More Vietnamese Buddhist records recognised
Update: May 26, 2009
A list of 14 more Vietnamese Buddhist records was announced by the Vietnam Guinness Book Centre (Vietbooks) and the Giac Ngo (Enlightenment) newspaper in Ho Chi Minh City on May 24.

Worth of note is a four-armed Buddha statue created between the 2nd-6th centuries. The 1.7m high statue was found by local people in Oc Eo Town, An Giang Province in 1913, and now is displayed at the Linh Son Pagoda.

Another record is a table lamp with a sand painting of Cundi Bohdisattva. The lamp, made by the My Viet Ltd. Co, has a height of 101cm, a weight of 22.5 kg, and the image of the Bodhisattva made of white sand from central Khanh Hoa Province, and naturally-coloured sand from central Binh Thuan Province.

Other records include the 9-tome, 46-chapter Damamukanidana Sutra (Sutra on the Fool and the Wise Person) that was transformed by poet Pham Thien Thu into a poetry of 12,062 lines, and a calligraphic book of the Prajnaparamitahridaya Sutra (Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra) made by calligrapher Tue Chieu with 62 pages, a 80cm length, and a 55cm width, the largest so far calligraphic work in Vietnam.

There are some newly-created records, such as the largest-scale Dharma propagation trip of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha to six countries in order to link up the overseas Vietnamese Buddhist followers to the home land, and the largest requiem on an island which was held on Con Dao Island in last April.

Vu Ngoc Toan, member of the Ho Chi Minh City Buddhist Sangha’s Cultural Department, was recorgnised as the composer of most Buddhist songs in Vietnam with 639 songs.
VNA