Bảo tàng lịch sử Quốc gia

Da Boi stele, wood, erected in 1269AD., discovered in Thuy Anh district, Thai Binh province.

The Da Boi wooden stele was discovered in early September 1962 AD. in Bai Thuong (previously Da Boi) village, Thuy Phuc commune, Thuy Anh district, Thai Binh province. The inscriptions are carved along the wooden body and reflect the king’s policy of “dien trang, thai ap” which allocated public land to nobles and people of merit. During the Tran dynasty, “dien trang” were large farms that were owned and managed by the nobles. There, the nobles could use slave labour and they had the right to inherit the farms. While “dien trang” were owned by nobles, “thai ap” was the land that the King allocated to people of merit. A “thai ap” was rather small; its size was equal to one or two communes only. Especially, there was a Nom character “Dong” carved on the stele (Nom characters were created by the Viet people on the basis of Chinese characters) which partly shows the use of Nom characters in this period. Thus, the Da Boi wooden stele is not only a rare and precious historical artefact that reflects the land allocation policy of “dien trang, thai ap” of the Tran dynasty, but it is also a manifestation of the use of Nom characters during the 13^th – 14^th centuries AD. which previously was only known to us through historical documents.