Quan The Am Festival

Once a year, a pagoda bell rings out from inside a mountain of stone, and tens of thousands of pilgrims follow the sound to the foot of Ngũ Hành Sơn, the Marble Mountains near Da Nang. This is the Quán Thế Âm Festival, held every year at Quán Thế Âm Pagoda and the scenic site of Ngũ Hành Sơn. It is one of the largest and oldest Buddhist festivals in Da Nang.

Ngũ Hành Sơn is a group of five marble mountains rising from the coastal plain of central Vietnam. Each one is named for one of the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Inside the rock are caves and pagodas that have stood there for many centuries. The air in the caves is always cool, and light slipping through cracks in the stone lays strange streaks across the old floor.

The festival takes its name from Quán Thế Âm, the bodhisattva of compassion in Mahayana Buddhism. On a festival day, thousands of people in áo dài, lotus flowers in their hands, climb the stone steps into the mountain at an unhurried pace. The áo dài is a traditional Vietnamese long tunic. Chanting drifts out of the caves and mingles with the bells and with the wind blowing in from the sea.

The rites here make no show. People come not to watch but to listen, and to let the heart grow quiet again. There are footsteps on cool stone, a light scent of incense, candles flickering deep in the cave, and the voices of chanting echoing off the rock walls. Together they make an experience that needs no further explanation.

For adults, this is a place to be reminded of compassion, a value that does not grow old, even though the festival has run through so many generations.

Pilgrims walk through the pagoda gate, look up at the sheer rock walls, and hear the bell sound for the first time in the open space of the cave. That is why the stream of pilgrims comes back every year.