Exhibition «Kinh gốm – thanh âm thế gian» (Ceramic Sutra – Sounds of the World)

   More than four hundred ceramic Buddhas are being carried up to the summit of Bà Đen, the highest peak in southern Vietnam and the spiritual heart of Tây Ninh province, roughly 100 km northwest of Ho Chi Minh City. They were shaped by hand in a village whose kilns have been burning for over seven centuries, and you will see them in the open air, among clouds and centuries-old pagodas, rather than in a gallery hall.

   The sculptor is Nguyen Tuan (Nguyễn Tuấn), known across Vietnam as Tuấn Gốm — “Tuan the Potter”. He worked alongside artisans from Phù Lãng in Bắc Ninh province, one of northern Vietnam's oldest pottery centres, with more than 700 years of continuous craft behind it. Organisers describe the project as the largest installation of spiritual ceramic sculpture ever staged on a mountain top in the country.

   The essentials:

• — over 400 ceramic sculptures drawing on Buddhist iconography;
• — among them “Phật Mình Chim”, a bird-bodied Buddha and one of the artist's strangest pieces;
• — a hands-on pottery workshop, a first for Bà Đen;
• — a stage show built around the craft of ceramics;
• — games with prizes for visitors;
• — a stall of small figures made by Phù Lãng artisans.

   This one is for anyone who follows craft and wants to see Vietnamese pottery working in a landscape instead of a display case. Families get the workshop and the games, pilgrims get the temple complex next door, photographers get mountain light that shifts every half hour.

   The mountain itself is the “roof of southern Vietnam”, visited for the views and for worship in equal measure. Its summit holds Asia's tallest bronze statue of the goddess Quan Am (Phật Bà), a monumental sandstone Maitreya Bodhisattva and a gilded statue of Kanakamuni Buddha (Câu Na Hàm Mâu Ni) that is rare in Vietnam, with pagodas several hundred years old scattered around.

   Ceramics are not new to Bà Đen. The mountain has become a stage for large cultural projects: a record-setting lantern offering ceremony, Vietnam's biggest “leaf market” (chợ Lá) held on the peak, lantern and historical-memory exhibitions, a festival of fruit-carving masters. Visitors have followed: by late July 2026 the cable car had carried 4 million people up the mountain, while the province logged about 5.07 million tourists in the first half of the year, up 9.7% year on year.

   “Visitor support is what pushes the resort to keep creating and raising the level of the experience, so that every return trip reveals new beauty on the roof of the south,” says Dao Thi Viet (Đào Thị Việt), general manager of Sun World Ba Den Mountain. The province is aiming to close 2026 with 10 million visitors.

   The display sits on the summit itself, so the ascent is part of the visit: visitors ride the cable car up. Check entry conditions for the exhibition with the resort. One practical note — through the end of 2026 a special fare applies to rides after 17:00, and the evening light up top justifies it.

   Questions about the exhibition programme and the resort go to [email protected].

   Come up and see for yourself how clay, fire and faith share a mountain top.