Ponagar Temple Festival 2024 to open in Nha Trang

The Ponagar Temple Festival, a popular traditional cultural event of the ethnic Cham people, will take place on Sunday at the Ponagar Temple Relic Site in Nha Trang town, the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa.

This year's event will include a series of unique cultural activities such as a flower releasing ceremony on the Cai River, a palanquin procession from the temple tower through streets in residential areas and worship ceremonies for national peace and prosperity, Mother Goddess incense offering, and traditional sacrifice rituals.

The festival will be held from April 28 to May 1 at Vinh Phuoc ward, Nha Trang town.

Tran Duc Ha, director of Khanh Hoa's Centre for Conservation of Monuments, said more than 100 tourist groups had registered to take part, including many from the Chăm communities in the provinces of Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Lam Dong, Gia Lai, and Kon Tum.

Ha said along with the main religious rituals, this year's festival also includes other cultural events including folk dancing, singing, art performances, folk games, hand-loom weaving and pottery of the Cham.

The event's organising board has posted rules for visitors to the Ponagar Tower relic area, reminding them to ensure security, social order and environmental sanitation.

This year's festival has been upgraded to a higher level and on larger scale. Many programmes have been prepared attracting the attention of local people and authorities, particularly tourists from across the country and abroad.

Every year, millions of tourists come to Ponagar Temple Tower to offer incense and perform rituals. Last year alone, It welcomed more than 80,000 visitors during the four day event.

"The Ponagar Temple Festival was included in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2012. This is a typical Mother Goddess worshipping festival held annually in Nha Trang town," Nguyen Van Nhuan, director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Khanh Hoa province, said.

The Ponagar Temple Festival bears the cultural colours of both Kinh [Vietnamese majority] and Chăm people. It is one of the very few traditional festivals that clearly show the unique intercultural exchange about Thien Y A Na Holy Mother worship.

Many cultural researchers in the country, when learning about the Ponagar Temple Festival, highly appreciate the religious rituals during the event. They reflect the intercultural exchange of Cham and Vietnamese cultures which are closely connected with the development of Nha Trang.

Ponagar Temple Tower, a Cham architectural complex of temples and towers built in the mid-eighth century preserves an important position in the religious life and beliefs of the ancient Champa Kingdom.

The heritage site is located on Cu Lao hill in Vinh Phuoc ward, Nha Trang town on a total area of 57,000sq.m, stretching east - west, about 200m from the coast. It has typical values of different areas such as history, architecture, sculpture, inscriptions, and religion.