Bac Ninh (VNA) - The northern province of Bac Ninh is well-knownfor hosting a number of architectural, religious and cultural heritage.

The province has recently received three moresets of national treasures as the recognition approved by Prime Minister NguyenXuan Phuc last December.

The newly recognised treasures include thedragon-carved stone pillars at Dam Pagoda which are dated in the11th century; a set of statues of ten sacred animals of Phat Tich Pagoda,dated from the 18th century; and a set of statues of four femalepersonifications of the natural forces of Dau-Luy Lau region.

The three treasures are all original and onlyitems with great cultural and artistic values.

The four statues include Dharma Cloud (in DauPagoda), Dharma Rain (in Dau Pagoda), Dharma Thunder (in Dau Pagoda) and DharmaLightning (in Dan Pagoda). They are believed to be the four goddessesrepresenting the four important natural forces of agriculture of Vietnamesepeople. All the four statues are made of wood.

The stone pillar of Dam Pagoda dated back the11th century, the time when the pagoda was constructed. It is preserved inalmost intact state.

The stone pillar is considered as one of themost delicate and epic existing sculpture in the history of Vietnamese finearts.

The stone pillar features a pair of dragon withdelicate and lively decoration lines. In the body of the dragons carved thescale with gentle and charming curves. Each of its feet has five toes, whichare very sharp, the toenails curl into a circle, its front feet carryglittering gemstone.

Besides a pair of dragons, artisans addchrysanthemum pattern to make the pillar look more delicate and harmonised.

Being imprinted with the original andcharacteristic features of fine arts in the Ly dynasty, the pillar will giveresearcher a deep insight into the fine arts at the time.

A stone pillar is closely attached to thehistory of formation and construction of the pagoda, therefore this could be asource of information to study the architecture of the structure.

The collection of statues of ten sacred animalsof Phat Tich Pagoda also attract attention of researchers and visitors.

The ten stone statues are being placedsymmetrically in a corridor of Phat Tich pagoda.

Each of these works is made from a whole stone(except for the buffalo statue which is formed by two stones). The collectionof stone statues shows the diversity in subject of creativity in Buddhism finearts in Vietnam.

The treasures recognised this time give valuableinformation about the characteristic feature of Buddhist culture and serve asan authentic proof of the formation and development of Buddhism in Vietnam.

According to statistic of Bac Ninh’s Departmentof Culture, Sports and Tourism, the province has a total of eight sets ofnational treasures. All the treasures are from the relic and made of stone orwood.

The province will continue to file for theapplication for ten other sets of valuable artefacts.

Nguyen Van Anh, deputy director of thedeparment, said: “Since Bac Ninh had their first national treasures recognisedin 2012, the province has implemented many conservation projects for thetreasures.

In 2014, the province promulgated a mechanism todecentralise the management work for relics, artefacts and national treasures.

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism ofBac Ninh is in charge of management for the national treasures preserved atspecial national relics.

National treasures preserved at the nationalrelics are under the management of people’s committee of the district where therelic locates.

In the upcoming time, an information boardintroducing the relic and value of the national treasures will be madeavailable in each relic.

The management board of the relic will publishbooks featuring national treasure of the province, according to Anh.

Currently Bac Ninh has a total of eight sets ofnational treasures. It is also home to several significant cultural heritagewhich includes two intangible cultural heritage recognised by UNESCO– quan ho (love duets) and ca tru (ceremonial singing).

With hundreds of festivals held annually, BacNinh is considered to have the most festivals in Vietnam. Many have becomenational intangible cultural heritage, such as Lim Festival, Diem VillageFestival, Dong Ky Village Festival. Many crafts including Dong Ho folk woodcutpaintings, Phu Khe wooden carving and Phu Lang pottery were also recognised asnational heritage.-VNA