In his speech at the opening ceremony, Mr. Pham Tuan Dat – Chairman of the People’s Committee of Uong Bi City emphasized: “Yen Tu is a sacred and fortunate land of the country, it is closely associated with the name and great career of King Tran Nhan Tong and his great contributions to the country through two victories against the invading Yuan-Mongols”.
CAPITAL OF VIETNAMESE BUDDHISM
After two glorious resistance wars, when the country was in peace, He voluntarily left the golden throne and passed it on to his son, King Tran Anh Tong, to focus on studying Buddhism. In 1299, King Tran Nhan Tong officially went to Yen Tu Mountain to practice Buddhism, taking the Buddhist name Dieu Ngu Giac Hoang, becoming the founder of the Truc Lam Zen sect.
“In Tran Nhan Tong’s personality and career, Religion and life are always harmonious and closely linked for the happiness of the people, for the sustainable development of the country. It is for this reason that later generations always believe that Yen Tu is the birthplace of the Truc Lam Zen sect and Tran Nhan Tong is the Buddha Emperor of Vietnam,” Mr. Pham Tuan Dat affirmed.
Having experienced many ups and downs in history, Yen Tu always preserves the sacred soul of Vietnamese culture, containing the eternal spiritual strength throughout the ages, because our ancestors have left behind dozens of pagodas, hundreds of towers, thousands of ancient artifacts containing the spiritual values and thoughts of the Truc Lam Zen sect and the glorious and magnificent culture of the Dai Viet period.
The Buddhist spirit of the Truc Lam Zen sect still lives on in the national culture, of which the most prominent is the spirit of integration, the lively integration between life and religion, taking Religion to build a good life and through Life to establish Religion. Therefore, Yen Tu is always considered the capital of Vietnamese Buddhism, the “Land of Buddha”, the “sacred place of a thousand years”, a place of pilgrimage and convergence for millions of tourists, people, and Buddhists who come here every year to visit and worship Buddha.
“To continue to elevate the value of Yen Tu, in recent years, Quang Ninh province has actively coordinated with Bac Giang province, Hai Duong province to complete the scientific dossier “Yen Tu – Vinh Nghiem – Con Son, Kiep Bac monuments and scenic complex” submitted to UNESCO for consideration and recognition as World Heritage.”
Mr. Pham Tuan Dat – Chairman of the People’s Committee of Uong Bi City, Quang Ninh province.
According to Mr. Pham Tuan Dat, with great spiritual and cultural values, Yen Tu has now become an invaluable treasure and a pride not only of the people of Quang Ninh but also of the entire nation. The Truc Lam Yen Tu Cultural Center project has been completed, this is a great cultural and spiritual work with great value, traditional architecture imbued with the national cultural identity, harmonious with the Yen Tu national cultural and scenic complex with an investment value of about VND 250 billion from socialization sources.
The Chairman of the People’s Committee of Uong Bi City said that the Spring Festival has become a traditional cultural beauty of the Vietnamese people, every spring, millions of tourists return to Yen Tu, the sacred mountain. Returning to Yen Tu is returning to the origin, we seem to relive in the atmosphere of a glorious historical period of the nation. Returning to Yen Tu, to penetrate the Buddhist teachings more deeply, to express reverence for the Buddha Emperor, to sincerely pray at the meditation door, and to wish everyone, every family a new year full of abundance, warmth, peace, and happiness.
“With the sincere worship of the Buddha Emperor, the deep love for the country of every Vietnamese, the Yen Tu festival every year is a reminder to the younger generations to always remember the origin, to bow in respect and gratitude to our ancestors and to pray for the Buddha Emperor to continue to bless and protect the nation, at the same time must cherish, preserve, and promote the precious traditional cultural values left by our ancestors, strive to maintain, succeed, and promote the good traditional values of our ancestors, of the nation in the Ho Chi Minh era of building and developing the country,” emphasized Mr. Pham Tuan Dat.
At the opening ceremony, the monks performed the national prayer ceremony. In addition, the delegates will sequentially perform the sacred seal ceremony on the Yen Tu seal. Besides, the ceremony also includes other interesting activities such as bell ringing, drum beating, New Year blessings, and so on. It is known that before the festival, the Quang Ninh Provincial Buddhist Association will hold a ceremony to open Yen Tu Forest. After that, the monks and the local people will perform rituals to pray for a safe and beautiful festival such as offering incense, chanting Buddhist texts, worshiping the heavens and the earth, Buddha, and the mountain deities,…
3-MONTH PILGRIMAGE FESTIVAL IN SPRING
After the opening ceremony, visitors begin their pilgrimage to worship the Buddha, moving to the top of Yen Tu Mountain under the shade of large ancient trees and the misty smoke, feeling as if they are entering the realm of the Buddha.
This year, the traditional Yen Tu Spring Festival is organized in a solemn, safe, healthy, and economical manner, bearing the national character. Throughout the festival, there will be unique cultural activities such as organizing folk games, traditional art performances in the Yen Tu Village area; displaying, exhibiting propaganda drawings, photos, and promoting the glorious and majestic values and beauty of Yen Tu.
In the 9 days from the 1st to the day before the opening ceremony, Yen Tu Heritage Site has received 138,000 visitors for sightseeing and worshiping Buddha, an increase of 19% compared to the same period in 2023, contributing to achieving the target of attracting 17 million visitors in 2024 together with other localities in the province.
Mr. Le Tien Dung, Head of the Management Board of Yen Tu National Heritage and Forest, said that to prepare for the festival, the authorities of Uong Bi City have focused on renovating and planning the roads, parking lots, internal facilities and renovating the temples’ internal facilities; the lighting system, signage, railings; the one-way traffic separation plan for ascending and descending has been arranged reasonably and safely to ensure that numerous visitors can leisurely enjoy the sightseeing.
“From the 30th of Tet until now, we have been on duty at the heritage site to ensure the festival activities and forest protection work. The Yen Tu Festival lasts for 3 months in the spring for people to make pilgrimages, we closely coordinate with the Quang Ninh Provincial Police, Uong Bi City Police, and functional forces to ensure public order and safety, traffic safety, environmental sanitation, fire and explosion prevention, medical work, religious and belief activities in accordance with legal regulations, thereby ensuring the safety of visitors coming to worship Buddha,” shared Mr. Dung.
