The closing ceremony of the 4th International Festival of Traditional Martial Arts was held on August 3, in Quy Nhon District in Binh Dinh Province.
The closing ceremony of the 4th International Festival of Traditional Martial Arts was held on August 3, in Quy Nhon District in Binh Dinh Province.
 |
A beauty contest with 12 participants was also organized during the closing ceremony of the festival.
Valeriya Ryabova, from Tinh Vo Dao in Russia, was crowned ‘International Beauty Queen of Traditional Martial Arts Vietnam’.
The organizers also awarded nine consolation prizes and four minor prizes.
During the festival, the Department of Sports under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the People's Committee of Binh Dinh Province and the Vietnam Martial Arts Federation had agreed to establish the ‘International Federation of Traditional Martial Arts of Vietnam’.
This is being considered a milestone in raising the level of traditional martial arts of Vietnam to an international stature.
At a conference during the festival, nearly 100 martial art schools that attended the international festival came to an agreement to establishment the ‘International Federation of Traditional Martial Arts of Vietnam’.
Master Ho Hoa Hue, head of Tinh Vo Dao martial arts school, the first Vietnamese to have gone to France, Germany, Belgium and Holland to teach Vietnamese Kung Fu, said, “The establishment of the International Federation of Traditional Martial Arts of Vietnam is a common goal for us that we have been looking forward to for many years”.
Zen Master Thich Thich Trung, a martial arts monk at the Dinh Huong pagoda in HCMC, told reporters “When the country implemented the open door policy for international integration, the foreign martial arts techniques were introduced into our country, while the Vietnamese traditional martial arts failed to make a mark in the international arena.”
“Today’s event marks a major victory as well as progress for traditional martial arts, as this will accelerate the spread of Vietnamese Kung Fu to the rest of the world. I am a Buddhist monk but I favor practicing martial arts. Therefore, I welcome the establishment of the International Federation of Traditional Martial Arts of Vietnam,” he said.
Although all agreed with the establishment of the ‘International Federation of Traditional Martial Arts of Vietnam’, many martial arts instructors and scholars said that establishing does not mean uniformity in all martial art schools. Each school should preserve the essence of martial arts.
Historian Duong Trung Quoc said: “Martial Arts of Vietnam are an important part of Vietnamese culture. The establishment of the International Federation of Traditional Martial Arts of Vietnam is a breakthrough in the history of traditional martial arts of Vietnam.”
Quoc also expressed his hope that traditional martial arts of Vietnam will be propagated abroad so that there will come a time when traditional martial arts of Vietnam are included in the Olympic Games and other major sporting events of the world.
(Source:SGGP)
