CAMA ATK to host West African music night

A night dedicated to West African music will be held at CAMA ATK bar tomorrow, from 8pm.

Entited West African Waves, the performance of DJ Dan Lo promises to submerge guests in the vast horizon of different sounds and styles to emerge from the region.

He will entertain audiences with traditional percussive rhythms from Cameroon, the first forays into a syncretic, funky sounds attempted by Highlife in the 60s in Ghana and Benin,and Nigerian Afrobeat and its modern house-infused edits emerging globally. Entrance VND50,000 at the door of CAMA ATK, 73A Mai Hac De Street.

Chocolat film to be screened

Chocolat, a sweet movie, will be screened in English with Vietnamese subtitles on 7.30pm, tomorrow at the Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents.

Chocolat is a 2000 British-American romantic comedy-drama film based on the novel of the same name by Joanne Harris, and was directed by Lasse Hallstrum.

Adapted by screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, Chocolat tells the story of a young mother, played by Juliette Binoche, who arrives at the fictional, repressed French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes with her six-year-old daughter and opens La Chocolaterie Maya, a small chocolaterie.

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It was also nominated for eight BAFTAs, and four Golden Globes. Judi Dench won a Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance in the film.

Entry is VND20,000 at the door of the Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents, 51 Tran Hung Dao Street.

Art exhibit covers themes of migration, identity

Two artists who were born in Viet Nam and live in Germany will present paintings which deal with migration and identity issues in various ways.

In the context of the exhibition "Migration and Identity", Duong Thuy Duong and Do Tuan Anh will discuss these topics together with the audience on February 27.

The exhibition opens from February 26 at the Ha Noi Goethe Institute, 56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street.

Music, art festival to be held at Cargo Bar

Southside Connection, a two-day festival that gathers local forces in art and music, will open at Cargo Bar.

The event will present dozens of local and expatriate artists, bands and DJs, including James and the Van Der Beeks, La Difference, Black Infinity, Jase, Selecta Morgan and Suboi.

There will be a dance performance by Big South Crew, an art showcase, and stalls featuring fashion, arts and crafts, and food.

The festival begins at 7pm tomorrow and ends at 3am on Sunday. The venue is at 7 Nguyen Tat Thnh Street in District 4.

Tickets are VND200,000 for a one-day pass and VND250,000 for a two-day pass. They can be bought at www.ticketbox.vn.

Garage sale raises funds for charity restaurant

The Giant Step Urban Art Gallery will host a garage sale on Sunday to raise funds for charity restaurant Quan Com Xa Hoi Nu Cuoi.

The event will have a wide range of clothes, CDs, appliances, furniture, antiques, books and secondhand items.

All profits and money raised from the garage sale will help the restaurant continue to expand and provide cheap meals to the city's needy people.

The restaurant began in 2012, and now has six branches around the city.

The event will be held from 10am to 6pm at 3A Ton Duc Thang Street in District 1.

Acoustic show hosts international artists

The District-2 based Saigon Outcast will organise a special acoustic show featuring international artists on February 26.

The show will include Beer, a folk and blues singer-songwriter from Thailand, John Will Sail, an indie and rock singer-songwriter who is now living in Asia, and KC Irony, a punk singer and songwriter from Australia.

The concert will begin at 8.30pm at 118/1 Nguyen Van Huong Street in District 2. Entrance is free.

Yen Tu Buddhist spring festival opens

The Yen Tu spring festival officially opened on February 17, the 10th day of the first lunar month, at the Yen Tu historical site, Thuong Yen commune, Uong Bi City in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

The event saw the participation of Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan, and crowds of Buddhist followers and visitors.

Numerous activities were organised during the opening ceremony, including traditional rituals and art performances.

The festival takes place from the 10th day of the first lunar month and lasts till the end of the third lunar month.

Visitors offer incense and pray for health, prosperity and happiness at Dong Pagoda in Yen Tu historical site.

Yen Tu Mountain is located about 50 kilometres from Ha Long City. The area has a beautiful natural landscape and awe-inspiring scenery, surrounded by ancient pagodas and hermitages.

The pilgrimage route, which winds from the foot of the mountain to its pinnacle, is almost 30 kilometres. Dong Pagoda, which sits atop the mountain’s highest peak, is more than a kilometre above sea level.

In the 13th century, King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308), the third king of the Tran dynasty, abdicated the throne when he was 35 and spent the rest of his life on Yen Tu Mountain, practising and propagating Buddhism.

He founded the first Vietnamese School of Buddhism called “Thien Tong” or Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen on the 1,068m-high Yen Tu Mountain. The 20,000ha site is considered the capital of Vietnamese Buddhism.

Besides numerous temples, it also preserves many old religious and cultural documents such as precious prayer-books and monks’ writings.

With its significant historical, cultural and natural values, Yen Tu was recognised as a Special National Relic Site in September 2012. It was also selected as one of the 10 most popular spiritual destinations in Vietnam by the Vietnam Records Organisation.

My Son marketed as tourism treasure

Authorities in Duy Xuyen District of the central province of Quang Nam have spared no efforts to promote tourism to the local My Son Sanctuary.

The site consists of more than 70 tower-temples that were a part of the religious and political capital of the Champa Kingdom for most of its existence.

The site also houses the remnants of a unique culture which owed its spiritual origins to Indian Hinduism developed on the coast of contemporary Viet Nam between the fourth and the 13th centuries.

According to Nguyen Cong Dung, chairman of the district's People's Committee, the locality has focussed on building infrastructure, training tourism human resources as well as applying favourable policies for investment attraction.

"The local authorities have divided the district into three tourism regions, which link closely to one another," he said. "The east of the district has potential to develop ecological tourism with lots of sea and island tourist attractions, and cultural and historical sites at Hoi An Old Quarter and Cu Lao Cham Island."

The district has made use of Cua Dai Beach to enrich sea tourism sites at Non Nuoc-Hoi An- Duy Xuyen.

The west of the district is named the My Son-Thach Ban Ecological Site, which has been a special tourist attraction linked to the neighbouring areas of the province.

"In a few months, the district will enhance co-operation with travel agencies to push up advertising for local tourism," Phan Ho, head of My Son Sanctuary Management Board said.

Ho said the board would introduce more tourist attractions to turn My Son into a tourist site with modern and environment-friendly features.

He said Cham dancing, excerpts of singing, dancing and folk music performances, are indispensable attractions to welcome guests to the site.

My Son was recognised as a World Culture Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1999. The site receives an average 300,000 visitors per year, 70 per cent of whom are foreigners.

Fireworks to be set off at Tran Temple festival

Low-range fireworks will be set off at the opening ceremony of the Tran Temple Festival in Tien Duc commune, Hung Ha District, Thai Binh Province on February 20.

The opening ceremony will feature incense offering at the Tran Kings’ tombs, the gate opening rituals at Den Thanh (Thanh Temple), Den Mau (Mother Temple) and the Tran Kings’ shrines, and a palanquin procession.

A 60-minute performance recounting an epic titled ‘Forever Shining Dynasty’ will also be staged at the opening.

Visitors to the five-day event can learn more about local traditional practices, such as a fish cooking contest, a rice cooking challenge, and clay firecrackers.

The festival is held annually from the thirteenth to the eighteenth days of the first lunar month at the national historical complex of the Tran Kings’ shrines and tombs to pay tribute to the Tran Dynasty (1225-1440) in the country’s history of construction and defence, promoting national traditions, patriotism and revolution among people.

The festival was recognised as a national intangible heritage in 2014 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The historical complex of the Tran Kings’ shrines and tombs was acknowledged as a special national cultural relic, according to a decision signed by the Prime Minister last year.

Ngoa Van festival opens in Quang Ninh

The Ngoa Van spring festival officially opened in the northern province of Quang Ninh on February 16 (the 9th day of the first lunar month).

The event saw the presence of Vice State President Nguyen Thi Doan.

The annual festival is expected to create an opportunity for Buddhist monks, nuns and followers across Vietnam to make a pilgrimage to the national relic site Ngoa Van pagoda, which is considered a holy land of the Vietnamese Truc Lam Zen Monastery.

The Ngoa Van festival is scheduled to run for three months.

On the same day, the inauguration of the upgrade of Ngoa Van pagoda also took place.

The pagoda, located on Bao Dai Mountain in Dong Trieu town, is where King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong, the third king of the Tran dynasty and the founder of Truc Lam Zen Monastery, attained Nirvana.

The upgrade of Ngoa Van Pagoda began in 2014 with a total investment of nearly VND90 billion (nearly US$4 million).

Spring festivals observed in localities

Ethnic groups in Tuyen Quang Province celebrated their annual Long Tong (Going to the Field) festival on February 15 (the eighth day of the first lunar month).

The festival is held by the Tay ethnic group with a hope for a New Year with favourable weather conditions and healthy crops.

The celebration was recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2013.

The same day, the Dong Cuong Temple Festival opened at the national cultural and historical site of Dong Cuong temple in Van Yen District, Yen Bai Province, attracting thousands of visitors.

The temple worships the Mother of Mountain and Forest and heroes of ethnic minority groups who joined the resistance war against Yuan-Mongol invaders under the Tran dynasty.

In addition to traditional rituals, the festival featured cultural and sporting events, such as a boat race, a buffalo fighting competition, stick pushing and panpipe playing.

A rural market introducing indigenous specialties was also held during the event.

Mong people living in Dong Van Krast Plateau in Ha Giang Province hosted a cultural festival from February 13-15.

Visitors to the event were invited to take part in folk games and cultural practices, including stick pushing, badminton, tug of war, and a nightingale fighting competition.

Tet-theme painting exhibition opened in town

A painting exhibition with the theme of Tet (Lunar New Year) is on at the Exhibition House of the Labor Culture Palace, HCMC, Tuoi Tre newspaper reports.

Lasting until February 22, the event is being organized by the Vietnam fine art and painting club under the Labor Culture Palace to feature around 55 paintings in varied materials from oil on canvas to lacquer, pastel and mixed media.

The exhibits reflect the vibrant spring atmosphere and traditional customs during Tet throughout Vietnam.

In particular, there are nine paintings that won awards at “Canh co mua xuan” (spring brush) painting competition held at the cultural palace during this year’s Tet for children and teenagers.

The palace is located at 55B Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street in District 1.

FameLab looking for local communication ambassador

FameLab, a communication competition, is searching for candidates nationwide to represent Vietnam at the global contest in the UK in June.

The contest is open to young scientists, engineers, researchers, lecturers and reporters to break down science, technology and engineering concepts into three-minute presentations. It is organized by the British Council in Vietnam, the Vietnam National University in Hanoi (VNU Hanoi) and Center for Science and Technology Communication (CESTC) under the Ministry of Science and Technology.

People are advised to send a three-minute video clip about their scientific research in English or Vietnamese to the website https://www.britishcouncil.vn/famelab. Deadline for submission is 5 p.m. on February 29.

Finalists of the contest will receive training courses and consultancy from experts on content improvement and presentation skills. It is expected the finale will take place from April 20 to 22 at Nguy Nhu Kong Tum Hall of the Vietnam National University in Hanoi at 19 Le Thanh Tong Street in Hanoi.

Vu Danh Viet, an IT student of University of Engineering and Technology in Hanoi of Vietnam National University (VNU), became the first winner of FameLab Vietnam in 2015.

FameLab was launched in 2005 in the UK by Cheltenham Science Festival and has since become a model for successfully identifying, training and mentoring scientists and engineers to share their enthusiasm about their subjects.

The contest has attracted more than 5,000 young participants from over 25 countries.

To date FameLab has partnered with the British Council to bring this global competition to international prominence. In the U.S., the British Council and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) acted as co-sponsors to deliver the competition to scientists, researchers and students.

"Colors of Spring" vegetarian buffet opens

The 2016 Saigon and Vegetarian dishes themed “The colors of Spring” opened on February 17 or the 10th January of Lunar Calendar in the Metropole Wedding & Convention Center (216 Ly Chinh Thang, District 3).

It is to highlight the seasonal variety of vegetarian dishes on the first month of the Lunar Calendar and to celebrate New Year 2016. Eating vegetarian food is considered as being good for your health and soul, it is also a newish trend in modern life.

This is Ho Chi Minh City’s famous vegerarian buffet which has been annualy launched by Metropole over 10 years.

Buffet coupons are sold at Metropole for VND 260,000 per adult and VND 120,000 per child under five years old. If a perfon buys 10 coupons they will receive an additional coupon at no cost.

The special menu is open 5:30 p.m to 9 p.m everyday and will end on March 9.

Cu Chi Tunnels become special national relic

A special national relic certificate was presented to representatives of Ho Chi Minh City at a reunion of the Sai Gon-Cho Lon-Gia Dinh revolution movement held in Ho Chi Minh City on February 12.

The gathering saw the presence of former Politburo members Phan Van Khai, Nguyen Minh Triet and Le Thanh Hai, together with Politburo members Vo Van Thuong, Secretary of the Party Central Committee (PCC) and Head of the PCC’s Commission for Communication and Education; Truong Hoa Binh, Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court Truong Hoa Binh; and Dinh La Thang, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City municipal Party Committee.

On behalf of the city’s leaders, Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City municipal Party Committee Tat Thanh Cang highlighted the movement’s significance in the resistant war against colonists and imperialists, as well as in the current Doi Moi process.

The delegates reviewed the proud traditions of the movement, sacrifices and hardship to mobilise and direct people to supply food and medicine for the frontier and fight for national independence and unification.

Over two decades from 1948 to 1968, soldiers and local residents in Cu Chi dug over 250km of tunnels.

My Son Sanctuary connects with more heritage sites

Local authorities in Duy Xuyen District of central province of Quang Nam have spared no efforts to promote tourism to the local My Son Sanctuary.

The site consists of more than 70 tower-temples that were a part of the religious and political capital of the Champa Kingdom for most of its existence.

The site also houses the remnants of a unique culture which owed its spiritual origins to Indian Hinduism developed on the coast of contemporary Viet Nam between the 4th and the 13th centuries.

According to Nguyen Cong Dung, chairman of Duy Xuyen District's People's Committee, the locality has focussed on building infrastructure, training tourism human resources as well as applying favourable policies for investment attraction.

"The local authorities have divided the district into three tourism regions, which link closely to one another," he said. "The east of the district has potential to develop ecological tourism with lots of sea and island tourist attractions, and cultural and historical sites at Hoi An Old Quarter and Cu Lao Cham Island."

The district has made use of Cua Dai Beach to enrich sea tourism sites at Non Nuoc-Hoi An- Duy Xuyen.

The west of the district is named the My Son-Thach Ban Ecological Site, which has been a special tourist attraction linked to the neighbouring areas of the province.

"In a few months, the district will enhance co-operation with travel agencies to push up advertising for local tourism," Phan Ho, head of My Son Sanctuary Management Board said.

Ho said the board would introduce more tourist attractions to turn My Son into a tourist site with modern and environment-friendly features.

He said Cham dancing, excerpts of singing, dancing and folk music performances, are indispensable attractions to welcome guests to the site.

My Son Sanctuary was recognised as a World Culture Heritage Site by the UNESCO in 1999. The site receives an average 300,000 visitors per year, 70 per cent of whom are foreigners.

Master plan for Trang An complex approved

The Prime Minister has recently approved a master plan for Trang An scenic landscape complex in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

Under the planning, the complex will sprawl over 12,252ha in the districts of Hoa Lu, Gia Vien, Nho Quan, Ninh Binh city and Tam Diep township.

Construction is allowed in the 6,000ha surrounding buffer area which sits on parts of 20 local communes and precincts and is divided into the following: Bai Dinh in the west - a spiritual tourism destination and new university and urban area; Truong Yen-Ninh Hoa - gateway to the north; Ninh Nhat-Ninh Tien - gateway to the east; and Ninh Thang-Ninh Hai - gateway to the south, with rural residential areas and tourism services.

The Trang An Complex was recognised by UNESCO as a Cultural and Natural World Heritage Site in 2014.

In UNESCO's words, "Trang An is a resplendent complex of limestone karst peaks which are permeated with valleys, including submerged ones, and surrounded by steep, almost vertical cliffs," nestling on the southern shore of the Red River Delta.

Archaeological traces of human activity dating back thousands of years have been found within the complex.

The Trang An Complex boasts several nationally recognised sites like the Trang An ecotourism site and Hoa Lu, Vietnam's capital in the 10th and 11th centuries.

The area also has many other temples, pagodas, paddy fields, villages and other sacred sites.

It is home to around 500 flora species, 73 species of birds and 41 species of other animals and has a diverse ecosystem with unique geological characteristics.-

VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri