Thua Thien Hue Province has exerted efforts to promote cultural and spiritual tourism in a bid to diversify its tourist products, thus attracting more visitors to the locality.
At Huyen Tran Temple Festival 2023
Hue ancient capital is home to hundreds of temples and pagodas. With its unique and diverse heritage spaces, Hue has strong advantages in building a broad range of cultural and spiritual tourism products, including pilgrimage trips and visiting sacred sites.
Many architectural works have been built in past recent years to facilitate religious tourism, such as Huyen Tran Temple Cultural Area, which worships King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong – the founder of Vietnamese Zen Buddhism – and his daughter - Princess Huyen Tran; Truc Lam Bach Ma Zen Monastery; the Lieu Quan Buddhist Cultural Centre; and the Quan The Am (Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva) Cultural Tourism Area.
In addition, Mother Goddess worship in Hue has widely practiced in Hue, drawing much attention and interest from both local people and tourists. The most typical site to observe Mother Goddess worship in Hue is Hue Nam Temple (also known as Hon Chen Temple), where the annual Hon Chen Temple Festival is held.
The highlight of the Hon Chen Temple Festival is a procession showcasing colourful ancient costumes and performances which are unique traits of the Mother Goddes worship. (Photo: toquoc.vn)
Taking place on the third lunar month, the festival is dedicated to Thien Y A Na (Lady Po Nagar), the holy mother of the Cham ethnic community in the South Central region.
The highlight of the festival is a procession showcasing colourful ancient costumes and performances which are unique traits of the ritual worship of the Mother Goddesses.
Meanwhile, Christianity was introduced to Thua Thien Hue Province a long time ago and it remains alive today. Currently, the centre of Hue features the Hue Archdiocese Cathedral (Phu Cam Cathedral) and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.
In the fourth lunar month, Hue City is bustle with jubilant activities in celebration of Buddha's birthday, during which pagodas and streets in Hue City and surrounding areas are lively decorated with lanterns and flowers. These activities attract tens of thousands of Buddhist followers and tourists.
Nguyen Van Phuc, Director of the Thua Thien Hue Provincial Department of Tourism, said that in addition to promoting the province’s historical relics, travel companies have organised tours related to spiritual tourism, vegetarian cuisine, meditation, retreats, and trips to Buddhist temples, thus creating a diverse range of tourism products in Hue.
In recent years, many conferences and seminars have been held to seek ways to develop spiritual tourism in Thua Thien Hue.
According to researchers, in addition to preserve and uphold traditional festivals which are imbued with Hue's religious life, it is necessary to make wise investment in developing these festivals into a highlight of Hue’s tourism which can help visitors get a closer look into the spiritual life of Hue people.
The provincial Department of Tourism revealed that it has worked with 34 representatives from major tourism businesses in the localities as well as from functional departments and sectors in order to design new spiritual tourism experiences, contributing to increasing the number of visitors and their length of stay in Hue.
Cong Hau - Translated by NDO