An Ma Temple

On the journey to discover Ba Be area (Bac Kan), visitors will have the opportunity to visit  and offer incense at An Ma Temple, immersed in the poetic and lyrical scene but still feel the sacred atmosphere of the Buddhist meditation place.

Ba Be Lake  is in Nam Mau commune, Ba Be district, Bac Kan province, about 240 km from Hanoi, is located in Ba Be National Park. An Ma Temple (An Ma) is located on An Ma Island between Ba Be Lake. An Ma Island is a limestone island with a tortoise-shell shape, rising up about 30 meters right  in the middle of Ba Be Lake. The island is covered with trees, and also a convenient spot to observe the landscape of the lake and the local wild animals  and birds. The  Temple worships Buddha, Mau Thuong Ngan, Lord Son Trang, Duc Thanh Tran …. Legend has it that the temple was also a place to worship the Mac dynasties in the feudal war of Le Mac, after losing the battle, they ran and arrived at Puong cave and killed themselves. To commemorate the loyal underlings, people here built a temple to worship the Mac family, but were afraid of being retaliated by the Le army, so they changed their name to the temple of the Ma family. An Ma according to the Tay ethnic language means “beautiful and peaceful grave” in the resting place of the Mac loyal uderlings.

Renovated and rebuilt in 2006, An Ma Temple has a simple, gentle, elegant and harmonious combination with nature. The contours are cleverly carved, meticulously expressing ideas and conceptions of people here, associated with historical circumstances in each period.

An Ma Temple is the place for local people, visitors to do their spiritual activities and  also to celebrate Ba Be Spring Festival held on January 10. An Ma Temple Festival is held on the 6th of feburary the lunar calendar every year. Local people all know the sacredness of An Ma temple. On every first day of the every lunar month, people often go to the island to burn incense, pray for prosper, pray for peace and happiness i the family.

Vietnamese people in general have a very deep spiritual life. Going to temples and pagodas is a habit, an indispensable need of the people. On the last days of the old year and at the beginning of the new year, Vietnamese people came together to temples and shrines to offer incense to Buddha, expressing their reverence before the gods and ancestors. Vietnamese come to the pagodas with many different purposes, they pray for peace and health for themselves and family members. There are also people who come to the temple just to find peaceful moments to dispel the worries of life. But in general, when people come to temples, everyone brings their sincere hearts, from that they find their faith, peace and peace of mind. The quiet, frugal scenery of the temples on this occasion suddenly became crowded, filled with incense and smoke by people from all over the place. So, with many historical-cultural relics, in which there is An Ma temple, Bac Kan has abundant potential for tourism development, especially the types of sightseeing tours of historical – cultural, festival, spiritual tourism.

Recognizing the importance and significance of historical-cultural relics, local authorities have paid attention to exploiting that potential in Bac Kan cultural tourism development. In the context of a mountainous province, agriculture and forestry plays an important role like Bac Kan nowadays, the revenue from tourism has contributed a crucial part in improving and improving the material and spiritual life of the people. people as well as changing the socio-economic face of the province, creating opportunities for the homeland to catch up with the increasingly dynamic development of the whole country in the renovation period.

|Read more: Ba Be National Park Travel Guide