Buddhist Cultural Week begins in HCM City

MAY 3, 2017

Nearly 500 photos, calligraphy works and sculptures by 29 artists and sculptors are on display at an exhibition on Buddhist cultural and art works. The exhibition is part of the activities of Buddhist Cultural Week that celebrates Buddha’s 2,561st birth anniversary on May 2-10. – VNA/VNS Photo Thế Anh
Viet Nam News
HCM CITY- A wide variety of cultural activities are scheduled for the Buddhist Cultural Week to celebrate Buddha’s 2,561st birth anniversary.

The event, organised by the Việt Nam Buddhist Sangha Executive Committee in HCM City, kicked off on Tuesday night (May 2) at Phổ Quang Pagoda in HCM City’s Tân Bình District.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Venerable Thích Nhật Từ, head of the committee’s Cultural Board, said the Buddhist Cultural Week celebrates Buddha’s birth anniversary and honours, preserves and promotes the values of Buddhism.

With the theme of “Buddhist culture and nation,” the event is an opportunity for followers and local residents to learn about Buddhism’s culture, Từ said.

The event features an exhibition on Buddhist cultural and art works, a Buddhist cultural fair and a vegetarian cuisine fair.

Hue sets out plan to build a museum street

Colourful culture: Exhibition of kites at Hue Museum of Culture, which resides in a French colonial building.

12/09/2016

VietNamNet Bridge

Hue is proposing to set up a street of museums and exhibition centres to serve the cultural needs of locals and visitors to the former imperial capital city.

Phan Tien Dung, director of the local department of culture, told a recent meeting of the province People’s Council that the department had a plan to turn Le Loi Street into a museum road.

With the plan, the existing Museum of Culture will be rearranged and will get more Champa antiques, which were collected from around the province, to make the Hue Museum of Fine Arts.

The museum, which is sheltered within two unique French colonial buildings that are next to each other, would be one of the key museums of the proposed street, together with the Le Ba Dang Art Museum and the Lieu Quan Buddhist Centre.

Le Ba Dang Art Museum gathers prominent works of the late artist Le Ba Dang, who lived and worked in France most of his life. The museum resides in another beautiful French colonial building on the street.

In the recent years, Lieu Quan has been a busy place for Buddhist-related activities in the city. Almost all key Buddhist exhibitions take place at the centre.

The street was once full of French colonial buildings lying beside the poetic section of the local Huong (Perfume) River. Many of the original villas were replaced by new buildings, resulting in deep regrets among the locals and those people who love Hue around the country.

With the new plan, locals expect the remaining French colonial villas to be protected.

According to the department, the old colonial building that currently serves as the working place of the Hue Festival Centre, who organise the biennial cultural event and festivals at craft villages, will become a new museum for the sculptural works of late artist Diem Phung Thi.

Siting next to the centre is a great sculptural work depicting patriotic Phan Boi Chau, who pioneered a movement against French colonialism. Tens of newly-made sculptural works by international artists given to Hue will be displayed in a park nearby as part of the plan.

The department also wants to build a new museum for the history of local embroidery.

Running parallel to Nguyen Dinh Chieu walking street, the proposed museum street has given hope for making Hue into an even more culturally profound destination to visit. However, locals expects the time between the plan on paper and practice on the ground to be very short.

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Buddhist antiques displayed in Da Nang

Reclining Buddha: Thich Hue Vinh, the abbot of Quan The Am Temple introducing a valuable antique which has been stored in his temple for a long time. — Photo thanhnien.vn

Viet Nam News
December, 14 2015 08:12:00

DA NANG (VNS) — Hundreds of Buddhist antiques which have been stored in a temple in Da Nang City for many years will be exhibited to the public on December 24 for the first time.

The municipal People’s Committee decided to establish the Buddhist Cultural Museum as a place to display the antiques in the Quan The Am Temple, Ngu Hanh Son District, by the end of 2014. This is the first Buddhist Culture Museum in Viet Nam.

Huynh Dinh Quoc Thien, deputy director of the Da Nang Museum, said they accidentally discovered a “treasure-house” of about 500 objects, with more than 200 antiques which were assessed at the Quan The Am Temple.

“We sent experts to study this large number of antiques with assistance from the temple’s monks,” said Thien.

“The collection of Buddhist antiques which are preserved at the Quan The Am Temple have great value. From the Buddha statues, bronze censers, to objects of worship all are unique treasures,” Thien added.

Nguyen Dinh Chien, deputy director of the Viet Nam National History Museum, said he was impressed at their rare and precious value.

He said that many of these antiques are national treasures such as a statue, which was made of precious white jade in the shape of the Bodhisattvas holding a baby in her arms, or a set of eight Buddha statues, made of bronze in the 9th century.

The temple has prepare a big exhibition space of about 700sq.m to showcase more than 300 antiques relating to Buddhism.

In addition, many ancient Buddha statues have been donated from countries across the world for exhibition. — VNS

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Play to honor Buddhist King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong

VietnamNet

King Tran Nhan Tong was honored as King-Monk when he ceded his throne to lead a religious life and became the founder of Vietnamese Zen Buddhism.

A Cai Luong or reformed theatre play dedicated to King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong is expected to debut in December this year to commemorate the 707th anniversary of his attainment of Nirvana.

The play, entitled “Buddhist King” and performed by the Vietnam Cai Luong Theatre revisits the most glorious historical period in Vietnam. During this period, Vietnamese people under the leadership of the Tran Kings in the 13th and 14th century, defeated Mongolian invaders 3 times, gaining national peace.

Script-writer Bui Huu Duoc, who has spent decades learning about Buddhism, wrote the script for the “Buddhist King” play. He said the play features King Monk Tran Nhan Tong as a clear-sighted King as well as a religious figure.

Dr. Bui Huu Duoc noted, “During his reign, King Tran Nhan Tong led the Dai Viet people to defeat Mongol invaders twice. He became religious at a very young age. Though he was a King, he had the heart, mind, and views of a monk”.

Play hails founder of Vietnamse Zen Buddhism

Sitting monk: Thousands of pilgrims attended the unveiling ceremony of a bronze statue of the King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong in the Yen Tu religious and historical site in Quang Ninh Province on December 3, 2013. A cai luong play dedicating the King-Monk, who is founder of Vietnamese Zen Buddhism, is expected to debut in December – Photo: VNA/VNS

VietNamNet Bridge – A cai luong (renovated theatre) play dedicated to the King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong – founder of Vietnamese Zen Buddhism – is expected to debut in the 11th lunar month, December, this year.

Entitled Vua Phat (Buddhist King), the play commemorates the 707th anniversary of his attainment of Nirvana.

The play will be staged by students at the Ha Noi college of cinematography and theatre, members of the Kham Pha dance troupe and monk students of the Viet Nam Buddhism academy.

The Buddhist King is about the life of Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308), the third king of the Tran dynasty.

Yen Tu listed in UNESCO heritage nominations

The website of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has included Yen Tu relic site in Vietnam ’s northeastern province of Quang Ninh in the list of nominated heritages in the coming time.

Quang Ninh province and its neighbouring Bac Giang have been preparing a dossier to seek the World Heritage status for the Yen Tu Buddhism Complex. It is expected to be completed in September this year and then submitted to UNESCO in 2016 for recognition in 2017.
The complex is a demonstration of an interaction between human beings and nature, reflecting the uninterrupted residence of people, especially Buddhism followers, since thousands of years ago.

Located on the 1,068m-high Yen Tu Mountain, the 20,000ha site is considered the capital of Vietnamese Buddhism, where in the 13 th century, King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308) founded the first Vietnamese School of Buddhism called “Thien Tong” or Tuc Lam Yen Tu Zen.

Besides numerous temples, it also preserves many old religious and cultural documents such as precious prayer-books and monks’ writings.

With its significant historical, cultural and natural values, Yen Tu was recognised as a Special National Relic Site in September 2012. It was also selected as one of the 10 most popular spiritual destinations in Vietnam by the Vietnam Records Organisation.

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Buddhist monk-the artist at the ancient pagoda

Monk Giac Thanh caring for every minor detail in his work

July 8, 2014 by phuyennews

Being dedicated with the religious tasks does not take away this Buddhist monk’s creativity. This monk-artist’s outstanding work is the nicely-looking winding dragon tails in the ancient pagoda of Long Tuong-the pagoda existing for over 200 years on Hoa My Dong land.

Constructed in 1808, the ancient pagoda of Long Tuong in Phu Tho hamlet ( Hoa My Dong commune, Tay Hoa district ) is the forefather of communal houses of most pagodas along the South of Ba River , where lots of monks from every corner gathered on their way to the South to carry on a religious mission. Experiencing the life-long history, with ups and downs, changes, at the moment, the ancient features are appearing vaguely at this ancient pagoda. The most vivid feature is the ancient garden temple aged nearly 10 years, this is the resting in peace and quietness of the Buddhist monk. The particular striking point is the gate of Long Tuong pagoda with a secular tree with wide branches, whose age is even higher than the pagoda’s.

Buddhist film wins award at religious festival

Vietnamnet
Last update 14:38 | 16/05/2014 0 0

Con Duong Giac Ngo (Path of Enlightenment) won the Best Television award at the recent Buddhist Film Festival.

Made by director Cong Hau and produced by Hoang Phap Pagoda, the film will be screened from 8am to 5pm at the pagoda in the city’s Hoc Mon District on Sunday.

The four-episode series features the journey of Buddha as he seeks the truth. The film features meditative shots and music as well as English subtitles.
About 245 films from 95 countries and territories participated in the film festival, part of the celebrations for the UN Day of Vesak held in the northern province of Ninh Binh from May 8-11.

Films from India, Japan and South Korea also received awards.

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Art exhibition held in Vietnam to celebrate UN Day of Vesak

A local visitor at the exhibition. ~Thoai Tran

tuoitrenews.vn
THOAI TRAN
UPDATED : 05/02/2014 15:48

An art exhibition for charitable purposes opened on Monday at the showroom of the Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Association to celebrate the United Nations (UN) Day of Vesak 2014 in Vietnam.

Vesak, or “Buddha Day,” is a major Buddhist festival of the year as it celebrates the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha on one day – the first full moon day in May which falls on Thursday next week.

The event, which will last until May 9, is also meant to raise funds for Buddhism Today Charity Fund and a project to build a charity center for cancer patients in Ho Chi Minh City.

It was attended by Indian film producer Vinodh Seneviratne and Indian actor Gagan Malik, who plays the role of the Buddha in the Indian movie Sidhartha Gautama which was released in 2013.

Lamas kick off Buddhist festival in HCM City

Striking: Indian Lamas from the Himalayas perform sacred Buddhist dances at the Pho Quang Pagoda in HCM City to mark the opening of a Buddhist Festival as part of the Festival of India in Viet Nam.

VietNamNet Bridge – Twenty Indian Buddhist lamas performed hours-long sacred Buddhist dances and chants at the Vinh Nghiem Pagoda on Saturday morning as a week-long Buddhist Festival began in HCM City.

The lamas, who are from the Himalayan region, had performed similar rituals at the Pho Quang Pagoda the previous day on March 7 in front of 1,000 local Buddhists, Indian expatriates, and HCM City and Buddhist Sangha officials.

The festival has featured a series of exhibitions and activities popularising Buddhism’s messages of non-violence and truth.

At the opening ceremony, India’s Deputy Minister of Culture Ravindra Singh said cultural exchanges between the two countries began a long time ago since the advent of Buddhism in Viet Nam, and the relationship has continued until today.