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 Nhan
Dan/VNA- The first international gong festival opened last
night in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.
The four-day
festival, organised by the provincial People’s Committee and
the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, has attracted
sixty gong troupes from five Asian countries and 24 cities
and provinces.
Taking part
are some 1,000 performers of 11 ethnic minority groups from
the provinces of Kon Tum, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Lam Dong, Nghe
An and Hoa Binh as well as troupes from Laos, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines.
The festival
aims to preserve the region’s unique gong culture recognised
by UNESCO as an oral and intangible heritage of mankind.
Attending the
ceremony, head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission
for Mass Mobilisation Ha Thi Khiet said that the gong
culture has united Southeast Asian nations.
“Gong culture
is not only an invaluable property of ethnic groups in the
Central Highlands, but for all Southeast Asian nations,” she
stressed.
“We have to preserve and promote it for future
generations in Southeast Asian region and around the world.
The festival plays an important role in preserving this
culture as well as in uniting Southeast Asian nations,” she
added.
Gong has been
used for more than 3,000 years in Vietnam and has played a
key role in the ethnic communities’ culture.
Because it is
seen as a tool that helps connect them with heaven, the gong
culture is an inseparable part of the ethnic minority
people’s spiritual life.
Gia Lai,
which has 5,655 sets of gongs owned by various families, has
the highest number of gongs in any of the Central Highland
provinces. The nearby province of Dak Lak has 300 sets, and
Kon Tum has 1,800.
Gongs are
played to celebrate special occasions, including house
warmings, the birth of a baby, weddings, ritual parades and
funerals.
Hereunder
are some pictures of the opening ceremony:
Art
performance in the opening.
Five
village patriaches representing five Central Highlands
provinces light up the torch.
Cultural
exchange between Jrai and Thai ethnic minority groups.
Performance by Muong ethnic people.
Elephant
parade.
Children
also follow adult playing gongs.
Performance by Thai ethnic people. |
