Preserving the cultural space of Truc Lam Buddhism

The Truc Lam Buddhist cultural space is comprehensive, comprehensive, and diverse, formed from Yen Tu and covers the entire heritage space, influencing religious and belief practices, and has been preserved and strongly promoted by Uong Bi City in social life.

Artifacts dating from the 13th and 14th centuries were found at Yen Tu.

Overall, the Yen Tu space in Uong Bi is the birthplace of a Buddhist sect. Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Van Bai, Vice Chairman of the National Cultural Heritage Council, commented: "The pagodas of the Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen sect, in addition to their function as religious institutions, are also living museums of Buddhist culture and Buddhist fine arts."

In recent years, Uong Bi City has had many effective solutions to restore and embellish relics to preserve cultural traditions and national identity associated with economic development, especially sustainable tourism. In 1992, Yen Tu Relic Management Board was established and was one of the first national relics to have a Management Board. The city's establishment of the Management Board shows a vision and aspiration to revive Yen Tu. The works of Bao Sai, Van Tieu, Hoa Yen pagodas, tower gardens, etc. have been restored and embellished one after another.

Later, the Board changed its name to Yen Tu National Forest and Relic Management Board, and made efforts to overcome all difficulties, successfully completing the conservation, restoration and promotion of the value of the relic site. The Board has stamped and translated 101 steles, organized research, collected and preserved 803 artifacts with extremely rich tangible cultural values, of which 770 artifacts have been documented in the form of descriptions, photographs and object numbers.

Over the past 30 years, the Yen Tu National Forest and Relic Management Board has coordinated with the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology, the Institute of Monuments Conservation, and the Vietnam Museum of History to conduct 12 research and archaeological excavations in the relic area, discovering many relics, isolating a system of floor plans of the relic sites, helping to decode many scientific , historical, and cultural issues related to famous people, relics, and the overall planning space of the Yen Tu relic area at present and in the future.

Along with that, the Management Board of Yen Tu National Monuments and Forests continues to coordinate the implementation of projects to preserve and promote the value of Yen Tu, including the restoration of Bao Sai Pagoda, the restoration of Mot Mai Pagoda, Duoc Hermitage, and Hoa Hermitage; the restoration and embellishment of ancient towers and Dragon Eye Lake in the Hue Quang Tower Garden area, the repair and waterproofing of the exhibition house, the preservation of ancient artifacts at Giai Oan Pagoda and Van Tieu Pagoda, and the maintenance and repair of infrastructure works in the Yen Tu relic site.

Especially since 2013, with the policy of promoting socialization and decentralization to localities to implement the Master Plan of 3 key relic sites of the province, Uong Bi City has actively repaired and restored damaged and degraded works. Uong Bi has stopped coal mining at some important mines of Nam Mau Coal Company, restored and demarcated Yen Tu National Forest for protection.

According to the increasingly developing concept of cultural heritage, the values of Truc Lam Zen are increasingly preserved, restored and constantly created, because of the increasing needs of people, in a life that is always changing according to modern trends. Up to now, some new works have also created highlights in Yen Tu cultural space. For example, the stone bridge and wooden tower on Giai Oan stream create harmony with the general landscape. In 2005, Dong Pagoda was restored and set a Vietnamese record for the largest monolithic bronze pagoda and located at the highest altitude. In particular, the statue of Buddha King Tran Nhan Tong was erected on the sacred peak of Yen Tu mountain, 12.6m high, cast from 138 tons of bronze, which is evidence of the creation and transformation of Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen over time. Or Truc Lam Palace is a work designed with inspiration from the remaining ancient architecture in Yen Tu.

Making traditional conical hats at Yen Tu village festival space.

The approach to Buddhist festivals in the sacred Yen Tu mountain is also very creative and innovative. Not stopping at traditional festivals, the community is now both preserving the cultural values of traditional festivals and transforming and upgrading the festivals into modern community cultural activities, meeting new aesthetic tastes. Besides a traditional spring festival, in recent years there has been a festival to the land of Buddha in the fall following the footsteps of the Buddha King, and a Yen Tu yellow apricot festival associated with Japanese cherry blossoms. These are innovations that have been recognized by the community.

Speaking at the workshop "Identifying, preserving and promoting the heritage values of Uong Bi land in the direction of sustainable development of Uong Bi city" which recently took place, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Kim, member of the National Cultural Heritage Council, assessed: In recent years, Uong Bi and a number of other cities and localities of Quang Ninh have truly become a land of convergence and dissemination of cultural values. Regarding culture, Uong Bi should consider early and promote the strategy of developing cultural industry. In the future, if the Yen Tu relic and landscape complex becomes a World Heritage Site, the potential for developing cultural industry in Uong Bi - Quang Ninh is very far-reaching and promising.

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