How to link the Quan The Am (Avalokiteśvara) Festival with cultural heritage in developing spiritual tourism, and make the festival worthy of national intangible cultural heritage were put in the spotlight at the talk show entitled ‘Solutions to enhance the Avalokiteśvara Festival - National Intangible Cultural Heritage’ held by the Da Nang Department of Culture and Sports on Wednesday.

Experts and researchers discussing at the talk show. Photo: X.D

Connecting festival with heritage culture

The Quan The Am (Avalokiteśvara) Festival was held for the first time in 1956 on the occasion of the inauguration of the Quan The Am Pagoda. Since then, the festival has been organised on a large scale, attracting tens of thousands of Buddhist dignitaries, monks, nuns, and followers every year.

Chairwoman of the city’s Folk Arts Association Dinh Thi Trang said that Ngu Hanh Son District boasted great potential and advantages to link the festival with the cultural heritage system to promote the development of spiritual tourism.

In particular, the locality is now home to ‘ma nhai’ (Inscriptions) recognised as a documentary heritage under the UNESCO Memory of the World for the Asia-Pacific Region Programme, the Non Nuoc Stone Carving Village, the K20 revolutionary base, and a diverse system of pagodas, village communal houses, and clan churches.

Visitors the festival have the opportunity to visit local historical and cultural relics, and make offerings to worship Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.

Mrs. Trang stressed the need for the municipal government and local cultural sector to open a spiritual tour connecting to visit local temples and pagodas, as well as theatricalise stories and legends of the land, and organising experiential activities before the festival.

The focus should be on developing souvenir products imbued with local characteristics, and producing fine arts and photography works associated with the festival, she added.

Sharing the same opinion, researcher Ho Xuan Tinh, Vice Chairman of the Da Nang Cultural Heritage Association, remarked connecting the Avalokiteśvara Festival with cultural heritages was one of the ways to elevate the festival.

He, however, undertook the necessity to expand the space and organisation scale of the festival, but still ensure connection and correlation in geography, culture and festival atmosphere.

Mr. Tinh suggested the city leaders connect the festival with Buddhist cultural heritages nationwide, thereby forming a Buddhist cultural heritage path, first implemented in the Hue - Da Nang - Quang Nam route.

In Hue, there are such solemn ancient pagodas as Thien Mu, Tu Dam and Tu Hieu. Meanwhile, Da Nang houses two ancient temples namely Tam Thai and Linh Ung on the Thuy Son (the Mountain of Water) of the Marble Mountains scenic spot, along with the pagodas of Avalokiteśvara, Phap Lam and Pho Da. In Quang Nam, there are famous ancient pagodas such as Van Duc, Chuc Thanh and Phuoc Lam.

“That is enough to organise short tours for Buddhist believers and those interested in Buddhist culture. When the Hue - Da Nang - Quang Nam tour proves effective, the model can be expanded from North to South into a long journey on the path of Buddhist cultural heritages" he said.

Worthy of national intangible heritage

In his remarks at the event, Venerable Thich Hue Vinh, Abbot of the Quan The Am (Avalokiteśvara) Pagoda, said that there was a need for a ceremonial park to accommodate the number of guests and Buddhist followers to the festival because the current space was very narrow and did not meet the needs of large-scale ceremonies, especially the festival.

Dr. Le Xuan Thong from the Institute of Social Sciences of the Central Region, highlighted the importance of expanding the space and venue for the festival in not only reducing the visitor overload at the Quan The Am Pagoda, but also enhancing the sanctity of the festival, especially spaces for Buddhist rituals.

"Elevating the Avalokiteśvara Festival not only increases the scale and opens up opportunities for more positive development in a "natural" way, but also increases the spread and influence of the festival in social life in general", Dr. Thong emphasised.

Associate Professor, Dr. Ngo Van Minh from the Da Nang Cultural Heritage Association underlined a must-do to invest more in both about the content, form, and scale of the Quan The Am Festival in order to make it be worthy of national intangible cultural heritage.

Importance should be attached to spotlighting the festival's value in tandem with promoting the overall cultural and historical values of the entire Marble Mountains tourist spot, Mr. Minh emphasised.

Reporting by X.DUNG - Translating by M.DUNG