Hue White lotus is “revived” in Tinh Tam Lake

Recently, white lotus has been successfully replanted after a long time being absent from Tinh Tam Lake

Exactly a year ago, Tinh Tam Lake - one of the scenic spots classified by King Thieu Tri as one of the “Than Kinh nhi thap canh” (twenty beautiful scenes in the Capital), was embellished under the request of the local authorities after a long time of suffering from pollution and deterioration. At that time, one of the concerns was how to replant Hue white lotus in this place as it had been in the past.

It was not a simple story in planting white lotus variety. Because white lotus is well-known as a “fastidious” kind of lotus, which is unable to suffer from pollution and dirty water, etc. Hence, people once did try to plant it but failed.

Getting the agreement of Hue Monument Conservation Center, Hue Viet Organic One Member Co., Ltd., set up a plan to cooperate with surrounding local people to “revive” white lotus flowers with the hope to bring back the beauty for Tinh Tam Lake as it was before.

Delighted to see the beautiful white lotus flowers blooming in Tinh Tam Lake in the first season, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hue – Director of Hue Viet Organic One Member Co., Ltd. shared: “It was a long story to have these pure and fragrant flowers”. One year ago, Mrs. Hue and her colleagues carried out extremely research before making the decision of reviving the kind of white lotus in Tinh Tam Lake. Not too many people really understood that they have made too much effort into renovating the bottom level, handling the remaining plant sprouts in the lake, and creating the ground for the lake’s bottom, etc.

Compared with the high-yield lotus variety previously planted by the local people, this white lotus blooms smaller flowers and raises lower productivity. For these reasons, it is easy to understand why people doing economic work are not interested in this flower variety and limit planting it. “However, many people still desire to restore the cultural values of and replant the precious kind of lotus left by our ancestors,” said Mrs. Hue.

After a year of achieving success in the planting process, the white lotus garden in Tinh Tam Lake is in exploitation season now. Tea leaves are embalmed with white lotus flowers by Mrs. Hue and her colleagues right in the middle of the lake, then harvested to serve domestic customers and export the products to other markets.

Nowadays, Tinh Tam Lake belongs to Thuan Thanh ward (Hue City). The lake was naturally a renovated section of Kim Long River, at first, its name was Ky Te pond. In the third year of Minh Mang reign (1822), the Nguyen Dynasty mobilized up to 8.000 soldiers joining the work of lake renovation, turning it into a royal garden outside the imperial Citadel.

In the series of poems “Than Kinh nhi thap canh” written by Emperor Thieu Tri about 20 beautiful landscapes of Hue Ancient Capital, the poem Tinh ho ha hung (the scene of Tinh Tam lake in Hue Imperial Citadel) ranked 3^rd.

Lately, Tinh Tam Lake has been renovated in a great number of items and has become an attractive destination for local people and tourists. In the coming time, the lake’s space is expected to be a stage for many festivals, cultural and artistic activities.

Some of the photos taken by Thua Thien Hue Online:

The work of white lotus planting is carried out by Hue Viet Organic One Member Co., Ltd. in association with local people living around Tinh Tam Lake

Different from the high-yield lotus varieties, Hue white lotus is a noble variety with soft and fragrant lotus seeds

White lotus flowers are harvested after being replanted successfully in Tinh Tam Lake

At this time, white lotus flowers are blooming beautifully in Tinh Tam Lake; the work of tea embalming is also carried out as soon as the flowers start blooming