Khanh Hoa opens Ponagar Tower Festival 2025

Art program at the festival. Photo: HIEU GIANG

Attending the ceremony were representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, leaders of Khanh Hoa province and other provinces, religious dignitaries and thousands of people, especially Cham people from the South Central provinces, domestic and international tourists.

In his opening speech, Vice Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee Dinh Van Thieu emphasized that the Ponagar Tower Festival is a typical spiritual and cultural beauty, showing respect for Thien Y Thanh Mau Ana - the Mother of the land in the folk beliefs of the South Central region. Over the centuries, the festival has not only contributed to preserving the national cultural identity but also strengthened the spirit of community solidarity, spreading profound humanistic values.

After his speech, Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Tan Tuan performed the drum beating ceremony to open the festival season this year.

Chairman of Khanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Tan Tuan beats the drum to open the Ponagar Tower Festival 2025. Photo: HIEU GIANG

The Ponagar Tower Festival is held from the 21st to the 23rd of the third lunar month every year to commemorate the merits of Thien Y Ana Holy Mother (called Po Inư Nagar by the Cham people), the Mother of the land who taught people how to make a living.

Along with traditional rituals such as the Mother Goddess robe changing ceremony, the flower lantern releasing ceremony on Cai River, the palanquin procession around the residential area, the incense offering ceremony, the national peace and prosperity ceremony, the traditional sacrifice ceremony, etc., the festival also has unique cultural activities such as ball dancing, opera, folk games, and demonstrations of pottery making and brocade weaving of the Cham people.

Ponagar Tower was recognized as a national monument in 1979 and by 2025, the Tower was honored to be ranked as a special national monument by the Prime Minister . The Ponagar Tower was built from about the 8th to the 13th century, and to date still preserves 14 royal decrees; it is a monument of great value in terms of history, architecture, sculpture and inscriptions in the form of objects. It contains typical values of the intangible culture of the two Cham - Vietnamese peoples through the image of the goddess Po Inư Nagar/Thien YA Na Holy Mother, as well as the process of interweaving and cultural assimilation of national history, and is the center of Mother worship in the South Central provinces.

Ponagar Tower Festival is a typical and outstanding cultural heritage of Khanh Hoa province in particular and the whole country in general, a long-standing traditional cultural belief of the Vietnamese and Cham ethnic communities; recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2012.

>> Below are some photos taken at the Ponagar Tower Festival in 2025: