Scene at the festival (Photo: VNA)Quang Ninh (VNA) – The YenTu Spring Festival officially kicked off on February 6, the 10th day of thefirst lunar month, at the Yen Tu historical site in Uong Bi city, the northernprovince of Quang Ninh.
The festival will feature a range of activities, including traditional rituals and folk games.
According to the festival management board, theYen Tu historical site welcomed 136,000 visitors during the first six days of thelunar month, up 3 percent over the same period last year.
The number of visitors to the site is expected tohit 2 million during this year’s festival.
Yen Tu Mountain is located about 50 kilometresfrom Ha Long City. The area has a beautiful natural landscape and awe-inspiringscenery, surrounded by ancient pagodas and hermitages.
The pilgrimage route, which winds from the footof the mountain to its pinnacle, is almost 30 kilometres. Dong Pagoda, whichsits atop the mountain’s highest peak, is more than a kilometre above sealevel.
In the 13th century, King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong(1258-1308), the third king of the Tran dynasty, abdicated the throne when hewas 35 and spent the rest of his life on Yen Tu Mountain, practising andpropagating Buddhism. He founded the first Vietnamese School of Buddhism called“Thien Tong” or Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen on the 1,068m-high Yen Tu Mountain. The20,000ha site is considered the capital of Vietnamese Buddhism.
Besides numerous temples, it also preserves manyold religious and cultural documents such as precious prayer-books and monks’writings.
With its significant historical, cultural andnatural values, Yen Tu was recognised as a Special National Relic Site inSeptember 2012. It was also selected as one of the 10 most popular spiritualdestinations in Vietnam by the Vietnam Records Organisation.-VNA
VNA
