Gong performances are a unique spiritual tradition of the Muong ethnic group

Unique cultural identity

Ba Vi district is home to three main ethnic groups - Kinh, Muong and Dao - along with several other ethnic minorities. The district has nearly 25,000 ethnic minority people, primarily living in seven mountainous communes. Preserving and promoting ethnic cultural identity among minority communities has always been a priority of Ba Vi district. In addition to organizing festivals and collecting and preserving artifacts, a lot of ethnic cultural identities have been preserved and promoted, including traditional costumes, musical instruments and languages, especially those of Muong and Dao peoples. Each ethnic group has a distinctive musical instrument that expresses its cultural identity. Muong people often use gongs and cymbals during festivals such as housewarming ceremonies, weddings and summer arrival celebrations. In Ba Vi, these instruments are mainly played by women.

The traditional attire of Muong people in Ba Vi is not brightly colored but simple and elegant, with distinctive features not found in other ethnic groups. Men typically wear long tunics that cover the hips, with chest openings, round collars, shoulder buttons made of horn, and two lower pockets or sometimes an additional pocket on the upper left chest. Their wide-legged pants are secured with a cloth belt around their bellies. Women usually wear a long black skirt with elaborately woven brocade patterns at the hem, handwoven for their own.

For traditional costumes of the Dao people, a full outfit comprises a shirt, bib, leg wraps, silver and gold jewelry, and a headscarf. The shirt features finely crafted silver round buttons. The collar is decorated with red flower-like pom poms on the deep indigo fabric.

The bib is a white silk square with a triangular piece sewn in as a neckline. Leg wraps often have patterns resembling hooks or bird-shaped zigzags. Dao women usually wear various headscarves and wear silver jewelry such as necklaces, rings, betel nut pouches, and ornaments shaped like hemispheres or eight-pointed stars.

The Dao people’s bell dance is a traditional cultural performance 

Promoting cultural values

Minh Quang commune completed the advanced new rural development standards, becoming a model for improving the quality of life for local residents. One of the most impressive features in this mountainous commune is the preservation and development of Muong culture. Nguyen Tien Tha, Chairman of the Minh Quang People’s Committee, said: With support from Hanoi City and Ba Vi district in recent years, the commune has equipped all villages with complete sets of gongs and cymbals. As a result, all Muong-inhabited villages established gong and cymbal clubs. Every year, Minh Quang organizes the “Festival for the Preservation and Promotion of Ethnic Cultural Identity,” bringing immense joy to the local Muong community and contributing to tourism development and the preservation of locally distinctive cultural characteristics.

Ba Vi is building a variety of sports and cultural institutions imbued with unique traditional identity, he added. This includes restoring Tan Vien Son Festival, carrying out community cultural activities, reinforcing gong and cymbal teams and folk dancing and singing teams. Many faded traditional cultural features are being gradually restored, including ethnic languages, costumes, singing, dancing, Muong gong culture and Dao initiation ceremony.

In addition to safeguarding ethnic cultural identities, local authorities actively encourage ethnic minorities to abandon outdated customs, eliminate social evils, and build a healthy cultural lifestyle. Notable communes actively implementing cultural activities tied to maintaining traditional values include Van Hoa, Yen Bai, Ba Trai and Ba Vi.

Besides, the district is gradually developing ethnic cultural villages associated with traditional crafts, preserving cultural heritages, promoting community tourism, investing in human resources, socializing cultural preservation efforts, and establishing preferential mechanisms to support traditional cultural restoration and development.

Additionally, the district focuses on promoting cultural awareness, diversifying preservation methods, and organizing training sessions on ethnic languages and scripts, traditional clothing, and cultural, artistic, and sports activities for local people. Ba Vi upholds self-learning and peer-to-peer cultural transmission within communities through ethnic cultural festivals, sports competitions and traditional folk games.

Indeed, the restoration, preservation and promotion of ethnic cultural identities in connection with new rural development is a sound and essential approach, helping Ba Vi ethnic communities retain Muong and Dao distinct cultural characteristics while continuing to leverage these values in current socioeconomic development.