Overview of Bac Ninh- Kinh Bac land

Bac Ninh province is the name given in the Nguyen Dynasty in 1831, the reign of King Minh Menh. The past 191 years is an immeasurable time compared to the thousands of years of history of the land of Luy Lau - Kinh Bac, which is known as the cradle of the ancient Vietnamese.

Bac Ninh is known as a province located in the Red River Delta as well as situated to the Northern main point economic area. In terms of  land area, the province is smallest of all Vietnamese provinces , in contrast, Bac Ninh is rich in culture with plentiful of forms of art and fork festivals.

Long- standing developing history build up  Bac Ninh ‘s special cultural basement with a huge amount of  fork festivals, traditional villages and historical monuments. The fork festivals in Bac Ninh reflectioned the inheritance of the age-old lively cuture crystalized in festivals and cultural heritages. Bac Ninh is the third province build Temple of Literature ( Vietnamese called “van mieu” ). Bac Ninh Temple of Literature is famous for its large –scale with 677 graduateships of the pre-court competition- examination, occupied one third in the whole country. The Temple of Literature was worthy demonstrations of the age-old Kinh Bac civilization.

The famous monuments in Bac Ninh known as by many visitors are Dau Pagoda, Phat Tich Pagoda which are counted as the place originated the Buddhist in Viet Nam. Besides, Do temple, Phu Quoc temple, Dinh Bang village temple, Tam Tao village temple are the crucial locations in Bac Ninh. By now, there has been 1259 historic cultural relics in Bac Ninh, among them 495 monuments was recognized and ranked by Nation.

Along with the above data, 194 relics were promoted in the rank of Nation and 301 relics were promoted in the rank of Province. Bac Ninh has as many as handicraft-producing villages, 62 of which are involved in producing traditional products such as copper casting , iron and steel and wooden products.

There were about 300 annual festivals handled in Bac Ninh. Some of them achived fame to attract millions visitors from everywhere in the country, including Lim Festival, Do temple Festival, Phu Dong Festival. While Lim Festival is operated from 13 to 15 in the First month of Lunar New year, Do Temple festival is handled on 15th of the third lunar month to celebrate 8 Emperors of Ly Dynasty.  Phu Dong festival takes place on 9th of the fourth Lunar month to commemorate Phu Dong Thien Vuong Nationalism Hero. Besides, many festivals are widespread in Viet Nam, like Tam Tao festival, Kim Chan village festival, Thap Dinh festival, Cao Lo Vuong Festival, Dong Ky fire-cracker festival, Dau pagoda festival, etc.

The Quan họ style originated in Bac Ninh Province and existed in 49 Quan ho fork song villages and has traditionally been associated with the spring festivals that follow the celebration of Tet (the Lunar New Year). Quan ho was recognized as the Intangible Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO in September 2009.

Bac Ninh has the upper hand and high potentials to contribute much to Bac Ninh’s economic development. Now, there main tourism locations here are Co Me Quan ho fork song cultural tourism area,  Dam temple cultural tourism area,  Phat Tich cultural tourism area. Some tourism areas is expected to build in the future, including Thien Thai forestry tourism area, Nhu Nguyet historic cultural tourism area, Ham Long- Dam Mountain tourism area… In addition, 22 relics was planned to develop , which included Bac Ninh Temple of Literature, Phat Tich Pagoda, Dau Pagoda and But Thap Pagoda.

After 191 years of establishment of the province from the solid foundation of thousands of years of history and culture, Bac Ninh people generations have been constantly creating and building a radiant development, worthy of the name of the cultural region. As time goes by, the monuments of temples and pagodas will become more ancient and mossy, the cultural values ​​of the land of Bac Ninh - Kinh Bac people will still be fragrant and continue to be promoted forever in the new era.