The administration of Chau Doc city, the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, is asking for the Government’s opinion on the compilation of a dossier seeking UNESCO’s recognition of the Ba Chua Xu Temple Festival on Sam Mountain as part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
The annual festival takes place at Ba Chua Xu Temple on Sam Mountain from the 23rd - 27th days of the fourth lunar month to honour Ba Chua Xu - a local tutelary goddess.
It is said that the temple of Ba Chua Xu was built with leaves and bamboo in the 1820s. It was rebuilt and is now a beautiful site on Sam Mountain.
The festival was named national intangible cultural heritage in 2015.
Located in the That Son (Seven Mountains) area, Sam Mountain is also home to many other cultural heritage sites, including the ancient Tay An Pagoda and the tomb of Thoai Ngoc Hau (1761 - 1829) - a military general of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802 - 1945).
An Giang is working to turn the national tourism area of Sam Mountain into a hub of spiritual, community-based and ecological tourism of Vietnam by 2025.
The province records an annual increase of 800,000 - 1 million in the tourist number. It looks to welcome 9.2 million visitors and earn over 5.5 trillion VND (235.4 million USD) from this industry in 2019.