Kinh Thien Altar Festival recreates nation’s historical journey

Thung Ui is a land of special archaeological and historical value, recording traces of human habitation from approximately 13,000 years ago. The cultural sediments here reflect a continuous development process of ancient communities, laying the foundation for the formation of ancient Vietnamese culture in the Hoa Lu area.

In 968, Dinh Tien Hoang ascended the throne as Emperor, establishing the Dai Co Viet Kingdom, adopting the reign name Thai Binh. This was the first independent, centralised state in Vietnamese history.

From the very beginning of the nation’s establishment, the Dinh Dynasty established three major national ceremonies: the Flag-Raising Ceremony, the Military Review Ceremony, and the Heaven Worship Ceremony.

Among these, the Altar of Heaven (Dan Kinh Thien) was the site of the Heaven Worship Ceremony, the most sacred ritual, affirming the sovereignty and legitimacy of the independent nation.

Notably, in 2025, for the first time in history and the world, the DNA of an individual approximately 13,000 years old, living in a tropical climate, was successfully decoded. This research result, along with archaeological findings of prehistoric human remains dating back 30,000 to 50,000 years found in the Dan Kinh Thien area, provides crucial scientific evidence confirming the early presence of ancient inhabitants in this region.

This contributed to clarifying the process of human formation and development in Southeast Asia. Simultaneously, it affirms the outstanding global value of the Dan Kinh Thien area, a confluence point of cultural, historical, and archaeological layers spanning tens of thousands of years.

Based on its historical and archaeological value, the 2026 Dan Kinh Thien Festival was designed with an educational and entertainment orientation, offering a visually engaging, vivid, and accessible historical experience.

The programme featured large-scale, dynamic live-action performances, with two parallel, interconnected stage spaces that expand the depth of the theatrical experience, allowing viewers to observe the story from multiple perspectives.

A highlight is the ritual of offering sacrifices to heaven at Dan Kinh Thien, combining traditional ceremonies with modern performance technology. Techniques such as visual mapping, lasers, lighting effects, and multi-layered stage systems were applied to recreate ancient ceremonial spaces in a contemporary art form.

The festival recreated the historical journey from the traces of human activity approximately 13,000 years ago in the Hoa Lu region to the moment when Dinh Bo Linh established an altar to worship heaven, declared himself emperor, and ushered in the Dai Co Viet era a historical process spanning millennia.