Dak Nong province with ethnic musical instruments

The first course on making ethnic musical instruments is being run to preserve the specific culture of the MNong ethnic minority group in the Central Highlands.

While carrying out a project to preserve and promote the gong festivals of the Mnong ethnic minority group, Dak Nong province organized a training course to learn how to make musical instruments of the MNong ethnic group for 10 ethnic people in Pinao hamlet, Nhan Dao commune, Dak RLap district.

They learnt how to build instruments, choose the materials and adjust the sound.

The three-month course will be completed by the end of December.

Vietnamese and foreign researchers on folk culture, ethnologists, historians and archaeologists who came to the Central Highlands to study the folk culture of the MNong ethnic people said that the MNong ethnic group had a specific gong culture and different musical instruments. However, over the past few years, the influence of modern cultures has had a big effect on the traditional culture of many ethnic minority groups.

According to statistics from the provincial Department of Culture and Information, in 1993, Dak Nong had more than 1,000 sets of MNong gongs. In 2001, there were only about 650 and now there are only 360. Furthermore, the musical instruments and traditional gong performances has been lost to oblivion but there are still a few artisans left.

The Mnong have a population of 92,000 and they are also known as the Preh, Gar, Nong, Prang, Rlam, Kuyenh, Chil. They live in a small area in the southern part of Dac Lac province, and parts of Lam Dong and Binh Phuoc provinces. Their language belongs to the Mon-Khmer Group.

They the slash-and-burn method of farming and paddy fields are found only in areas near rivers, lakes and ponds. Their domestic animals include buffaloes, dogs, goats, pigs, poultry and sometimes even elephants. The Mnong in Ban Don are well known for elephant for hunting and domesticating them. Women usually weave cotton cloth while the men do basketry work.

They live in houses on stilts or on ground level and the ones built on the ground have thatched rooves reaching down almost to the ground.

Each village usually has dozens of households and the village chief plays a major role among villagers where everybody lives with the experiences and customs handed down from earlier generations. Men and women, young and old alike, like to drink alcohol from jars through pipes and to smoke tobacco rolled in leaves.

The men generally wear loincloths and leave their upper torsos naked while the women wear capes which fall to their ankles. For both young men and women, vests are slipped on like pull overs and the dark indigo loincloths, capes and vests are decorated with red-coloured designs.

Matriarchy is observed and the children take the family name of their mother. In the family, the wife holds the key position but the husband is treated in the same manner. Wife and husband show mutual respect. Elderly parents used to live with their youngest daughter.

According to old habits, Mnong grown-ups must file their teeth before talking of love and marriage. Marriage goes through 3 steps: proposal, engagement and wedding. After marriage, the young couple can live with the husband's or the wife's family if they receive to the consent of both families.

The Mnong like to have many children, especially daughters and one year after birth, the baby is given its true name. At funerals, people sing and beat gongs and drums by the side of the coffin the whole day and night. After placing the coffin in the grave, they cover it with plants, branches and leaves before filling it up with earth. After 7 days or a month, the family holds a ceremony to mark the end of the mourning period.

The Mnong believe in the existence of many genies which are related to their lives. Mother Rice holds a special role, as does farming and every year they hold rituals to protect Mother Rice and pray for a bumper harvest.