HBO – As of June 2018, the ethnic minority groups in Hoa Binh province owned a total of 786 intangible cultural heritages, according to statistics of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. More than ever, the preservation and promotion of heritage values need due attention.
Artists
perform at second Muong gong festival
Hoa Binh is home to six ethnic groups with their own cultural
characteristics, which helps form a diverse, unique and impressive culture of
Hoa Binh.
Basically, the local ethnic groups still maintain their
traditional customs. The values of heritages related to literature, spoken language
and handwriting (excluding Muong ethnic group) are conserved, while folk
knowledge and traditional costumes are kept at an average level. For example,
Muong people’s cultural values such as folk singing, gong art, and epic are well
preserved and appreciated. Stilt houses are fading away, but many localities
such as Lac Son and Tan Lac are building stilt houses using concrete instead of
wood as usual. Meanwhile, Tay people still keep their folk songs and maintain
the teaching and learning of ancient handwriting in the community. The Dao
ethnic group continues maintaining "cap sac” (maturity ritual), Tet nhay
(dancing ceremony), and ancient handwriting study, while Mong people still
preserve their costumes, housing architecture, forging, language, Tet (new
year) festival and khen (panpipe) festival.
Notably, some positive signs have been seen in recent time,
including the development of traditional festivals and Muong gong. The role of
Muong shamans has been improved in society.
Localities have paid attention to and invested in preserving and
promoting the values of intangible cultural heritages through the formation of
one traditional cultural village, dozens of community-based tourism cultural
villages at the provincial level, as well as the implementation of nearly 30
scientific projects on culture and ethnic groups, the organization of nearly 50
classes to teach folk arts, hundreds of classes on ancient handwriting, and the
restoration of 50 traditional festivals.
As of June, five ethnic minority groups in the province owned 786
intangible cultural heritages, including spoken language, handwriting,
literature, folk performance art, traditional festivals, handicrafts and folk
knowledge.
The provincial Party Committee and People’s Committee allowed to
collect, study and make scientific documents for two intangible cultural
heritages: Mo Muong and Muong gong, and consider the use of Muong alphabet. The
province will continue making a document on Mo Muong to submit to UNESCO in
order to seek its recognition as the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent
Safeguarding./.
The Government Office with Document No. 2082/VPCP-KGVX, dated March 29, 2024, sent out the opinion of Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha regarding the submission of the "Mo Muong" and "Cheo art" dossiers to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In the evening of March 28th, in Hoa Binh, the Department of Grassroots Culture (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) coordinated with the provincial Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the city to organize a mobile propaganda contest to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Dien Bien Phu Victory (May 7th, 1954 - May 7th, 2024) with the theme "Returning to Dien Bien”. There ứa the attendance of Mr. Nguyen Van Toan, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; the representatives of the leaders from a number of departments, branches and numerous veterans and Hoa Binh people.
In responding to the movement of "All people stay united to build cultural lifestyle”, over the years, Kim Boi district has conducted many practical and effective activities to promote solidarity and mutual support among the local community in sustainable poverty reduction and building cultural lifestyle and a healthy cultural environment, and maintaining national cultural identity.
Hoa Binh Pedagogical College has just held the closing ceremony of the training class and issued the certificate of the language of Muong ethnic people to the oficials, civil servants and public employees of courses I and II in 2023.
Hoa Binh is an ancient land home to limestone mountains running along the southeast direction and in parallel with Truong Son Mountain Range in the West, forming many basins and valleys with a rich diversity of fauna and flora. Humans came to reside here in the pre-historic period, creating the world-famous Hoa Binh Civilisation.