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| What goes around, comes around: A previous gong festival in the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) province of Dak Lak. — VNS Photos Thanh Tho |
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In the box
The cultural space of the gongs in Viet Nam covers the five Central Highlands provinces of Dac Lac, Dac Nong, Kon Tum, Gia Lai and Lam Dong.
The custodians of the gong culture space are the ethnic groups of Ba Na, Brau, Chu Ru, Co Ho, E De, Gia Rai, Gie Trieng, Ma, M’Nong, Ro Mam, Xo Dang, Cham, Raglai, Bru-Van Kieu, Tai Oi, Coh, Hre, Choro, Stieng and Cotu in the Central Highlands and neighbouring provinces.
These populations make their living from traditional agriculture and have developed their own craft traditions, decorative styles and types of dwellings. Their most popular beliefs stem from animism and they retain close links to daily life and the cycle of the seasons. Their beliefs form a mystical world where the gongs intervene as a privileged language between men, the divine and the supernatural world.
Surveys in the early 1980s showed that provinces in the Central Highlands were home to thousands of gong and cymbal troupes. Many small ethnic tribes and villages possessed dozens of gongs of all sizes.
However, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, that number is falling rapidly, as many have been sold to foreign buyers, never to be replaced.
Recent statistics from the Ministry show that the Gia Lai Province has only 5,126 sets, comprising 87,942 gongs. Only 3,113 sets are left in Lam Dong Province.
"The centuries-old gong music is a precious cultural heritage of Viet Nam’s ethnic people," said Nguyen Chi Ben, director of the Viet Nam Culture Institute.
"It is time to adopt measures to preserve and develop the gong culture. Researchers specialising in the Central Highlands’ culture and history have to come up with long-term strategies for the gong culture’s preservation and development. To preserve this wonderful art, schools in Gia Lai and Dac Lac provinces and the Tay Nguyen University must train students in gongs and in the gong culture," Ben said. — VNS | |
Festival organisers in the Central Highlands are conjuring up the spirit of the past, calling on people to, "Travel back in time and enjoy a true Khan (a Tay Nguyen epic) night among the deities and feel the harmony of the primitive world. To wear loin cloths, dance together and hear the gongs echoing the long-lasting highland sounds".
The 2007 Central Highlands Gong Culture Festival kicks off in the Central Highlands province of Dac Lac between November 21-24. The four-day festival will be the first of its kind and is aimed at honouring and spreading the values of the Tay Nguyen gongs, which were recognised as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in November of 2005, said Lu Ngoc Cu, Chairman of the Dac Lac People’s Committee, at a press briefing in Ha Noi recently.
The festival also called for the community to join efforts to preserve and protect the cultural values of the Tay Nguyen ethnic groups and to help local and foreign travellers further understand how Government priority policies benefit local people, Cu said.
"It would be a wonderful opportunity for companies and travel agencies looking to expand their businesses and introduce new products," the Dac Lac chairman said.
On opening night (November 21), the festival will begin at 8:30pm with a combination of original and academic music, the gongs alongside a symphony, said the head of the Organising Board, Linh Nga Nie Kdam, who is also a scholar on Tay Nguyen Culture.
Folk art performances and elephant racing shows will be held at the Ban Don cultural-ecological tourist centre, about 50km from Buon Ma Thuot City.
Also, an exhibition entitled, The First Central Highlands Wooden Sculptural Creative Camp – Darkuco 2007, will officially open on November 24.
The exhibition will begin on November 1 and gather talented craftsmen from various ethnic groups such as E De, Gia Rai, Ba Na, Se Dang, Cotu and others.
The Ban Don cultural-ecological tourism centre of the Dak Lak Rubber Company has invited artisans and craftsmen to train young workers on how to make wooden statues, Linh Nga said.
National and international music and dance troupes such as Bazan, Da Vang, Dam San and The Bamboo from Paris, along with many others from Indonesia, the Republic of Korea and Denmark, will perform at the festival.
The festival’s attraction is also based on its size. Nearly 30 art gong troupes and thousands of artists and musicians from all over the country will be participating in the events.
They will not only perform in the charming and attractive museum space, but they will also dance with local residents in a well-prepared street show titled, Rhythm of the Central Highlands, which aims to honour and promote the gong culture in Viet Nam’s Central Highlands to visitors and villagers alike. The festival will also introduce economic and cultural achievements and encourage local ethnic people to preserve customs.
The show, Rhythm of the Central Highlands, consists of typical activities such as knitting, weaving and other activities that describe the daily life of highlanders. A music show and a fashion show featuring different ethnic groups in Viet Nam and elephants on parade will also be included in the event.
The programme will occur on November 22 and 23 in four places: City Square, Phu Dong Park, the Sports and Cultural Centre and the University of the Central Highlands.
"You may also learn about different Highland ethnic communities’ cultures by participating in these exciting activities," according to organisers.
The modern fashion show will be designed and performed by students of the Tay Nguyen University and models from the Trong Dong (Bronze Drum) Club of Paris, France.
During the festival, there will be a seminar on Gong Culture Space – Real Situations and Preservative Solutions – on November 23, conducted by Professor and Doctor of philosophy To Ngoc Thanh.
The festival’s expenditure is estimated at about VND15 billion and is sponsored by the Dak Lak Rubber Company (DAKRUCO), the Ban Don Ecological Tourism Centre, the Tan Hoang Thang Holdings Corporation, the MC9 Broadcast Corporation and the EDC Holdings Corporation.
Source: VNS |