VI
EN
The 2025 Lower Temple, Upper Temple, and Y La Temple Festival is a unique cultural event, closely associated with the Mother Goddess worship belief – a representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity, recognized by UNESCO, affirming the historical and cultural value of national relics in Tuyen Quang city.
This is an opportunity to honor folk religious traditions, express reverence for deities, and show gratitude to our ancestors; it is also a chance to preserve and promote the value of the Mother Goddess worship, create a space for cultural exchange, and boost tourism development, contributing to promoting the image of Tuyen Quang – a land rich in historical and cultural traditions – to friends both domestically and internationally, making Tuyen Quang an attractive destination for tourists from home and abroad.
With the desire to create a rich cultural space, connecting tradition with contemporary life, this year's festival not only recreates characteristic religious rituals but also broadens perspectives on cultural heritage in the context of sustainable tourism development. With the theme "Honoring the Mother Goddess Worship and the Cultural Identity of Tuyen Quang," the festival will allow the public to explore the depth of Mother Goddess worship – an important spiritual current in the religious life of the Vietnamese people, especially the worship of Mother Thoai in the sacred land of Tuyen Quang.
Many unique activities are organized to provide the people of Tuyen Quang and visitors from all over the country with experiences at a festival that both inherits traditional beauty and adds many new highlights.
Accordingly, the ceremonial part will fully recreate the characteristic procession of the Mother Goddess and solemn rituals, allowing the public to feel the interplay between spirituality and art. The festival part will offer vibrant and meaningful cultural experiences such as spirit medium performances, the Tuyen Quang Tea House, an exhibition of ceremonial scarves and robes, an introduction to the culture of Mother Goddess worship through interactive screens, folk sports activities, and a seminar on the theme "Promoting the traditional values of Mother Goddess worship and Truc Lam Zen Buddhism in the religious life of the people of Tuyen Quang"...
In particular, this year's festival emphasizes the role of religious beliefs in sustainable tourism development, encouraging the preservation, promotion, and exploitation of heritage values to create momentum for socio-economic development in the community.
Sharing her thoughts on the significance of the event, Ms. Vu Quynh Loan, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuyen Quang City and Head of the Organizing Committee, said: “The 2025 Lower Temple, Upper Temple, and Y La Temple Festival is not only an annual cultural event, but also an opportunity for the community to reflect on, honor, and promote the value of folk beliefs in modern life. The Mother Goddess religion not only brings peace to the soul, but can also become a foundation for sustainable spiritual tourism – an important trend in current cultural and economic development.”
The 2025 Lower Temple, Upper Temple, and Y La Temple Festival respectfully welcomes a large number of tourists, researchers, Buddhists, and the community to participate, experience, and spread traditional cultural values in the contemporary context.
The worship of Mother Goddess is the oldest indigenous belief of the Bach Viet people. Most temples in Tuyen Quang worship Mother Goddess, and in Tuyen Quang city and its surrounding areas alone there are 14 temples dedicated to Mother Goddess (the Three Holy Mother Goddesses: Mother Goddess of Heaven, Mother Goddess of the Mountains, and Mother Goddess of the Waters).
Among them, the Lower Temple, Upper Temple, and Y La Temple are the three oldest temples (recognized as national historical relics) and are also renowned for their sacredness. These three temples were built between the 18th and 19th centuries to worship Mau Thoai (Mother of Water) – a Holy Mother revered by the people as the mother who bestows life upon all living things, and are also associated with the Mother Goddess Procession Festival. The Mother Goddess Procession Festival at the Lower Temple, Upper Temple, and Y La Temple has existed for a very long time. The worship of the Holy Mother at these three temples is the "sacredness" and the core of the festival. The procession ritual is majestic, with participation from the elderly, young, men, women, and visitors from all over. Currently, these temples still preserve a total of more than 10 royal decrees from the Le Dynasty to the Nguyen Dynasty praising the merits of the two Holy Mothers.
Folklore continues to recount the legend of Mau Thoai, worshipped at the Lower Temple, Upper Temple, and Y La Temple, as follows: Legend says that in a previous life, two princesses, daughters of King Hung, Ngoc Lan and Phuong Dung, accompanied the royal procession to inspect the region. They docked their boat on the riverbank. That night, a storm arose, and the two princesses suddenly flew up into the sky. People considered this a miraculous event and erected temples to worship them. The temple dedicated to Princess Phuong Dung is on the right bank of the Lo River in Y La commune. The temple dedicated to Princess Ngoc Lan is on the left bank of the Lo River in Tinh Huc commune; prayers offered there are often answered.
The temple dedicated to Princess Phuong Dung is located on the right bank of the Lo River in the former Y La commune, which is the Lower Temple (Hiep Thuan Temple, also known as Tam Ky Temple or Tam Co Temple) in Tan Quang ward today; the temple dedicated to Princess Ngoc Lan is located on the right bank of the Lo River in the former Tinh Huc commune, which is the Upper Temple in Trang Da commune today. The Y La Mother Temple is a place of refuge for the deity (a place of shelter), a sacred location that protects the Holy Mother... Therefore, the festival at the Lower Temple cannot be separated from the Upper Temple and the Y La Mother Temple. On the day of the procession of the Mother, the Upper Temple and the Y La Temple are the starting points for the palanquin procession, while the Lower Temple is the place for the joint ceremony. Every year, the elder and younger Mothers – Princess Ngoc Lan and Princess Phuong Dung – meet twice, in mid-February and July (Lunar Calendar), before ascending to heaven together. The procession of the Holy Mother's ancestral tablets from the Upper Temple and the Y La Temple to the Lower Temple symbolizes the reunion and family gathering of the two sisters, Princess Ngoc Lan and Princess Phuong Dung.
The festivals at Ha Temple, Thuong Temple, and Y La Temple are occasions for the people of Tuyen Quang city to respectfully express their gratitude to the Holy Mother for protecting the ethnic communities living in the area. At the same time, it is also an opportunity for people to express their aspirations, praying for a prosperous and happy life, strong people, abundant livestock, favorable weather, bountiful harvests, and peace and prosperity for all families.
