Preserving the green color of relics

Con Son is green and endless

Visiting the Con Son relic (Chi Linh) in the early days of spring, tourists from inside and outside the province can immerse themselves in the lush green nature of the trees, the brilliant colors of many flowers and the luxuriant fruit trees. Returning to Con Son to visit the scenery every Tet holiday, Mr. Vu Xuan Thien - a retired teacher from the neighboring province of Bac Giang, clearly showed a relaxed look. "For many years, Con Son has truly become a beautiful place of pine forests as Uncle Ho instructed in the past. The relic is surrounded by a forest as far as the eye can see and in the campus itself there are also many trees and flowers. I often come here during Tet every year, although there are times when there are many visitors, because it is immersed in the vast nature, the relic is not crowded but still retains the peacefulness of a place of worship", Mr. Thien said.

That is also the common feeling of many tourists when visiting Con Son relic site. "Cadres and people must protect historical relics well, plant many trees so that Con Son becomes a beautiful pine forest", Uncle Ho's advice when visiting Con Son exactly 60 years ago has always been considered by the Party Committee and people of Hai Duong province as a noble task in the cause of preserving, embellishing and promoting the value of the historical relic site of Con Son. In particular, planting trees and preserving the immense green color here has become a regular, daily task.

Con Son was ranked as a national relic in 1960, and became a special national relic in 2012. In 2010, the relic site was approved by the Prime Minister for its master plan, including the relic system and environmental landscape. Areas such as Con Son mountain, Bach Van hermitage, Con Son lake, Con Son pagoda, Ngu Nhac mountain, which have existed for more than 700 years, are identified as core and red areas. Con Son forest is closely connected and inseparable, creating landscape and space for the entire relic site. The Buddhist structures of the relic site are closely linked to the natural landscape and Con Son forest.

Currently, the Con Son - Kiep Bac relic site has about 1,500 hectares of forest. The forest is actively preserved and restored, with 10 - 20 hectares added every year. The large forest area and the meticulous care of the province have led to the fact that although recently, the Con Son mountains and forests and this relic site have been severely damaged by storm No. 3, with many trees knocked down, they have quickly regained their former green appearance.

The Management Board of Con Son - Kiep Bac relic site also regularly propagates to the people and tourists to preserve the pine forests, root areas, and plant thousands of trees to create a landscape in the relic site, Con Son stream, etc. In particular, the launching ceremony of the Tree Planting Festival this year is the largest launching ceremony ever at this relic site. A large number of trees will be planted in the Con Son lake area, the foot of Nguyen Trai temple, Ban Co Tien, Ngu Nhac mountain, etc. The tree stumps that were knocked down by storms will be planted with new trees, following thousands of ancient trees from pine, banyan, longan, lychee, etc. to keep the mountains, forests, and Con Son relic site green forever.

Protect the "old" trees

In Chi Linh City, there is also the Cao An Lac Temple relic site with a precious ironwood forest. The saying "Eating from the forest brings tears to your eyes" has been passed down by generations of An Lac people to their descendants until today, that the ancient ironwood forest must not be encroached upon but must be protected at all costs.

When the Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment decided to recognize 54 lim trees here as "Vietnam Heritage Trees" in 2010, scientists determined that some of them were about 800 years old. Mr. Phan Van Duc, Deputy Head of the Chi Linh Relic Management Board, said: "Not only the Management Board but also local people have long been very conscious of protecting and preserving the lim forest in the relic site. We regularly prune branches and clear small branches to both create a beautiful landscape and prevent forest fires. During the recent storm No. 3, about 20 lim trees had their tops and branches broken, blocking the path. The local authorities quickly pruned and cleaned them up, and now these trees have been restored."

The 54 heritage lim trees above belong to special-use forests, nature reserves and are protected by forest rangers. Therefore, these “old” lim trees are always preserved and conserved.

In Hai Duong, in addition to Chi Linh City with a large forest area surrounding the relics, Kinh Mon Town with Cao An Phu Temple is also known for its cool green space of mountains and forests. However, this area is often threatened by "fire". Recently, in early October 2024, just 1 month after being devastated by storm No. 3, a large-scale forest fire broke out, covering about 5-6 hectares, in the Cao An Phu Temple area. Immediately after that, the Hai Duong Forest Protection Department warned of the risk of forest fires in Chi Linh City and Kinh Mon Town at an extremely dangerous level (level V - highest).

To cope with the above dangers, the Cao An Phu Temple relic site has been equipped with a fairly good fire prevention and fighting system, with 3 water tanks and large capacity pumps. Thanks to proactive fire prevention and fighting, the forest fires above have not spread into the relic site. However, every year during the spring festival, the relic management board focuses on educating visitors about forest fire prevention and not bringing flammable and explosive objects into the relic site.

Cao An Phu Temple relic site also has many ancient trees compared to other relics in the province. Among them are two banyan trees about 800 years old that are still standing strong despite natural disasters.

“Storm No. 3 caused the trees in the relic site and surrounding areas to be in disarray. The Management Board had to hire professional workers to trim branches for more than 20 ancient trees. It took more than 2.5 months to clean up and trim broken and fallen branches before the relic site regained its clean and beautiful appearance. Although the green canopy of the trees has decreased compared to before, the replanted trees have sprouted and grown well," said Ms. Pham Thi Bich Hue, Head of the Tourism Professional Team, Kinh Mon Relic Management Board.

Maintaining the beautiful landscape is an annual breakthrough task of the Kinh Mon Relic Management Board. Therefore, planting and caring for trees has been a routine task for many years. However, during important times such as Tet, spring festivals, commemorating the death anniversary of An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu (April 1st of the lunar calendar), the death anniversary of Hung Dao Dai Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan (August 20th of the lunar calendar), the Relic Management Board will prune trees, create miniature landscapes, and decorate more than 1 month in advance.

The Tet tree planting season is coming, this year Kinh Mon town and the town's relic management board are collaborating to continue planting trees in parking lot No. 1 at Cao Temple relic. In just a few months, this place will be covered with the cool green of trees recovering from the storm and newly planted trees.