This is a mausoleum housing the preserved body of Ho Chi Minh, founder of unified Vietnam, laid in a glass case for public viewing. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum building is constructed in an Soviet/Communist style austere architecture. This dedication to 'Uncle Ho,' as he is known to the Vietnamese, is one of the nation's most revered sites and as such this is a tingling, and eerie, experience
What I experienced here
Ho Chi Minh’s embalmed body is surrounded by uniformed guards in a dimly lit austere room in a building of typical Communist and Stalinist type architecture. The structure in which the body is placed, is a gray cubicle surrounded by columns which is not covered so you can get a good look at the body. Very eerie! Above, there is a square fresco engraved with the words "Chu Tich (President) Ho Chi Minh" written in red marble.
Just next to the mausoleum is the presidential Palace but Ho Chi Minh preferred to stay in a stilted house close by. There is also a museum depicting his life and work. The one pillar of Pagoda is next to the museum.
We were shepherded or rather marched around the grounds under close supervision of uniformed communist guards. We visited the one pillar Pagoda and the Ho Chi Minh Museum.
I felt as if I was being watched at all times by the large numbers of uniformed guards stationed all around the site. The building architecture made you feel as if you walked into a time warp when communism was rampant. I had a feeling of being in an old movie from the times of the soviet empire. It was a strange feeling of being in a place where so many people seem to have no individual identity and worship a single person like Ho Chi Ming. The deification of an individual to the point that his body is preserved and displayed made one feel that the people were alien, or at least alien in mind, how could such worship and belief in one individual be possible?
Ho Chi Minh was a revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1945–1955) and president (1945–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).
Ho Chi Minh was born on the 19th May 1890, after his death on 2 September 1969 at Hanoi from a heart attack, he was embalmed and displayed in this granite mausoleum. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi was built on the basis of the model of Lenin's Tomb in Moscow. Ho Chi Minh wished that he be cremated after his death and his ashes buried on three hilltops spread in the three main regions of Vietnam. However, his body was embalmed following the tradition upheld by other Communist leaders across the world.
The mausoleum took 2 years to build from 1973 to 1975. The building materials including the exterior granite and the decorative interior wood were sourced from the various regions of Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh served as both the Prime Minister and President of North Vietnam, he was known to the Vietnamese people as Uncle Ho’ meaning "he who enlightens," he also inspired the foundation of Ho Chi Minh City.