Sam Mountain Chau Doc

Most mountains belong to a range, with other peaks leaning close on either side. Núi Sam, at Châu Đốc, belongs to none, and no other mountain stands beside it.

From a distance it looks like one mass of earth and rock, lifted out of the wide flatness of the Mekong Delta. Around it lie fields, canals and villages. That loneliness is what made the mountain special to the people of this region, hundreds of years ago.

In 2018 the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recognized the Núi Sam area as a national tourist area. The prime minister had approved its master plan in 2017. The area covers 1,487 hectares and is divided into eight functional zones.

What turned Núi Sam into a destination is not the scenery of the mountain. It is the layer of belief and worship raised around its foot over many generations. The area holds five national monuments of history and culture. The first is the shrine of Bà Chúa Xứ, a mother goddess believed to grant protection and prosperity. The second is Tây An Pagoda, and the third is the Tomb of Thoại Ngọc Hầu. The last two are Chùa Hang, also called Phước Điền Pagoda, and Châu Phú Communal House.

At the center of all of them is the shrine. Its Vía Bà festival runs from the 22nd to the 27th day of the fourth lunar month. The festival is tied to the shrine and to the stone platform where the goddess is worshipped on the mountain. It is described as a system of spiritual rituals and performing arts. Through them, the ethnic Vietnamese, Khmer, Cham and Chinese communities of Châu Đốc express belief in Mother Earth and the Mother of the Land, and gratitude to them. On December 4, 2024, UNESCO inscribed the festival on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. That list is for living traditions, passed on from one generation to the next. The inscription is for the festival, not for the whole mountain or its group of buildings.

After the shrine, the visiting route usually leads to Tây An Pagoda. It was ranked a national monument of architecture and art in 1980, and it stands out for a design that blends Indian style with old traditional art. Here a visitor can see with their own eyes how religious architecture on the southwestern frontier can bring several traditions together under one roof.

Close by, the tomb was ranked a national monument in 1980. It tells of the man it is named for and of Châu Thị Tế, people who helped open up and defend the land of Châu Đốc. On one side stands belief, on the other the history of settling the land. These two layers of culture are woven together at Núi Sam.

Chùa Hang, on the slope of the mountain about one kilometer from the shrine, was founded in 1845. It became a national monument in 1980. The way up follows the slope and is not very steep, and it gives a different view of Núi Sam from above.

Núi Sam is more than a mountain. At its foot, incense smoke rises from the shrine and a pagoda bell rings out from the slope. Under a visitor's feet lies earth that generations of ethnic Vietnamese, Khmer, Cham and Chinese have built together. A lone mountain in a vast plain, and yet it has never truly stood alone.