The recognition was announced during the 2018 General Meeting of the committee at Gwangju, South Korea.
The document, containing historical maps dating back to the 18th century that charted a Vietnamese envoy’s journey to China.
The document belonged to the Nguyen Huy family in the central province of Ha Tinh.
With writings, drawings and maps, the book recorded the diplomatic relationship between Vietnam and China in the 18th century through journeys of Vietnamese envoys.
Specifically, the document described the mission of the Vietnam envoys to China, which represents the exchanges between countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The book with the main part is a photo-taking record with many pictures, rich and rare information.
The book was compiled and edited by Nguyen Huy Oanh (1713-1789) who collected all documents of previous envoys and historical records as well as notes from his own journey in 1766-1767, during which he worked as the main envoy of the Vietnamese delegation.
At the 7th meeting, the document was highly appreciated by many countries as a rare and precious record of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and China since the feudal era of the 18th century. Furthermore, it was contributed to the maintenance of peace among the peoples in the region and the world.
The dossier of the book received 17 votes from 17 members of the panel.
The eighth meeting of MOWCAP took place on May 29-31 in Gwangju, South Korea attracting 125 representatives from 28 countries.
The Memory of the World Program is an international program aimed at safeguarding, preserving and facilitating access to and the use of documentary heritage. UNESCO launched the program in 1992. It includes the inscription of significant documentary heritage on national, regional and international registers.
MOWCAP was set up in 1998 and is the regional forum for UNESCO’s global Memory of the World (MOW) Program. MOWCAP aims to assist with the preservation of and universal access to documentary heritage of the Asia Pacific region, and also to increase awareness of the existence and significance of the heritage.
