Thanh Ban Phu Festival in memory of General Hoang Cong Chat

On March 23, at the Ban Phu Citadel relic (Noong Het commune, Dien Bien province), the Ban Phu Citadel Festival and the 11th Dien Bien District Ethnic Culture, Sports and Tourism Festival took place.

Thanh Ban Phu Festival is held annually on the 24th and 25th of the second lunar month. This is a unique religious activity with long-preserved folk cultural rituals to commemorate leader Hoang Cong Chat and two Thai ethnic generals, Lo Ngai and Lo Khanh, for their great contributions in protecting the country's border.

Offering procession ceremony at Ban Phu Citadel Festival 2025. Photo: Dien Bien Phu Newspaper

In 2025, the Thanh Ban Phu festival will be held in two parts: the ceremony and the festival. The ceremony takes place with sacred rituals including: palanquin procession, incense offering, reading of congratulatory messages and a ceremony to commemorate the merits of General Hoang Cong Chat.

The festival opens with performances imbued with traditional cultural identity such as: Dragon dance, drum performance. The festival includes cultural and artistic activities, sports competitions, folk games, etc.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thai Binh, Chairman of Dien Bien District People's Committee, Thanh Ban Phu Festival 2025 is organized with many unique activities to promote the image, people, customs, and culture of ethnic groups.

Coming to the festival, people and tourists will be immersed in a unique spiritual and cultural space with traditional rituals, showing respect for General Hoang Cong Chat and the heroic soldiers associated with the mountains and rivers of Muong Thanh and Dien Bien.

This is also an opportunity to educate the tradition of patriotism, arouse the spirit of solidarity among ethnic groups who have together built an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity.

General Hoang Cong Chat's real name was Hoang Cong Thu, from Hoang Xa village, Nguyen Xa commune, Vu Thu district, Thai Binh province. The uprising he led broke out in 1739 in the Son Nam region (Nam Dinh - Thai Binh - Hung Yen). In 1748, the insurgents returned to the upper Thanh Hoa region, following the forest and mountain roads to Hung Hoa (Northwest).

Here, Hoang Cong Chat, along with General Ngai and General Khanh, two leaders of the Thai ethnic group in Dien Bien, led the people of various ethnic groups to defeat the Phe invaders and liberate Muong Thanh (Dien Bien) in May 1754.

To have a long-term base of operations, General Hoang Cong Chat built Ban Phu Citadel, after which the peasant uprising led by Hoang Cong Chat lasted for 30 years (1739 - 1769). He gathered the people of the Hung Hoa ethnic groups to fight the enemy to defend the country, protecting the mountains and forests of the border area of ​​the Fatherland. In 1981, the Ban Phu Citadel relic was ranked as a national historical - cultural relic.

T.Toan