This year, the annual festival is being held on April 2nd-4th (February 17th-19th of the lunar calendar) at Quan The Am (Avalokitesvara) pagoda amongst the Marble Mountains landscape in central Da Nang city’s Ngu Hanh Son district.
Honoring Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva while praying for peace and prosperity and happiness for the nation, it includes religious ceremonies and festival activities, including a prayer ceremony, a candle-lit flower release, a Zen-tea exhibition, photo and painting exhibitions, calligraphy performances and boat races.
Photo: Dinh Tang
Photo for illustration: danangfantasticity.com
During the opening ceremony on April 2nd, the organizing board announced the two Vietnamese Guinness records for the largest Buddhist flag and the first nation’s Buddhism Culture Museum. The project, which covers over 500 squarer meters, was started in 2015 and cost a total of VND6 billion. It features 500 rare and valuable Buddhist artifacts (200 of them antiquities) about the development of Buddhism in Vietnam in different periods, such as Buddha statues, paintings and Buddhism-related items made of wood, bronze, stone, jade and ceramics.
Mr Nguyen Hoa, Vice head of Ngu Hanh Son district People’s Committee and Standing Vice head of the organizing board said that under the guidance of the Da Nang city people’s Committee, 2018 is the second time the event was organized by social mobilization, seeing some international delegations from India, Japan, Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Spain and local units. It is expected to welcome 60,000-80,000 visitors.
The pagoda, built in 1957, is located at the foot of the Kim Son in the Ngu Hanh Son (Marble Mountains with five element mountains) area. It is about 8 kilometers away from the city centre and is a wonderful natural landscape with several ancient pagodas, mysterious caves and picturesque scenery./.