(HBO) – Bui Thanh Binh, Director of the Muong Cultural Heritage Museum in Thai Binh ward of Hoa Binh city (Hoa Binh province), has been spending decades helping preserve the Muong ethnic group’s culture.
Bui Thanh Binh introducing tools displayed at the Muong Cultural Heritage
Museum in Thai Binh ward of Hoa Binh city to visitors.
Binh said when working as a tour guide at the
Hoa Binh travel company in 1985, he realised that foreign tourists preferred
visiting mountainous and remote areas to explore ethnic groups’ culture. Born
in the Muong Dong area – one of the cradles of the Muong culture, he has
nurtured a desire to help uphold the cultural heritage of the Muong people
since their culture not only is diverse but also boasts high artistic value.
In 1985 - the first year of his efforts, Binh
spent his modest salary collecting household utensils such as a basin, a frying
pan, and several bronze food trays from rural residents. From 1988 to 1998, he
collected a number of ceramic and bronze items, rice milling utensils, and
belongings of shamans. About 5,000 - 6,000 unique objects reflecting the life
of Muong people have come to his possession so far.
Introducing the Muong Cultural Heritage Museum,
Binh showed visitors six stilt houses deeply imbued with Muong people’s
cultural identity. The houses are located on a hill covering about 4,000 square
metres.
Among them, a stilt house of a Muong herbalist
contains many precious objects like an altar, a set of items used in betel
chewing, jewellery, hunting and foraging tools, bone and horn handicrafts,
swords, and seals. Meanwhile, the farmer house boasts such items as rice
milling utensils, wine jars, a wooden weaving loom, and men and women’s
outfits, helping visits gain an insight into the life of Muong people.
At a stilt house showing the ethnic group’s
cuisine, Binh said wild vegetable, five-colour steamed sticky rice, grilled and
steamed fish, and roasted pork are among the dishes winning tourists’ hearts.
Over the last more than 10 years, the Muong
Cultural Heritage Museum has welcomed thousands of tourists from across Vietnam
and other countries.
Apart from searching for and collecting
antiquities of the Muong culture, Binh has also invested efforts in maintaining
and popularising the group’s folk songs, especially gong pieces – a
long-standing part of the Muong people’s life.
The artisan has taught the Muong gong playing
skills and folk music to learners from various localities, from Hoa Binh,
Hanoi, Phu Tho, Thanh Hoa in the north to Lam Dong and Dak Lak provinces in the
Central Highlands. He is also the head of the Muong village’s artisan group at
the Vietnam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism in Hanoi’s Son Tay
town./.
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.
The Dao ethnic minority group in Hoa Binh province has preserved many unique cultural identities, especially rituals and belief. In particular, Nhay (dance) festival is the most important ritual with a long history, vividly reflecting the religious life of the local Dao people.
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