Da Nang’s Ngu Hanh Son District is a land immersed in rich cultural heritages. Therefore, Ngu Hanh Son District authority has focused on preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage over recent years, thereby creating a driving force of tourism development and promoting the district’s image.

Marble Mountains tourist site seen from above. Photo: QUOC CUONG

Ngu Hanh Son District is now home to 4 national heritage sites and UNESCO world heritage sites. They are ‘ma nhai’, inscriptions on rocks, which was registered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a documentary heritage under the UNESCO Memory of the World for the Asia-Pacific Region Programme on November 26, 2022,  the Non Nuoc Stone Carving Village which was recognized as the national intangible cultural heritage in 2014, the Marble Mountains tourist site which was recognized as a special national relic in 2018, and the Quan The Am (Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva) Festival which was recognized as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2021.

The Management Board of the Marble Mountains tourist site has created plans for the management and protection of ‘ma nhai’, and the Marble Mountains as a whole. The Board has put in place visitation guidelines and deploy its personnel to this site in order to prevent visitors from touching the stone stele. In addition, heed has been paid to keeping this heritage site clean, protecting this site from harmful plants, and placing posters to introduce information about the stele.

In particular, importance has been attached to increasing the use of digital technologies to protect ‘ma nhai’ in an effort to do long-term research on this heritage. The use of digital technologies in the protection of this heritage is considered as the optimal scientific solution to protect precious and unique documents of this heritage against damages over time and from weather.

“In our efforts to preserve and promote ‘ma nhai’ after this stone stele made it to UNESCO's World Heritage Site list in 2022, we will use digitized data and technologies through digitizing the heritage-related documents and images in addition to translating the documents into English in 2023 so that visitors can scan the QR Code with their smartphones to explore this heritage," said Mr. Hien, the Head of the Management Board of the Marble Mountains tourist site.

Meanwhile, the Quan The Am Festival has returned to Da Nang after a three- year habitus due to the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the efforts of the district authority and local residents to preserve national cultural and traditional values. The festival provides an opportunity for the Buddhist followers around the county, and Vietnamese people as a whole, to pray for peace and prosperity in our nation. The event is also expected to arouse goodwill, wellbeing and kindness within our community, as well as show harmony to better take care of people's well-being and happiness, and show the love for the motherland.

During the opening ceremony, a set of 16 unique porcelain paintings was awarded a certificate of Vietnamese Record. The Institute of Unique Creations awarded an independent license to the largest 24K gold-plated Bodhi leaf of the Quan The Am Temple.

This year’s Festival is taking place from March 8 - 10 (the 17^th to 19^th days of the second lunar month) in  the Quan The Am Pagoda, and along Su Van Hanh and Le Van Hien roads.

The 3-day event features a number of solemn Buddhist rituals and a wide range of exciting cultural activities, hereby helping visitors gain an deeper insight into Buddhist culture and types of the traditional arts, as well as join in cultural exchanges with international visitors, especially those from Buddhist countries.

“I hope for more in-depth research seminars on the value of the Quan The Am festival, thereby promoting cultural values of the festival. During the festival, a campaign to raise funds for the poor and disadvantaged children is launched among thousands of tourists who go on a pilgrimage in Da Nang and explore the festival, thereby spreading human values ​​of the festival among festival-goers, and our communities at large", said Most Venerable Thich Hue Vinh, the Head of the Quan The Am Pagoda.

Mr Ta Tu Binh, the Vice Chairman of the Ngu Hanh Son District People's highlighted great efforts the district authority has made to protect local cultural heritage. Over the recent years, the District authority has directed the Management Board of the Marble Mountains tourist site to work with Vietsoftpro Company to create QR codes offline for introduction of “ma nhai’, and this site as a whole, as well as use artificial intelligence (AI) applications to advertise this site.

The district has also made TV commercial videos on the Marble Mountains tourist site, which have been showed on international television channels. Special attention has been paid to creating a plan to protect ‘ma nhai’ against damage over time.

“The Quan The Am festival has been recognized as a national intangible heritage and a special national heritage. Therefore, the District authority will pay special attention to preserving, managing, and embellishing the Marble Mountains tourist site, associated with preserving and promoting the cultural value of the Quan The Am festival heritage in order to make this festival a spiritual and cultural tourism product imbued with the identity of Ngu Hanh Son District, and Da Nang as a whole. In addition, importance will be attached to expanding and developing the Non Nuoc Stone Carving Village in the direction of the combination between trade and tourism development, thereby preserving traditional values at craft villages in the city, creating employment opportunities for locals  and increasing income for them”, Mr. Binh emphasized.

Reporting by XUAN HAU – NGUYEN QUANG – Translating by H.L