Conference looks to promote Buddhist woodblocks’ values
Orientations to promote the historical, cultural and religious values of the Buddhist woodblocks in Vinh Nghiem and Bo Da pagodas in Bac Giang were discussed at a conference on May 31.
Ground breaking ceremony for the woodblock exhibiting hous𝄹e in Vinh Nghiem pagoda (Photo: VNA)
Bac Giang (VNA) – Orientations to promote the historical, cultural and religious values of the Buddhist woodblocks in Vinh Nghiem and Bo Da pagodas in the northern province of Bac Giang were discussed among experts at a conference held in the ♉locality on May 31.
According to Dr. Nguyen Quoc Tuan, director of the Institute for Religious Studies, preservation of the woodblocks must be attached with a suitable repository, temperature and responsibility of the managers.
Workforces and financial resources should be added to the preservation work, he noted.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Minh Duc, from the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts Studies (VICAS), suggested a line-up of measures to promote the valuable antiques as a tourism product, including building an exhibition house, publishing the woodblocks’ contents as souvenirs, providing courses on the woodblocks’ contents and art, among others.
Another representative from the VICAS, Dr. Luong Hong Quang underscored that the development of a tourism model in Vinh Nghiem and Bo Da pagodas should go together with the safeguard of the woodblocks and the pagodas’ values.
He laid stress on protecting the pagodas’ traditional festivals and cultural relic sites as well as delivering labour training, while recommending connecting the pagodas with other tourist attractions in the province and neibouring localities.
Vinh Nghiem pagoda is storing 3,050 woodblocks carved with Buddhist Sutras, which were given UNESCO’s World Documentary Heritage status. Meanwhile, nearly 2,000 woodblocks in Bo Da pagoda have great values in religion and culture.-VNA
Construction started on an archive and exhibit house for a set of woodblocks, which are a UNESCO-recognised world documentary heritage, at Vinh Nghiem pagoda in northern Bac Giang province on April 25
The central province of Thua Thien – Hue opened an exhibition inside the Hue imperial citadel on May 16 to display a collection of UNESCO world documentary heritages found in Vietnam.
The “Royal Literature on Hue Royal Architecture” and “Phuc Giang School Woodblocks” were named as documentary heritages by the Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP) on May 19
The royal literature on Hue royal architecture has been honoured as documentary heritage at the Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP)’s 7th General meeting.
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Coming to the Vietnamese booth, visitors had the chance to take part in a bamboo dance, a workshop on painting woven bamboo or rattan, or quizzes about Vietnam.
