Proposing the Festival of Lady of Sam Mountain as an intangible heritage of humanity

The Via Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain (Chau Doc City, An Giang ) is proposed to be included in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage for review in 2024.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has just sent a document to the Vietnam National Commission for UNESCO regarding the registration of Vietnam's priority dossier for the 2024 review period, which is the Via Ba Chua Xu Nui Sam Festival. Previously, in March 2022, the Government also agreed to submit to UNESCO for consideration of the inscription of the Via Ba Chua Xu Nui Sam Festival into the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. According to the dossier, the Via Ba Chua Xu Nui Sam Festival - belongs to the heritage of many types of traditional festivals, folk knowledge, social practices and beliefs of the Kinh, Hoa, Khmer and Cham ethnic groups. If inscribed, the Via Ba Chua Xu Nui Sam Festival will be the first heritage of Vietnam with the subjects being the majority and minority ethnic groups and the second heritage of the Southern region to be included in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, after Southern amateur music.

The Ba Chua Xu Festival of Sam Mountain is a series of festival activities with elements of folk beliefs about "Ba Chua Xu" whose temple is at the foot of Sam Mountain (Chau Doc City, An Giang ). Photo: Luc Tung

The temple of Lady of the Land of Sam Mountain is a unique architecture. It was first established around 1820 with simple materials of trees and leaves. After many renovations and expansions, in 1972, the temple was built in the modern form as it is today in the shape of the Chinese character “quoc” (literal Vietnamese: 天天), a tower block, looking like a blooming lotus according to the design of architects Huynh Kim Mang and Nguyen Ba Lang. Photo: Luc Tung

Inside the temple, in the main hall, there is a statue of the Lady carved from stone, about 1.65m high, sitting in a regal posture. According to Louis Malleret, a French archaeologist who had the opportunity to study the statue in 1941, the statue belongs to the Vishnu god type, dating back to around the 6th century. Photo: Luc Tung

Every year, from April 22 to 27 (lunar calendar), a festival takes place here to commemorate the day the statue of the Lady descended from the top of Sam Mountain. Locals often call this activity the Via Day. The Via Festival is performed according to traditional rituals, including: the procession of the Lady's statue from the top of Sam Mountain to the temple, the Ba Bathing Ceremony, the ceremony of requesting the royal decree of the god Thoai Ngoc Hau and his two wives, the Tuc Yet Ceremony, the Xay Chau Ceremony, the Chanh Te Ceremony and the Hoi Sac Ceremony. Photo: Luc Tung

During this time, many traditional festival activities take place, demonstrating the identity and continuity of the Kinh community in the process of cultural exchange with the Chinese, Khmer, and Cham people. With that uniqueness, in 2014, the Festival was included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Photo: Luc Tung

For many years, the Festival of Lady of Sam Mountain has been visited by people from within the country and abroad to worship and express their wishes... creating an extremely unique cultural nuance. Photo: Luc Tung

If recognized by UNESCO, the Via Ba Chua Xu Festival on Sam Mountain will not only be the second heritage of the Southern region to be included in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, after Southern Amateur Music, but also the first traditional festival of the South to receive this honor. Photo: Luc Tung

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