Buddhist film wins award at religious festival

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.

Draft plan would develop fine arts

A draft plan by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to develop the fine arts in the country includes suggestions to open more art museums and expand training in the arts for students.

The plan was discussed at a conference held last week in HCM City by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Department of Exhibition, Photography, and Fine Arts.

The ministry also held a similar conference last month in Ha Noi to collect experts' opinions about the state of the arts in the country.

Vuong Duy Bien, deputy minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the Prime Minister was expected to approve the plan in June.

The plan, which includes recommendations to 2020, focuses on human resources, infrastructure, investment, traditional and modern art development, and regular art fairs where Vietnamese artists can promote their works.

Speaking at the conference in HCM City, Nguyen Xuan Tien, a professor at the HCM City's University of Fine Arts, said that art training was needed at all school levels, including kindergartens.

The director of HCM City's Blue Space Gallery, Nguyen Thi Huynh Nga, told conference attendees that she had been offering painting classes to kindergarten students.

And Ma Thanh Cao, director of the HCM City Fine Arts Museum, said that schools in HCM City had been organising more field trips to handicraft villages for hands-on experiences for students.

Cao proposed to conference attendees that museums be built in different regions of Viet Nam to display local characteristics of the arts.

Speaking at the meeting, Uyen Huy, chairman of the HCM City Fine Arts Association, proposed that the city establish art fairs each year where Vietnamese artists could display their works in one venue to local and international buyers.

He said that such art fairs would help attract more investment from local and foreign businesspeople and art investors.

Experts at the conference also pointed out that art critics' articles in the media and talks on TV programmes could help spread the word about the importance of the arts.

Deputy Minister Bien said the opinions collected from experts and the public would be considered before the department makes final revisions on the draft plan and submits it to the Prime Minister.

Phu Tho receives wooden printing blocks

Authorities in the northern province of Phu Tho on Tuesday received a collection of wooden printing blocks featuring the origin of Vietnamese people believed to be carved under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) from the leaders of the National Archives Department.

This is the first-ever printing blocks collection of its kind that has been handed to the province, home to a complex of temples dedicated to the Hung kings.

The 36.5x20cm blocks contain Han or Nom (Vietnamese demotic characters modified from Chinese Han) characters telling the legend of the Hung kings.

The collection was kept in Ha Noi's Temple of Literature before being moved to the Hue Citadel under the reigns of kings Minh Mang (1791-1841) and Thieu Tri (1807-47) together with many other printing blocks of official literature and history documents composed during the Nguyen Dynasty.

The collection will be displayed at Hung Vuong Museum in the temple complex.

Legends say the Vietnamese nation was founded by Hung kings nearly 50 centuries ago. To honour the Founding Fathers, the Hung Vuong National Altar was built in 250 BC in Phu Tho Province. On the 10th day of the third lunar month, thousands of Vietnamese flock to the altar to commemorate their ancestors. 

Exhibition stirs sea and island pride

More than 200 photos confirming Vietnam’s sovereignty over its seas and islands are on display at an exhibition on Phu Quoc Island in southern Kien Giang province on May 15.

Organised by the Vietnam News Agency and the Vietnam Students’ Association, the event has drawn over 900 students nationwide as well as officers and soldiers from the local Military Zone 5.

The photos feature the marine system of Vietnam and the history of defending national sovereignty and building sea-based economy.

Director of the agency’s Photo Centre, Nguyen Hong Ky, highlighted a similar event held in the Ly Son island district of central Quang Ngai province last year, which helped raise the young people’s sense of responsibility to protect the country’s sea and island sovereignty.

A national flagpole will be built by students on the provincial Tho Chu Island as part of the “Students support the nation’s sea and islands 2014” programme, which runs from May 15-18 and will provide students with knowledge on the Law of the Sea of Vietnam, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC).

Truong Ba Temple listed as national historical site

The Tra Bong district People’s Committee in Quang Ngai province held a ceremony on May 14 to kick off the Truong Ba Temple Festival and to receive a certificate honouring the temple as athe national historical site.

The recognition came after the decision was made by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on May 9.

Located in Tra Xuan town, Truong Ba temple is a unique historical site representing a combination of the cultural values of the Kinh and Cham ethnic groups. The temple serves as a communal place for the locals in their spiritual and religious practices and the symbol of the solidarity of the ethnic groups living in Quang Ngai province.

Ceremonials held in the temple express the people’s respect to Goddess Thien Y A Na, Holy Mother of the Cham community in the south-central region.

Activities commemorating the Holly Mother are held four times per lunar year: on the 15th and 16th days of the fourth and ninth months (Spring and Autumn Fests), on the seventh day of the first month and on the 25th day of the 12th month. Of these, the Spring Fest is the largest event, and is considered the major festival of the temple.

The 2014 festival featured a lantern release ceremony, a Buddha bathing ceremony, a procession and an offering ritual to the Holy Mother.

Resounding performances of gongs, martial arts and tuong (classical drama) were held during the event, as were lion dances, cooking contests and various folk games.