Tourism in Trang An complex in Ninh Binh province

B: The award ceremony which was supposed to be held in 2020 was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. VOV will invite the top three winners to visit Vietnam as the pandemic is under control and life is returning to normal.

A: The first prize winner is Johnny Antonio Ramirez Lopez of Peru, Spanish Service, the second winner – Rabi Sankar Bosu of India, English Service, and the third winner - C.R.Nurdin of Indonesia, Indonesian Service.

B: VOV’s Secretariat will contact the winners to arrange your trips. Once again congratulation! We’re waiting to welcome you in Vietnam soon.

A: This week VOV’s Overseas Service received 367 emails, letters and phone calls from listeners of 32 countries and territories. Many of them in ASEAN countries say that they closely follow the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.

B: Media in their countries open new column on SEA Games 31 to update achievements of their athletes. They also love to listen to VOV’s programs and visit our website for more detailed stories.

A: Hanoi and adjacent provinces are very busy these days as activities for the 31st Southeast Asian Games began a few days before the official opening ceremony which will be held on Thursday.

A: SEA Games 31, themed “For a Stronger South East Asia”, is being held in Hanoi and 11 neighboring provinces and cities until May 23. Featuring 40 sports with 523 events, it is expected to attract around 10,000 participants.

B: Hanoi has a beautiful and lively appearance with some thousands of banners and billboards featuring SEA Games 31 on display at public places and main roads. Competition venues are also adorned with flower pots. Local police have collaborated with relevant forces to ensure security on roads and at accommodation facilities and competition venues.

A: Vietnamese Kurash athletes won 4 gold, two silver, and one bronze medals on Tuesday. Kurash is one of the sports making its Asian Games debut in Indonesia and is a traditional wrestling event that is highly popular in Central Asia. The objective of kurash is to throw the opponent on the ground on their back by grabbing hold of the towel around their waist.

B: Vietnam on Tuesday secured the gold medal in the men’s beach handball after beating the Philippines 2-1. At SEA Games 30 in the Philippines three years ago, Vietnam also brought home the gold medal. The matches are taking place in Ha Long city, home to UNESCO-recognised Ha Long Bay, in the northern province of Quang Ninh.

A: Ngo Phuong Mai secured the second silver medal diving for Vietnam after she and her teammate Mai Hong Hanh achieved the second highest score in the women’s synchronised 3m springboard event on Monday.

B: Two Vietnamese kickboxers won SEA Games 31’s quarter-finals on Monday. Huynh Van Tuan, who was the gold medallist at SEA Games 30, said he will do his utmost in the upcoming semi-final to defend his title. This is the second time kickboxing has been a SEA Games sport. Vietnam topped the sport’s medal tally at the previous Games in the Philippines in 2019.

A: SEA Games 31 is the first regional event hosted by Vietnam since it reopened international travel and tourism in the middle of March. It’s seen as the curtain raiser for tourism recovery in Vietnam.

B: This week many of our listeners sent their best wishes on Lord Buddha’s Birthday, Vesak Day, to VOV staff. After more than 2 years of being heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Buddha’s Birthday 2022 is being held at all pagodas with safe adaptation and effective control. 

A: Last Saturday, Lord Buddha’s Birthday was held at the Ha Tinh provincial Buddhist Cultural Center. Local leaders and Buddhist dignitaries and followers offered incenses and flowers to celebrate Buddha’s birthday and performed a Buddha bathing ritual.

B: Tam Chuc Pagoda in Ha Nam province will offer free boat tickets during Buddha's birthday this Sunday. The Pagoda will give free 10,000 vegetarian meals and flower lanterns to Buddhist followers and tourists attending the ceremony. In 2019, a flower lantern ceremony for the United Nations Vesak Celebration 2019 set a record of 10,000 people in attendance and more than 40,000 lanterns were released in the lake.

A: Tam Chuc Pagoda Complex is seen as the largest in the world, and is an attractive destination for many visitors and Buddhist followers. It covers an area of about 5,000 hectares with the main pagoda leaning back the mountain and facing a large with a fairyland view.

B: Tam Chuc pagoda’s location is said to have 7 halo shining stars behind it and 6 small mountains in a lake in front of the pagoda, which are said to be 6 bells sent from heaven to earth. Archaeologists think that the original Tam Chuc pagoda was built more than 1,000 years old under the Dinh Dynasty in the 10th century.

A: The current Tam Chuc Pagoda Complex built on the foundation of the ancient Tam Chuc Pagoda was inaugurated in May 2019. The pagoda overlooks Tam Chuc Lake with a huge three-entrance gate, Sutra Pillar Garden, Kwan Yin Temple, Phap Chu Temple, Buddha Trinity Temple, Ruby Pagoda. The Tam Chuc pagoda complex also includes an international conference center, guest house, Tam Chuc communal house, and many temples.

B: It was built by skilled Vietnamese and foreign artisans and craftsmen of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. The three-entrance gate is a very big building which is 28.8m height and covers a floor area of nearly 2,000 sq.m. It has 3-curved roof floors typically of Vietnamese temple architecture. The wharf and the tram station are in front of the gate. On the two sides of the gate are large paths leading to the massive main temples.

A: Sutra Pillar Garden has 32 big sutra pillars. Each pillar is 13.5m high and weighs about 200 tons, made from monolithic blue stone of Thanh Hoa Province. The stone pillars are designed with a lotus pedestal, hexagonal body, hand-carved Buddha precepts. The top of the pillar is shaped like a lotus bud.

B: The 3 main temples of Tam Chuc Pagoda are all magnificent, large, and have large stone relief paintings carved by Indonesian Muslim artisans from volcanic rock in Indonesia.

A: Tam Chuc pagoda houses huge statues: a monolithic bronze statue of Kwan Yin Bodhisattva weighing 100 tons, a monolithic bronze statue of Shakyamuni Buddha weighing 150 tons, and 3 colossal Buddha statues representing  the past, present and future, each made of black bronze weighs 80 tons and is decorated with a large lotus leaf inlaid with gold.

B: There are thousands of stone relief paintings depicting stories of Buddha and his life from his birth, enlightenment, sermon and nirvana.

A: On this occasion we would like to share one of the best Buddhist birthday wishes: “Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.”

B: Last but not least, we acknowledge reception reports from Indian listeners Samarendra Biswas, Siddhartha Bhattacharjee, Kriparam Kaga, and Sreenivasa Raju, Rob den Boer of the Netherlands, Abdul Mannan of Bangladesh, Igor Belevich of Belaru, Harald Süss of Autria.

A: Thank you for tuning in to VOV and sending us your feedback. We’ll send you a program guide and frequency lists for shortwave listening. We welcome your comments and suggestions at English Service, VOVworld, the Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu street, Hanoi, Vietnam.

B: Our email address is: englishsection@vov.vn. You’re invited to visit us online and leave your comments at vovworld.vn. Once again, thank you all for listening. Goodbye.