On the morning of March 4, Lao Dong Newspaper reporters were present at the National Historical and Cultural Relic Bao Loc Temple, Nam Dinh ward, Ninh Binh province. According to records, the number of people coming to worship at the temple was not too large.
Reporters followed the pilgrims deep inside the temple to a place with a sign "forbidden to offer savory offerings". To enter this area, pilgrims had to bow down to crawl through a rather narrow window. This window was only wide enough for one person to crawl through.
When entering, reporters noticed some people lining up to get the seals from the two young men. The wall area above the heads of these two young men had the words: Quoc an (top line) and doan tam tu tam (in the bottom line). Before being sealed, the pilgrim put the money into the donation box nearby.
I lined up with everyone to get the "national seal". When it was my turn, I handed it out to the two young men, saw the 20,000 VND bill in my hand and put it in the donation box right next to it.
At this time, according to the reporter's observation, the young man standing on the left looked at the young man standing on the right. The young man standing on the right gestured to accept the seal, then handed the seal to me and said: "You can offer more as you please, consider it as writing a donation form, I ask for the Holy blessing to come back".
After stamping, the seal recipient must sneak under the altar to go through the side door.
Bringing this issue to Mr. Nguyen Duc Binh - Head of the Management Board of Nam Dinh Ward Relic Area (Ninh Binh province), Mr. Binh said: "The desire to stamp is actually not regulated by any document, this is a long-standing custom of Bao Loc village in the past and in the temple house".
We recommend that people should also have a very correct awareness, because in fact no one invites, no one requests, this is all voluntary, but when entering, behaviors arise afterwards, then brothers are also very regretful when this phenomenon occurs. In terms of regulations, saying prices, suggesting prices is absolutely forbidden, we absolutely do not allow those things," Mr. Binh said.
From the reporter's reflection on the suggestion of "willingly contributing more", Mr. Binh expressed his view that it must be done very strictly, not tolerated. "This behavior will definitely be worked on later," Mr. Binh said.
Mr. Nguyen Duc Binh thanked reporters for their kind suggestions to the temple.
According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Binh, he was newly assigned to manage some relics in Nam Dinh ward. "Thank you very much, for letting the brothers grasp information to work with the residential group," Mr. Binh said.
In further exchange, Mr. Binh said that regarding the sealing, according to press reports, the board has met with the residential group, the temple temples... and has made reminders.
Even before Tet, there were conferences and written reminders. However, in the process of implementation, there were certain violations. As for saying how much money must be offered to be stamped, it is not allowed to say so. We have also thoroughly grasped this," Mr. Binh said.
