As a precious gift of nature endowed to Da Nang, the Marble Mountains Tourist Area in Ngu Hanh Son District’s Hoa Hai Ward, is one of best places to visit in the city.

An overview of the Marble Mountains Tourist Area from above

A lot of the legends and folklore about the mountains have been spread through by word of mouth.

One local tale is that the mountains originate from egg shells. Legend has it that a golden turtle came to the seashore and laid 5 eggs a long time ago. When the eggs hatched, their shells turned into 5 mountains.

Each mountain is made of different coloured marble - there is pink marble in Water Mountain, white marble in Wood Mountain, red marble in Fire Mountain, water-coloured marble in Metal Mountain, and brown marble in Earth Mountain.

Releasing balloons to pray for peace for the people and the country at the Quan The Am (Avalokitesvara) Festival

King Minh Mang made his imperial journeys to the Marble Mountains for 3 times in total during his reign.

It was also King Ming Mang who named the venue “Ngu Hanh Son” in Vietnamese after the 5 elements, and added it to the cadastral map of Dai Nam, which was the name of Viet Nam over the 1838 - 1945 period.

Showing off its special historical and cultural values, the Marble Mountains Tourist Area was recognised as a special national-level relic site by Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2018. Soon later, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved a project to renovate this tourist site.

Currently, the tourist site is house to many extremely unique cultural heritages.

Specifically mentioned is the 400-year-old Non Nuoc stone carving village, situated at the foot of the Marble Mountains, which was recognised as a part of Viet Nam's national intangible cultural heritage in 2014.

The village is now home to 20 businesses and around 400 stone carving establishments in total, together employing over 3,000 carvers. They create a combined total of more than 105,000 sculptures every year, producing over 100 billion VND in sales revenue. The average per capita income is between 5 and 6 million VND per carver every month.

This craft village’s products are extremely diverse. In addition to household utensils, statues of Buddha, sphinxes, birds and animals, Vietnamese heroes, and famous characters are available for sale. These statues are extremely exquisite and come in many different sizes, from a small statue measuring just a few centimetres to a giant sized one.

Some of the best places to visit at the Marble Mountains Tourist Area

In early February 2021, the Quan The Am (Avalokitecvara) Festival earned national Intangible Cultural Heritage status in Viet Nam. The event takes place at Ngu Hanh Son District's Quan The Am (Avalokitecvara) Pagoda in the Marble Mountains Tourist Area from 17^th - 19^th days of the 2^nd lunar month every year.

The festival is one of the most eagerly anticipated spiritual cultural events for Buddhists and non- Buddhists across Da Nang and elsewhere in the country. It aims to meet the cultural, spiritual and religious needs of the locals and it is a good opportunity to advertise the city’s tourism images to domestic and foreign visitors.

Another kind of unique cultural heritage at the Marble Mountains scenic spot is epitaphs carved in Han (Chinese characters) and Nom (Chinese-transcribed Vietnamese characters) on cliffs.

An epitaph carved on cliff is called 'Ma Nhai'. According to a recent survey conducted by the Hue City-based Lieu Quan Buddhist Cultural Centre, there are a combined total of 90 so-called 'Ma Nhai's in the caves of Huyen Khong, Tang Chon, Van Thong, Linh Nham and Am Phu at the Marble Mountains Tourist Area, the highest number in Viet Nam. These documents were carved by kings, Buddhist monks, writers and poets during different historical periods in the past, especially during the Nguyen Dynasty.

A section of the Co Co River is seen flowing from the Minh Mang Bridge to the Marble Mountains Tourist Areas in Ngu Hanh Son District

Da Nang's culture and sports sector is partnering with the Ngu Hanh Son District authorities and the Lieu Quan Buddhist Cultural Centre to prepare the necessary dossiers for an application to UNESCO for recognition of so-called ‘Ma Nhai’s at the Marble Mountains Tourist Area as a documentary heritage in UNESCO's Memory of the World programme in the Asia Pacific region. Once approved, this will be the first world heritage site in Da Nang.

Despite covering an area of less than 2km², the Marble Mountains Tourist Area is now home to both tangible and intangible cultural heritages, and soon-to-be-recognised memory heritage. It can be said that this is the only place in Da Nang, and in the country at large, to have converged all 3 types of cultural heritages.

By People's Artist HUYNH HUNG - Translated by M.D