A more than two-tonne wooden book, engraved with 133 calligraphed poems of Ho Chi Minh, is finished. This is the heaviest calligraphy wooden book in Vietnam.

The poems in the 3.4 metre high book are from President Ho Chi Minh’s Nhat Ky Trong Tu (Prison’s Diary).

Each wooden page weights 10 to 15 kg and is 25 cm thick. If all the pages were arranged next to each other, their total length would be 80 metres.

It takes 15 days to finish a poem. Firstly, each poem is written in calligraphy on a page with a brush and then the words are engraved and gilded.

Sinologist and calligrapher Nguyen Nhuan Duc has made the book with help from engraver Tran Duy Hung and Phan Dinh Ngon, director of Green and Parks Co.  in Hue City, which provided the wood. (SGT)