Ba Chua Xu Temple on Sam Mountain, a typical spiritual tourist destination in Asia

Sam Mountain Temple (Chau Doc City), An Giang Province, has been recognized as a Typical Spiritual Tourism Destination in Asia - Pacific by the Vietnam Federation of UNESCO Associations and the Indian Council for Global Trade and Technology. The award aims to recognize efforts to develop and preserve spiritual values and cultural beauty of Vietnam in the development of sustainable spiritual tourism.

Ba Chua Xu Temple of Sam Mountain. Photo: Internet

Ba Chua Xu Temple in Sam Mountain is a historical relic, a beautiful and solemn architectural work, located at the foot of the mountain, attracting millions of people to worship and visit every year. This is one of the famous scenic spots and a must-see destination for domestic and foreign tourists, the highlight of the Ba Chua Xu Temple Festival in Sam Mountain.

The Lady Temple is a famous architectural and artistic relic in the South, built around 1820 - 1825 (the period when the statue of Lady Chua Xu of Sam Mountain was discovered), with simple bamboo and leaves. In 1870, the temple was built larger and more spacious. In 1872, at the request of the Association of Noble Priests (now the Management Board of Sam Mountain Temple) and the wishes of the worshiping people, the Lady Temple was redesigned and rebuilt in terms of scale, architecture and bearing the bold artistic features as it is today.

The temple has a Quoc-style layout, a lotus-shaped tower, a tiled floor, stone-paved walls, reinforced concrete columns, a three-story roof, covered with blue large-tube tiles, and a high roof corner like the bow of a boat gliding on the waves. The main hall of the temple consists of 2 floors. The innermost floor is for worship ceremonies, with a statue of the Lady placed on a high pedestal, with 2 white cranes standing next to her, symbolizing her holy nature.

To the right of the Lady's statue, there is the altar of the boy, and to the left is the altar of the girl. The patterns on the main hall's main floor show strong artistic features. Above, the strong and beautiful statues of gods stretch their arms to support the rafters. The frames and doors are all carved, engraved, and elaborately decorated with many splendid parallel sentences and horizontal lacquered boards. The second floor, near the two phoenix statues, is the altar of the Council. On the left and right of the Council's altar are the altar of the pioneers who opened the land on the left and the altar of the pioneers who opened the land on the right.

The statue of Ba Chua Xu is on the top of Sam Mountain today, where there are still traces of square sandstone, 1.6m on the side, nearly 0.3m thick. French archaeologist Louis Malleret, during the excavation of the Oc Eo - Ba The site (from 1942 to 1944), came to Sam Mountain to study the statue of Ba Chua Xu and determined that this is a type of goddess statue, created in the shape of a person sitting and resting, regal, made of sandstone, with high artistic value. Initial appraisal shows that the statue of Ba Chua Xu is a medieval work of art that is still preserved today.

Every year, the Via Ba Chua Xu Festival takes place from April 23 to 27 (lunar calendar), including many solemn traditional ceremonies, attracting a large number of people and visitors from all over the country to attend. The most important part of the festival is the opening ceremony and the reenactment ceremony. The opening ceremony has many large-scale and diverse programs on the night before the Ba bathing ceremony. In particular, the reenactment ceremony reenacting the scene of the procession of the statue of Ba Chua Xu from the top of Sam mountain to the temple according to the legend of 9 virgin girls taking her down the mountain is organized on a large scale and solemnly...

The Ba Chua Xu Festival in Sam Mountain was recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage. The festival contains vivid data about the historical imprints of the period when Vietnamese people came to An Giang, with the exchange and integration of economic, cultural, political and military aspects of ethnic groups in the process of building and defending the country, the harmony in community relations in terms of culture, both continuing the cultural career of the ancients and embellishing and cultivating a culture with unique Vietnamese identity.

Head of the Sam Mountain Temple Management Board Nguyen Phuc Hoan (middle) received the certificate of the title of Typical Spiritual Tourism Destination of Asia - Pacific . Photo: Internet

In addition to religious activities, the festival is also associated with historical figures - those who have contributed to the discovery and protection of this land, such as the famous general Thoai Ngoc Hau and his generals and soldiers. From there, it contributes to preserving the historical values of the development of the southwestern region.

Head of the Sam Mountain Temple Management Board Nguyen Phuc Hoan said that in 2022, the Vietnamese Government submitted a dossier to UNESCO for consideration of including the Ba Chua Xu Festival on Sam Mountain in the list of Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The recognition of Ba Chua Xu Temple of Sam Mountain by the Vietnam Federation of UNESCO Associations and the Indian Council for Global Trade and Technology as a typical spiritual tourism destination in Asia - Pacific is a recognition of the efforts to improve, preserve and develop the beauty of Vietnam's spiritual and cultural tourism, contributing to preserving and further promoting the cultural values of the nation. The recognition is an important milestone in the process of putting the Ba Chua Xu Temple Festival of Sam Mountain into the list of Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity./.

Yanjiang