(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./.
Phong Phu commune, Tan Lac district of Hoa Binh province, is widely regarded as the cultural heartland of the Muong ethnic group. Among its many traditional communities, Luy Ai hamlet (formerly Ai hamlet) stands out as a rare location where the customs and way of life of the Muong Bi people remain largely intact.
The Truong Kha temple festival, a distinctive cultural event held every three years in Vu Ban township, Lac Son district, returned recently with vibrant rituals and folk traditions of the Muong people. Located next to the Buoi River in the Muong Trao fields, the Truong Kha Temple is dedicated to the three Kun Dol deities, revered for teaching farming techniques, irrigation, weaving, and protecting the harvest.
The demand for spaces serving community activities of residents in various areas across Hoa Binh city has been satisfied as local cultural houses now feature modern, spacious facilities thanks to the effective implementation of Resolution No. 49/NQ-HDND issued on December 28, 2021 by the city People's Council, which approved the plan for reorganising, converting, and allocating land for the construction, repair, and expansion of cultural houses in Hoa Binh’s villages and residential areas until 2025.
At the end of May, the Hoa Binh Provincial Ethnic Arts Troupe organized a series of performances for residents in Region 2 and Region 3 communes across the province. Bringing art to ethnic communities in remote, isolated, and especially disadvantaged areas has become a meaningful activity. These are not merely artistic performances but also journeys to disseminate cultural values, enrich spiritual life, and contribute to preserving the cultural identity of ethnic minorities.
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