The Saint in the People's Mind
Mr. Nguyen Van Thinh, a resident of Van La village, Gia Thang commune, arrived early at Duc Thanh Nguyen temple to welcome us. When he learned the purpose of the meeting, Mr. Thinh was happy and extremely excited to share about the Zen master whose life has become a legend, worshiped by the people as a Saint: Duc Thanh Nguyen - Zen master Nguyen Minh Khong.
Born, raised and matured in Gia Thang village, for Mr. Nguyen Van Thinh, his childhood memories are associated with legends and stories about the outstanding Zen master, magician, pharmacist, and national teacher because in his family, since the time of his ancestors, they have been attached to the sacred temple.
In his story about the Zen master, Mr. Thinh used poems to illustrate his words. He knew many poems and stories, and clearly remembered each precious artifact still preserved in the temple such as: the gate, the bell tower, the portrait of Saint Nguyen... He said that for him and many local people, the artifacts preserved to this day are considered precious treasures that are always cherished, protected, and respected to remember the merits of the Saint in the hearts of the people.
Decades ago, scientists who returned to the locality came to see Mr. Thinh to get more information and materials for their research works. Not considering himself a person with much knowledge about Zen Master Nguyen Minh Khong, Mr. Thinh shared that he is just one of the people living in the hometown of Saint Nguyen. With pride and respect for the glorious achievements of the Zen Master, he is always conscious of preserving the unique traditional cultural values, the significance of the National Architectural and Artistic Relic and wishes to introduce to the people and tourists about the person with great contributions to the history of the nation, who is popularly known as a saint among the four immortals.
Together with local people participating in planting and taking care of the medicinal herb garden at Duc Thanh Nguyen Temple, Mr. Vu Van Chu, Chairman of the Gia Vien District Oriental Medicine Association, said: In folk legends, Nguyen Minh Khong is a legendary character, appearing with many mysterious details... But the fact that history books record him as a famous physician who treated diseases with traditional medicine has always been passed down to this day.
According to historical records, Zen Master Nguyen Minh Khong personally planted a whole forest of medicinal herbs with countless precious medicinal plants. He both practiced and prescribed medicine to save people, he was both a Zen Master and a famous physician. He also taught people how to plant crops in semi-mountainous areas, taught people how to fish, especially taught them how to plant many precious medicinal plants and how to make medicine, prescribe medicine, and diagnose diseases...
In recent years, the Gia Vien District Oriental Medicine Association has coordinated with the Health Stations of communes and towns in the district to effectively build and maintain a medicinal herb garden with 9 groups of essential medicinal plants, including a number of precious medicinal plants and indigenous medicinal plants. Mobilizing people to renovate mixed gardens, actively planting familiar medicinal plants to treat common colds... To commemorate and express gratitude for the great contributions of Zen Master Nguyen Minh Khong, since the beginning of 2024, Gia Vien District has renovated the area of Duc Thanh Nguyen Temple and built the "Nguyen Minh Khong Herbal Garden" to preserve and develop indigenous herbs associated with experiential tourism in the district.
In the hometown of Zen Master Nguyen Minh Khong (formerly Dam Xa village, Dai Hoang district, now Gia Tien and Gia Thang communes, Gia Vien district), despite many historical ups and downs, the local people's deep affection and gratitude for the Zen Master's contributions have always been respected and remembered by generations. Duc Thanh Nguyen Temple was built on the foundation of an ancient pagoda called Vien Quang Tu, founded by Nguyen Minh Khong in 1121 for practicing and saving people. When Nguyen Minh Khong passed away, the people of Dam Xa turned that pagoda into a temple to worship him. Over the past 900 years, the temple has always been cared for, restored, and protected. In particular, the Duc Thanh Nguyen Temple Festival takes place from the 8th to the 10th of the third lunar month every year, which is an opportunity for local people to show their gratitude to Duc Thanh Nguyen.
In Ninh Binh and many localities across the country, there are relics worshiping Zen Master Nguyen Minh Khong as a testament to the cultural and historical figure of Ninh Binh who had an important influence on the history and culture of the nation. This also shows pride in the traditions of the homeland, reminding and educating generations of Ninh Binh people about a civilized homeland.
Towards National Intangible Cultural Heritage
From the 8th to the 10th of the third lunar month, Gia Vien district will organize the Duc Thanh Nguyen Temple Festival in 2024 with the status of a National Architectural and Artistic Monument. Right from the road leading to the temple, the work of renovating the village roads and alleys has become spacious, clean, and beautiful, with festival flags flying... People in Gia Tien and Gia Thang communes are excitedly preparing for the traditional festival.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa, Vice Chairman of Gia Tien Commune People's Committee, Head of Duc Thanh Nguyen Temple Festival Committee said: Duc Thanh Nguyen Temple was ranked as a National Architectural and Artistic Relic in 1989. In recent years, the local Party Committee and authorities of Gia Tien and Gia Thang communes have had many activities to preserve and promote the value of the relic in the socio-economic development of each locality.
The local government has done a good job of propaganda, raising people's awareness of managing and protecting relics, protecting the environment and landscape of relic sites, not encroaching on relic sites, and practicing civilized lifestyles in organizing festivals...
Therefore, over the years, Duc Thanh Nguyen Temple - National architectural and artistic relic has always attracted tourists from provinces and cities to visit and worship. Many routes and tours have been connected and organized. Local people have gradually raised their awareness and responsibility for preserving and promoting the value of the relic.
Ms. Pham Thi Tuyen, Secretary of Gia Thang Commune Youth Union, said: Contributing to the preservation and promotion of the value of the relic, Gia Thang commune youth have actively participated in activities to protect, keep the environment clean, plant medicinal plants... at the relic site. In addition, clearly aware of contributing to spreading the traditional cultural values of the homeland, each youth union member actively studies, learns about history, traditions, participates in training courses to aim for each person to be a tour guide, introducing to tourists the pride of being a son of the homeland of Duc Thanh Nguyen.
According to the plan of Gia Vien district, the organization of this year's festival will maintain the traditional rituals such as: temple opening ceremony, bathing ceremony, offering sacrifices, procession of hundreds of gods, incense offering... to express the morality of "When drinking water, remember its source", to commemorate and show gratitude for the great contributions of National Master Nguyen Minh Khong in the historical process of the nation.
The festival includes unique cultural activities, bearing the mark of the great contributions of Zen Master Nguyen Minh Khong in the national medical career to preserve rare medicinal plant genes, indigenous medicinal plant varieties, combined with health experience activities to exploit and develop local tourism.
The activities at the festival are rich and diverse, imbued with national cultural identity and highly educational, worthy of the role and position of National Master Nguyen Minh Khong. In particular, the festival is organized in conjunction with the exploitation of the "Finding the Origin of Saint Nguyen" tour route to promote tourism and local historical and cultural values.
Through festival activities, it contributes to arousing the tradition of loving the homeland, the country, national pride for generations and raising awareness and responsibility of all classes of people in participating in preserving, promoting, and exploiting the values of local cultural heritage; preserving and restoring unique intangible cultural values, striving to make Duc Thanh Nguyen Temple Festival a national intangible cultural heritage.
By organizing the annual Duc Thanh Nguyen Temple Festival, Gia Vien district expects this to be one of the important cultural events of the locality to contribute to introducing and promoting the values of tangible and intangible cultural heritage and unique tourism products to attract domestic and foreign tourists, promote the potential and strengths of tourism development, create breakthroughs, and promote tourism development of Gia Vien district in the following years.
Bui Dieu - Minh Quang
Source
Comment (0)