A group of Buddhists in HCM City will sculpt the statue of Kinh Tran Nhan Tong from a Nephiete gemstone of 4,450kg. The statue will be sculpted on July 5, in HCM City. The work is scheduled to complete in December 2012. The statue sketch The redundant gemstone will be carved into two seals of Tran Kings. The seals will be auctioned by the Vietnam Fatherland Front to raise fund for the poor on December 31. Representative of statue makers, Buda Company, said that the gemstone was imported from Canada. The complete statue will be over 2 tons in weight, 1.5-1.6m tall. The lotus-shaped lamp support will be created by white marble. The statue will be displayed at some big pagodas in Vietnam. Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308), the third king of the Tran dynasty, ascended the throne when he was just 21. He was famed for defeating Mongol invaders twice during 15 years of his reign. The gemstone The king abdicated his throne at the age of 35 and spent the rest of his life on the Yen Tu Mountain practicing and propagating Buddhism, and founding the Truc Lam School of Zen (the Bamboo Forest School). During that time, the King-Monk worked to unify different sects of Vietnamese Buddhism into Vietnamese Zen Buddhism. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Quang Ninh province will ask for the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to recognize King Tran Nhan Tong as a “Man of Culture of the World.” Vietnam currently has three “Man of Culture of the World” recognitions namely Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Du and Ho Chi Minh. Vietnamnet/ Compiled by Phuong Lan