Elevating Cao An Phu Temple Festival

An art performance was performed at the memorial service for the 771st death anniversary of King An Sinh Tran Lieu (documentary photo)

The elders wish that some rituals and folk games of the Cao An Phu temple festival be restored to preserve the cultural beauty left by their ancestors and to be worthy of the national intangible cultural heritage.

Regret

Cao An Phu Temple is located on the highest sacred mountain of An Phu range. The temple worships An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu - a human god who contributed much to the establishment of Tran Dynasty (13th century), father of National Hero Tran Hung Dao. An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu died on April 1, 1251 (lunar calendar), the people built a temple on the top of An Phu mountain and took this day as a festival day.

Over hundreds of years, the traditional rituals of Cao An Phu Temple have been maintained. However, in recent years, the organization of the festival has changed, causing many people to regret it.

Having witnessed the rituals of the Cao An Phu temple festival since childhood, Mr. Nguyen Thang Gan, over 60 years old, in residential area No. 4 (An Sinh ward) could not help but regret that some rituals could not retain their beauty as before. Previously, the festival was organized by the local government and people on a large scale, lasting 3 days. In which, April 1 (lunar calendar) was the main festival with activities such as carrying the memorial tablet around the village, bathing, lion and dragon dances, etc. In 1982, the back part of the temple was burned, the statue of An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu was burned, Mr. Gan and his mother collected all the ashes of the statue, asked for the villagers' opinions, lowered 2 parallel sentences in the temple to cover the ashes, and placed them on the floor of the back part, exactly where An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu had sat before. Later, a resident of Thai Binh province donated an ancient jackfruit tree, Mr. Gan's family hired someone to re-carve the statue of An Sinh Vuong and put it in the temple.

According to Mr. Gan, March 26 (lunar calendar) is the day the statue is brought to the temple, so the villagers choose this day as the day to carry the statue. Since then, the Cao An Phu temple festival has the custom of carrying the statue instead of carrying the tablet. In the procession, there are 5 more palanquins carrying offerings such as sticky rice, pigs, candies, fruits, and local specialties; there are beautiful lion and dragon dances. The procession attracts thousands of locals and visitors from all over the country to participate. The bathing ritual is solemnly organized, the person chosen to perform the ritual must be a pure young man. The clothes of the An Sinh Vuong statue, after being changed, will be cut into small pieces and given to the people for good luck. The rituals in the main ceremony are performed solemnly, such as reading the sacrificial text, offering incense, and departments, organizations, villages, etc. placing offerings, burning incense, and praying for peace. One of the activities that attracts a large number of people to the festival is the performance of cultural performances by villages and hamlets, many folk games such as wrestling, cockfighting, swinging, cake making contest, pounding meat...

Hope to be restored

On December 22, 2016, along with Kinh Chu cave, Nham Duong pagoda, Cao An Phu temple was recognized by the Prime Minister as a special national relic. Earlier this year, Cao An Phu temple festival was included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage and recognized the An Phu - Kinh Chu - Nham Duong complex as a provincial-level tourist area.

Despite its great historical and cultural value and beautiful landscape, the number of visitors to Cao An Phu Temple is not as large as before. According to Mr. Nguyen Doan Dai, residential area No. 2 (An Sinh ward), currently some rituals such as carrying statues around the village, lion dance, dragon dance, art activities, folk games are no longer available, so they are less attractive to local people as well as visitors. The parking regulations make people carrying worship items, especially those performing elaborate ceremonies with many offerings, have to carry them far or have to pay extra for porters. Visitors to the relic must buy tickets, so many people are not comfortable when going to the temple...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kha, Head of the Cultural Department of Kinh Mon town, said: "Many people are no longer interested in the rituals in the festival, making it difficult to organize. To perform the rituals, we have to hire people, but sometimes it is difficult to find people to hire, there are no volunteers like before."

In An Phu, people tell each other the saying "Go to the father's door, return to the mother's door". This means that at the beginning of the year, one must always go to Cao An Phu temple to worship, then go to other places to worship. However, in recent years, the number of tourists coming to this relic site is no longer large. Mr. Nguyen Doan Dai added: "Previously, people often went to Cao An Phu temple to worship from after Tet until the end of the festival on April 1 (lunar calendar), but now I only see people coming on Tet and holidays, not on normal days and the number of people coming on festivals is not as large as before".

To make the Cao An Phu Temple Festival worthy of national stature, while preserving traditional cultural beauty, local people hope that in the coming time, Kinh Mon town and the Relic Management Board will step up propaganda and promotion of the festival as well as the scenic spot to the people. Coordinate with Chi Linh city and Quang Ninh province to build spiritual tours to attract tourists as well as visitors. Restore traditional rituals that were previously organized by the people, cultural activities, arts, folk games... so that this place is truly the first destination of the year not only for local people but also for visitors from all over the world.

THANH HA