About 70,000 visitors attended the Quan The Am (Avalokitecvara) Boddhisattva Festival that took place in the central city of Da Nang from March 28-30.
The annual Buddhist event is regarded as one of the most special tourism festivals in Vietnam. It is also a community cultural event, which helps restore and promote the cultural identity of the Vietnamese people.
The festival consisted of two parts, religious rituals and festive events.
The religious part included a ceremony to pray for peaceful country and prosperous people.
Festive events, including exhibitions of paintings, photos and calligraphy, tea culture, folk singing, traditional boat-racing and human chess, were organised as a warm up to the main festival.
The highlight of the event was the exhibition of King-monk Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308) statue. This is the biggest jade statue in Vietnam which is made from a 4.5-tonne jade block. It was brought from the Vinh Nghiem Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City.
VNA/VOV online
