With its long cultural and historical background in the northern delta, nowadays there are 266 relics existing in Thanh Oai district, of which there are 151 classified as municipal and national. Coupled with that there are quite a number of traditional festivals of various diversity and uniqueness which have been conserving many cultural and historical values of the Vietnamese people. Typically, that is Binh Da festival at Noi temple, Binh Minh commune which has been recognized as national intangible heritage. Annually it take place between 1 to 6 March on lunar calendar in commemoration of Lac Long Quan national. Noi temple is associated with the legend of Au Co mother who gave birth of 100 children, of who a half followed the mother to settle down on the mountains while the other half followed the father to live at seas.
Binh Da festvial held in memory of Lac Long Quan national ancestor.
Not very far from Binh Da commune, at Song Khe hemlet of Tam Hung village, there is a very original festival held at Boi Khe pagoda. This is one of the most aged-old and beautiful pagodas left in Viet Nam. Undergoing several times of its renovation during the dynasties of Le, Mac, Nguyen, at present Boi Khe pagoda has become one of the pagodas owing the convergence of differrent traditional architectural styles of Viet Nam. In Thanh Oai, at Xuyen Duong hemlet, Xuan duong commune, there remains Uncle Ho’s Memorial House, whereby lots of memories of Uncle Ho have been kept while he had lived and worked for 25 days and nights (19/02/1946 to 13/01/1947). This is a huge source of valuable heritages for Thanh Oai to utilize for promotion of cultural and spiritual tourism.
Boi Khe pagoda – the old pagoda featuring the characteristics of “front is buddhist shire and rear is sanctuary”.
While in Thanh Oai, visitors will not only have a chance to take a deep indulgence in old, tranquil beauties of the relic and eminent festival, but also mix themselves with the natural beauties of the northern delta’s countryside whereby having ancient villages and famous traditional handicrafts as such: Cu Da village (Cu Khe commune) specializing in making raw soyabean sauce and vermicelli; Chuong village (Phuong Trung commune) making conical hats; Uoc Le village (Tan Uoc commune) making minced pork; Vo Lang village making sculptures, Dan Hoa commune making bird cages ect… Apart from the collosal cultural heritage inventory, Thanh Oai is also possessing eco-tourism resources with the beautiful landscaped attractions namely the lagoon of Thanh Cao and Cao Vien, fruit gardens at 7 villages along the Day river …which are meeting the tourists’ demands for ecotourism, weekend recreation and relaxation.
Conical hat products of Chuong hamlet attractive to visitors.
With a viewing to awakening and boosting the tourism potentials, in the past time, Thanh Oai district has placed much emphasis on the investment of infrastructural construction at the site whereby having tourist advantages; paying attentions to conservation and promotion of the traditional cultural characters linked with the building of cultural village taking it as a precondition for cultural-festive tourism development breakthrough. Typically the district is continuing to carry out the tourism investment projects as: the project to enlarge Binh Da festive tourism space; the project of conservation and promotion of Cu Da ancient cultural village’s values; the project to invest the brandname of the craft villages, development of OCOP (one commune one product); recovering the traditional craft villages so as to bring back the past memorable fine features and creating the thematic tourism routes associated with the particularities of each region… which will help bring about many authentic, attractive tourism products and exciting experiences to tourists and visitors when coming to visit Thanh Oai.
By Mai Chi