Vietnam - What is

Because a scheduled meeting with a representative of An Giang University was brought forward, I had an opportunity to visit a couple of museums in Hu Chi Min City (Saigon) to better understand Vietnam.  

At the Museum of Art, I was somewhat surprised to find quite a lot of pieces that are obviously Khmer (Cambodian).

There are some that look Hindu, such as a statue of the elephant-headed deity of good fortune - Ganesha.  Apparently, these were found in the south of Vietnam. 

I recalled that I had seen earlier, in the Mekong Delta, temples with distinctive Khmer features. I was told that there are still some Khmer people living in the delta.  In fact, many Cambodians claim that they once owned the Mekong Delta.  Khmer culture was heavily influenced by the Hindus - Ankor Wat was mostly a vast group of Hindu Temples. 

On the other hand, at the Museum of Medicine, I found a lot of Chinese influence. Many of the older books on medicine were written in a form of Chinese characters.  

The graphical illustrations of the human body, the names of the herbal ingredients, etc., were in Chinese characters.  

The prescriptions, the tools, etc., were also very similar to those in China.  I understand that throughout history, China had occupied part of northern Vietnam at different points in time.  

I also heard that Vietnam has many different ethnic minorities.  

Despite the Khmer/Hindu and Chinese influence, Vietnam has obviously develop a clear national identity, particularly through the war of independence in the 1940s and 50s against the French, and the war in the 1960s and 70s against the Americans.  In recent years, the Vietnamese economy is growing very fast, the society seems full of energy and the people are hopeful for the future.  

In the larger context,  Vietnam is part of Indochina - literally the land between India and China, or the land under the influence of India and China.  Hence all these should not come as a surprise.  Nowadays, this peninsular - comprising of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, is just as likely, and increasingly, referred to as Continental South East Asia, or Mainland South East Asia.  

In its history, the idea of Vietnam as a nation has evolved.  Its boundary has also changed.  So have most other countries.  Has the world reached a stage where the countries of countries are more or less settled?  There remain uncertainties, such as Crimea between Ukraine and Russia, Kashmir between Pakistan and India, etc.  Hopefully these remain constrained.  Historically, territorial conflicts have a way of flaring up into serious conflagrations with much suffering.