eyes of a 21st century Manileño. The score is the theme song of a Filipino TV drama, Vietnam Rose, sung by Filipino balladeer Martin Nievera (thanks to ABS-CBN).