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A statue of Emperor Tran Nhan Tong, who founded the Vietnamese Truc Lam Zen School, is being paraded for public viewing from Nam Dinh Province to Tien Giang Province to commemorate the 712th anniversary of his passing. |
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The 2,000-kilometre-long journey began on December 7 at a temple dedicated to the Tran Dynasty emperors in Nam Dinh Province and the statue will arrive at the Truc Lam Chanh Giac Zen Monastery in Tien Giang Province two weeks later. A stone-laying ceremony is scheduled to be held at the monastery on December 20 to construct a space dedicated to Vietnamese Zen masters coinciding with the arrival of the statue. The 2.2-metre-tall statue is made of Luy Lau red ceramic in a sitting posture, depicting the Tran monarch taking off his imperial robe by a stream to become a Buddhist monk. It was created by renowned artist Nguyen Dang Vong. More than 700 years ago in 1299, Emperor Tran Nhan Tong left the imperial palace for Yen Tu Mountain to begin an ascetic life, marking the birth of the Truc Lam (Bamboo Forest) Zen School. With Truc Lam, the Tran emperor unified all the Buddhist sects of the time into a single school. The main doctrine of Truc Lam is the combination of renunciation with worldly engagement, considering the benefits of the nation and the people as the goal of practice. It is the perfect marriage of Buddhist philosophy with Confucian and Taoist values. Tran Manh Luu, chairman of the Tran clan in Nam Dinh Province, said the parade is an opportunity for descendants of Tran clan to pay tribute to the great accomplishments of Emperor Tran Nhan Tong and bring his philosophy into play. Source: Nhan Dan Online |