The exhibition provides visitors with knowledge and stories of the Incas including rituals and daily life. — VNS Photo Minh Thu

HÀ NỘI — Drawings dating from the 16th century reflecting the history of Peru are on display at an exhibition that opened yesterday in Hà Nội.

The ancient knowledge and stories of the Incas including rituals and daily life are introduced through uniqueimages.

The exhibition The Beginning of a History is being held by the National Library of Việt Nam and the Peruvian Embassy on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

The exhibition shows drawings from the book The New Chronicle and Good Government, written by Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala who was born in 1534. 

His book represents the most important colonial source of information about the Andean world, not only during the second half of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, but also on the world prior to the Spanish arrival in 1531. 

He left to posterity a text written in colonial Spanish with a strong influence of Quechua and Aymara languages, which was inspired by the millennial and predominantly oral Andean traditions.

A drawing describes the rituals of the Moon Festival in September.

With almost 1,200 pages and 400 drawings,  the book is divided in two parts: the New Chronicle, which addresses the history of the Incas before the colonial period, and Good Government, which deals with recommendations from Guaman Poma to King Philip III on how to properly rule the Indies. 

"The result is an exceptional piece, not only for the quantity and value of the documented information both written and iconographic, but also for the oral Andean perspectives, comprehensively articulated through his texts and drawings, introducing categories of thought that tend to be forbidden or hardly mentioned in other Castilian Chronicles of the time,” said Ambassador Augusto Morelli.

The exhibition will run until May 15 at 31 Tràng Thi Street, Hà Nội. — VNS