The main managing agency responsible for science and technology (S&T) in Vietnam is the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). MOST's responsibilities include scientific research, technology development and innovation activities; development of science and technology potentials; intellectual property; standards, metrology and quality control; atomic energy, radiation and nuclear safety; and state management on public services in fields under the Ministry’s management as stipulated by law.
Background
The origins of science and technology in Vietnam can be traced to rudimentary developments dating to around 20,000 BCE, during the Sơn Vi culture, a Late Paleolithic culture in Vietnam characterized by stone tools associated with the manufacture of implements from river pebbles. Archaeologists have discovered pebble tools similar to those found elsewhere in the world dating from the same period in the provinces of Sơn La and Phú Thọ. By knapping stone to produce sharp-edged tools for hunting and gathering and self-defense against potential threats, these early inhabitants took some of the first steps toward applying rudimentary knowledge to the transformation of the material world. Following the Stone Age, the Đông Sơn culture, a Bronze Age culture dating from approximately 1000 BCE to 100 CE, emerged in the Red River valley of northern Vietnam.
The culture marked a high point in metallurgy and sophisticated bronze casting, combined with intensive wet-rice cultivation, the domestication of livestock, poultry, waterfowl, and other animals within the rice civilization, as well as advanced seafaring and shipbuilding techniques. Đông Sơn bronze drums, with their elaborate geometric motifs and complex mathematical symmetry, reflect not only a sophisticated aesthetic sensibility but also advanced control of furnace temperatures and mold-casting techniques. Because of the prominence of Đông Sơn bronze casting, it has sometimes been mistakenly assumed that its inhabitants were unfamiliar with iron smelting and forging. In fact, archaeologists have discovered numerous iron weapons and tools, as well as iron slag, at Đông Sơn sites, indicating that ironworking existed alongside bronze casting. At the Gò Chiền Vậy site in Hoài Đức, Hanoi, part of the well-known Vườn Chuối archaeological complex, an iron hoe dating to approximately 2,400 years ago was discovered, providing direct evidence of ironworking technology during the Đông Sơn period.
Particularly notable is the axe from burial M.37. It is a cast-iron axe produced by casting and still preserves two distinct casting seams.Hà Văn Tấn and Hoàng Văn Khoán, Hùng Vương dựng nước (IV), Hanoi: Social Sciences Publishing House, 1974, pp. 203–211. Archaeologists have also discovered a fragment of a cast-iron hoe.Basa, K., “Iron Age in Southeast Asia,” Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, vol. 2, no. 1 (1991), pp. 52–64, https://doi.org/10.5334/pia.15. Thus, the Đông Sơn people were familiar not only with iron forging, carried out below the melting temperature of iron alloys, but also with cast iron technology, in which molten iron was poured into molds to produce tools. Đông Sơn metalworkers presumably constructed blast furnace-type furnaces capable of reaching temperatures sufficient to melt iron, through furnace design and possibly advances in bellows technology, nearly 2,000 years before the technique arrived in the West.Hà Văn Tấn and Hoàng Văn Khoán, Hùng Vương dựng nước (IV), Hanoi: Social Sciences Publishing House, 1974, p. 210. European metalworkers did not master cast-iron technology until approximately 1300.Bennet Bronson, “Notes on the History of Iron in Thailand,” Journal of the Siam Society, vol. 73, nos. 1–2 (1985), p. 210.
The Đông Sơn culture was characterized by intensive wet-rice agriculture, the domestication of water buffalo and pigs, fishing and seafaring, and, most notably, sophisticated bronze-casting techniques exemplified by the characteristic Đông Sơn bronze drums, decorated with geometric patterns, scenes of warfare, animals, and boats. Legends surrounding the era of the Hùng kings, including the iron horse of Saint Gióng, the construction of Cổ Loa Citadel, and the magic crossbow, suggest ancient traditions concerning metallurgy, military engineering, and large-scale construction. Following the Đông Sơn period, Vietnam entered a prolonged period of conflict with China, beginning with the Qin–Vietnam War. Through contact and exchange, various technologies and scientific developments associated with the Han dynasty—recorded in Chinese sources, including negative numbers in mathematics, seismological instruments, advances in metallurgy, junk-type vessels, and turtle carts—were transmitted southward into Vietnam. Vietnamese medical practices likewise combined indigenous materials and knowledge with techniques associated with traditional Chinese medicine, contributing to the development of Vietnamese traditional medicine.
In shipbuilding, Chinese texts record the existence of so-called "copper ships" in Jiaozhou, the Han Chinese name for the region corresponding to northern Vietnam, at least 1,500 years before the emergence of copper-sheathed vessels in Britain: "[...] in the river there are copper ships cast by the Việt king; when the river tide recedes, people can see them."酈道元 (Li Daoyuan), Shui Jing Zhu (水經注), in 影印古籍《欽定四庫全書·史部十一·地理類》, Zhejiang University Library, accessed 10 June 2025. Original text: 「江中有越王所鑄銅船，潮水退時，人有見之者。」 Another account states: "The Việt people cast copper into boats; when the waters of rivers and lakes recede, they can be seen."劉欣期 (Liu Xinqi), Jiaozhou Ji (交州記), 嶺南遺書本, Daoguang 30 (1850), accessed 8 July 2025, https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/交州記_(嶺南遺書本). Original text: 「越人鑄銅爲船在江潮退時見。」 These ancient Vietnamese copper ships may have consisted of wooden hulls covered with a thin layer of copper, perhaps developed in response to the severe problem of shipworm infestation in tropical waters. Without such protection, wooden hulls could deteriorate rapidly, requiring frequent replacement of bottom planks. Joseph Needham suggested that, if this interpretation is correct, copper-sheathed junks may have originated from an indigenous tradition rather than from the vessels of Lake Nemi.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4, pt. III (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), p. 442.
The development of watertight compartments in shipbuilding has been attributed to shipyards in Jiaozhou during the period associated with Lu Xun (4th–5th centuries CE). This technique may have formed part of the maritime shipbuilding tradition of the Gulf of Tonkin at the time. Such bulkheads could prevent water from flooding the entire vessel when the hull was damaged. Sailors could isolate a flooded compartment and pump out the water, allowing the vessel to remain afloat and return to a place of safety. Two boat outriggers excavated at Hà Mãn in Thuận Thành, Bắc Ninh province, provide evidence for the use of structural partitions as early as the late Đông Sơn period, around the 2nd–3rd centuries CE. The partitions of the Hà Mãn boat apparently served to connect the strakes of the hulls rather than to isolate watertight compartments. Nevertheless, the development from the Hà Mãn structural partitions to the use of a keel and watertight bulkheads in vessels associated with Lu Xun may have been separated by only a relatively short step.Nguyễn Việt, “Khai quật tàu đắm Bình Châu – thuyền gỗ và xưởng thuyền,” Thể thao & Văn hóa, 2026, https://thethaovanhoa.vn/khai-quat-tau-dam-binh-chau-thuyen-go-va-xuong-thuyen-20260604060819312.htm.
Following the Dong Son period, Vietnam came into an extended period of conflict with China beginning with the Baiyue-Qin War. Via contact, many other Han discoveries that were translated into Chinese (negative numbers in math, seismometers, advancements in metallurgy, junk ships, and wheelbarrows to name just a few) made their way south to Vietnam. Vietnamese medical discoveries employed native ingredients that had incorporated practices from Chinese traditional medicine.
Vietnam also created an imperial examination system which produced a scholar-bureaucrat class of scientific researchers and publications. In the Battle of Bạch Đằng in 938 when Ngô Quyền developed a technique of sinking intruding Chinese navy fleets. The same original technique of sinking naval fleets developed by Ngô Quyền was later employed by Vietnamese generals to repel the Mongol invasions of Vietnam, an empire that would later go on to rule much of China, Russia, Europe and the Arab world.
Science and technology during the Lý dynasty developed alongside the consolidation of the independent Đại Việt state and encompassed a wide range of fields, including architecture, mechanical engineering, metallurgy, military technology, and maritime technology. Planners during the reign of Emperor Lý Thái Tổ employed a method of collineation measurement to carefully determine the locations and orientations of structures within the imperial citadel of Thăng Long. This method formed part of the broader “process” of imperial capital planning used by Chinese dynasties such as the Song and Yuan. It involved surveying a straight line through three points, using natural landmarks in combination with artificial markers, and applying the principle of similar triangles on an urban scale. In the case of the Thăng Long Citadel, Tản Viên Mountain, Nùng Mountain, Tam Mountain, Khán Mountain, and other peaks served as natural landmarks.Dinh, Theanh and Ren, Xiaogeng, “Collineation Measurement: A Method for Constructing the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long in Harmony with Nature,” Frontiers of Architectural Research 11, no. 6 (December 2022): 1062–1076, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2022.04.010.
In mechanical engineering, machines were not only employed in production but were also designed for ceremonial and spiritual activities. According to the Sùng Thiện Diên Linh stele, during the reign of Emperor Lý Nhân Tông (1066–1128), he ordered the construction of the Quảng Chiếu lantern pavilion:
“Erect a high platform at Quảng Chiếu; facing the courtyard before the Đoan Môn Gate, set up a pillar in the center and seven tiers outside. A dragon-shaped body coils around and supports golden lotuses; embroidered silk lanterns enclose auspicious flowers. Conceal machinery beneath the ground and set the wheels turning; let the light blaze beneath the heavens, dazzling like the sun.”
According to scholars Phạm Văn Triệu and Phạm Lê Huy, this Quảng Chiếu lantern pavilion was a form of single-column structure, with the central column functioning as a rotating shaft supported by a stone bearing. Other rotating mechanical devices also existed, including the “Thôi luân vũ đình” (a rotating stage that could be pushed to turn), dating to the reign of Lý Nhân Tông, and the “Diên Mệnh” lantern, whose pennants and banners could be made to move, dating to the reign of Lý Thần Tông.
The Lý court went beyond monumental mechanical devices and also created highly sophisticated mechanical figures, or automatons, capable of performing relatively complex movements in response to commands: “A monk was carved, his body clad in a cassock; a concealed mechanism moved a lever and raised a mallet to produce a sound. Upon hearing the teaching, his face became solemn; gazing upon the sage, he bent his back and bowed his head.”Nguyễn Ngọc Phương Đông, Kì công diệu nghệ: Một số kĩ thuật và công nghệ trên dải đất hình chữ S trước thế kỉ XX, Hanoi: Kim Đồng Publishing House, 2025, pp. 71–73.