Published:  00:00 Tuesday - July 21, 2009

A giant coconut shell mosaic depicting General Vo Nguyen Giap and his victory at Dien Bien Phu has been placed on display in time to celebrate the hero’s upcoming 99th birthday on August 25.

After a two-day exhibition at the Ho Chi Minh City Exhibition Hall on Le Thanh Ton street, the painting will be brought to Quang Binh, Gen. Giap’s native province, for an official exhibition in co-ordination with several other events in the province next month.

The 2.4m by 10.8m artwork, made from 9,000 coconut shells, 100 litres of glue and some other parts from coconut trees, was finished over a forty-day period by a group of ten people under the supervision of artist Vo Quy Quoc.

The work Anh Hung Dien Bien (Heros of Dien Bien) features the battle at Dien Bien Phu which liberated the Vietnamese from the French in 1954, and an image of General Giap, the brilliant commander-in-chief in the battle.

The mosaic tells the story of Giap and the battle in mural form. Mr Quoc spent more than a year researching and collecting materials for the giant artwork. He said that he spent around VND1 billion on materials and wages to his team and has donated the finished mosaic to Quang Binh province.

The new work is being proposed as the record-holder for the longest coconut shell painting in Vietnam. Mr Quoc has two previous works listed in the Vietnam Book of Records.

The first, Vietnam Que Huong Toi (Vietnam My Motherland), made in 2007, and 2008’s Bai Ca Ket Doan (Song of Solidarity), feature President Ho Chi Minh conducting a choir representing all 54 of the nation’s ethnic groups.