Events & Festivals

Thay Pagoda Festival

When: Mar 2010 (annual)

Where: Thien Phuc Pagoda

This festival takes place in an elaborate pagoda said to be built on the ashes of a Vietnamese folk hero and is especially famous for the performances of traditional water puppetry. It is dedicated to folk hero Dao Hanh, who was an eminent Buddhist monk during the rule of the Ly Dynasty (1010-1225AD), the first power to successfully overthrow the Chinese in Vietnam.

The monk was a great patron of the unique Vietnamese art in which puppeteers stand waist deep in water with a screen shielding them from the audience on the other side. With the puppets attached to long bamboo levers, they manipulate them from behind the screen. Stories from Vietnamese folklore are told to traditional folk song accompaniments, in which dragons spout fireworks from their mouths and historical battles are reenacted for the benefit of children and adults alike.

Apart from the water puppetry, (which is known as mua roi can), you'll catch firework spectaculars (mostly bangers), folk singers crooning into microphones and sporting events such as mountain-climbing and rowing. On the third or fourth day of the festival, the four villages who come together to celebrate in the Thay Pagoda Festival take part in an elaborate parade around the villages which returns to the pagoda itself (which is called Thien Phuc Pagoda) at sunset.

The festival always falls on the seventh day of the third lunar month and continues for a week at least. Thuy Khe village is situated at the foot of the Sai Son mountain. It is a good base for exploring the labyrinthine limestone caves in the foothills of the mountains and is a supremely beautiful spot.

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