Museum of ethnology in Hanoi

The praiseworthy Vietnam Museum of Ethnicity, Nguyen Van Huyen Street, was designed with the help of the Musee del'Homme in Paris. It is well worth the trip to observe the depth of Vietnam's cultural diversity. The museum features all astounding collection of art and everyday objects with some 15,000 artefacts gathered from throughout Vietnam. 

It has excellent maps and the displays are well labelled in Vietnamese, French and English. Interesting dioramas portray a typical village market, the making of conical hats and a Tay shamanic ceremony, while videos show the real life contexts. Visitors can also enter a traditional Black Thai house reconstructed within the museum. There is also a centre for research and conservation and staff regularly collaborate with ethnographers and scholars from Japan, France, and the Netherlands, Canada, USA and other countries. A craft shop here affiliated with Craft Link, a fair trade organization sells books, postcards and arts and crafts from ethnic communities.