almost 1000 years ago, in 1072, the 'school of the nation' was founded by king ly thanh within the 'temple of literature', to become vietnam's first (kind of) university and providing confucian education. from 1484 onwards, stelae were erected to list the names of graduates - altogether 1300 scholars were honoured this way! (imagine if melbourne university would do that) ... there aren't any students anymore, as the place was shut down in 1915, but i imagine they looked like the people in my last pic (well i reckon the two guys in the upper right corner were rather lecturers?)
