Thai Nguyen Museum

of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups

2Thai Nguyen Museum

of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups

Conserve Cultures – Keep the Soul Value

Vi Ngọc Thúy

Hoàng Thị Thanh

Lường Thị Ngọc

Hoàng Thu Hoài

Lù Thị Phương

Thai Nguyen Tours:

Two-day tours:

1. Thai Nguyen Museum – Nui Coc Lake – Duom Temple –

ATK Dinh Hoa Historical monument

2. Thai Nguyen Museum – Hang Pagoda – Phuong Hoang Cave

and Mo Ga Stream

A short tour:

Thai Nguyen Museum – Phu Lien Pagoda – Doi Can Temple

INTRODUCTION

The Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups located in the center of Thai Nguyen City, about 80 km north of Ha Noi on National Highway 3.

The Museum was built in 1960. At first it was named Viet Bac Museum, with its functions and tasks ofscientific research and educating the traditions of culture and revolutionary struggle history of ethnic groups in Viet Bac. It is not only about physical but also moral value.

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Exhibition topic no.5:

OUTDOOR

Stilt houses of the Tày

Four thousand years ago, Vietnamese people were building stilt houses similar to those in use today. Suited to flood-prone plains and to steep mountain slopes, these houses remain popular among many of Vietnam’s 54 different ethnic groups.

The stilt house in the museum is the restored miniature of the real house of the Tày in Lang Son Province.

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In house

Showroom 1 : Cultures of ethnic groups of Viet - Muong language.

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CONTENTS

Showroom 2 : Cultures of ethnic groups of Tay - Thai language.

Showroom 3 : Cultures of ethnic groups of H’mong – Dzao Kadai and Tibeto - Burman language

group.

Showroom 4: Cultures of ethnic groups Mon - Khmer language.

Showroom 5: Cultures of ethnic groups of Chinese and Malayo-Polynesian language groups.

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Exhibition topic no.3:

OUTDOOR

Whale – Worshiping Temple

Whale - worshiping is the specific trait of belief of the people living along the North to South coast. Every year, fish men organize the festival to pray for luck in fishing, for help and protection while fishing on the sea.

Exhibition topic no.4:

Pôklong Grai Cham Tower

The Pô klong Grai Cham Tower was built in the thirteenth century on the peak of Trầu mountain, Đô Linh ward, Ninh Thuan province. It consists of three tower: main tower, gate tower and fire tower.

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Outdoor

Exhibition topic No.1: Sanctum of the Khmer Pagoda

Exhibition topic No.2: Communal house of the Ba Na

Exhibition topic No.3: Pôklong Grai Chăm Tower

Exhibition topic No.4: Whale – Worshiping Temple

Exhibition topic No.5: Communal house of the Ba Na

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DISPLAY SYSTEMS

The Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups is a big cultural center with its functions and tasks of doing research, collection, inventory,  conservation, exhibition, popularization and bringing into play the heritage of traditional cultures of the Vietnamese ethnic groups in the entire country.

With the concern from the Party and State, specifically from Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups has developed day by day. During the past 50 years, the Museum has conducted hundreds of researches and collections all over the country, acquiring nearly 30,000 valuable items. These were important for the Museum to prepare the indoor and outdoor exhibitions to serve the domestic and international people.

The exhibition system of Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups was built on the basis of ethnic language families in combination with regional cultures, introducing the cultural characters of 54 ethnic groups associated with ecological landscapes of every settlement area, including in house and outdoor.

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Exhibition topic no.1:

OUTDOOR

Sanctum of the Khmer Pagoda

Sanctum is a place of worship Buddha Shakyamuni in different postures, the Guardian Deity, the Gods. This is the most solemn and sacred place in the pagoda where bonzes recite and pray to Buddha, direct their mercifulness toward the Supreme Being.

Exhibition topic no.2:

Communal house of the Ba Na

The frame of the house is inherited from a communal house in Kontum. The Communal House is a symbol of the culture of Central Highlanders, an age-old and stable culture. The bigger the house, the wealthier the village is. It is a pride of the whole village.

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Showroom No. 1:

IN HOUSE

Exhibition no 1: Village gate of the Kinh poeple

The Kinh live together in villages. Each village has a gate and is surrounded by bamboo hedges.

Exhibition no 2: Alter worshipping ancestors of the Kinh

The Kinh have had the custom of worshipping their ancestors since long time ago based on their beliefs of the immortal soul after death.

CULTURES OF ETHNIC GROUPS OF VIET-MUONG LANGUAGE GROUP

Exhibition no 3: The Muong’s stilted house

The Muong have got used to live in stilted houses.

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Showroom No. 5

IN HOUSE

Exhibition no 4 : Houses

Exhibition no 3 : Wedding of the Cham

Chăm marriage is polygamy with matrimarchal patterns. According to the Chăm custom, children adopt their mother’s family name and the girl’s family marriages husband for her. Man comes to live with his wife’s family and only daughters have the right of inheritance. Especially, the youngest daughter has to feed her parents, so she inherits a bigger inheritance than other daughters.

Traditional house only has a long line of pillars and has not any rafters. House frame and roof framing like two separate structures attached to each other.

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Showroom No. 2

IN HOUSE

Exhibition no 1: Mountainous village structure of Tay– Thai people.

 

Exhibition no 2: House of Thai

CULTURES OF ETHNIC GROUPS OF TAY-THAI LANGUAGE

Mountainous villages of ethnic groups of Tày – Thái language family are often built in valleys or slopes of hills. Every village has from 20 - 25 houses, and up to tens of houses in big ones.

The Black Thái’s house is shaped like a tortoise shell. This traditional architecture is related to a legend.

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Showroom No. 5

IN HOUSE

Exhibition no 2 : Traditional handicrafts of the Chăm

Exhibition no 1: Tower of the Chăm

Cham towers are a form of religious structure with its peculiar character. Chăm people’s temples and towers were built according to unique and special architecture.

Fabric weaving is a traditional handicraft developed for a long time of the Chăm. Before the 1950s, the Chăm had learnt to grow cotton to weave fabric  for their clothing.

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Showroom No. 2:

IN HOUSE

Exhibition no 3: Agricultural cultivation

Exhibition no 4: Long Tong festival  

When Spring and Tet come, ethnic groups of Tày – Thái language family organize festival to welcome spring, express their gratitude towards the genies’s blessing for a bumper crop and lucky life, at the same time to pray to the genies for a new year with good crops, safety and good health.

Living in the valleys, people of Tày - Thái language group have early developed wet rice cultivation in combination with milpa cultivation. Their farming experience and technique achieve rather high level.

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Showroom No. 4

IN HOUSE

Exhibition no 3 : Rông House and festivals 

Exhibition no 4: : Pagoda of the Khmer

 Rông Hous is a type of aged-old folk architecture of many ethnic groups in Central highlands, an unique cultural product bearing a clear peculiar local character and is a symbol of villages in Central Highlands.

The Ba Na often organize a new rice festival every year at the beginning of harvest.

Khmer pagoda built in the middle of every phum and sóc is a center of communal cultural activity, a Khmer cultural symbol.

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Showroom No. 3

IN HOUSE10

Showroom No. 4IN HOUSE

Exhibition No.1: Agricultural cultivation of the Môn - Khmer group:

 

ETHNIC CULTURE OF THE MÔN – KHMER LANGUAGE GROUP 

Most of ethnic groups in the Môn - Khmer language family in the Northwest and Central - Central Highlands cultivate milpas in combination with wet rice field.

Exhibition No.2: Marriage in ethnic groups of the Môn - Khmer language family

Marriage in ethnic groups of the Môn - Khmer language family is monogamy. Formerly, marriage was based on financial consideration like buying and selling.

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Exhibition no 1: Mountainous villages and houses  

Exhibition no 2 : Agriculture

CULTURES OF ETHNIC GROUP OF H’MONG –DZAO, KADAI AND TIBETO – BURMAN LANGUAGE GROUP

Ethnic groups of H’mông - Dzao, Ka Đai and Tibeto - Burman language family mainly cultivate milpas

There are two types of villages: scattered and concentrated. The number of houses in a village depends on specific terrain and the settled or shifting cultivation of each ethnic minority.

Showroom No. 3

Exhibition no 5 : Market culture in mountainous 

Transport experiences major difficulties in high mountainous areas. The H’mông - Dzao, Kađai and Tibeto - Burman people often self-support most of their requirements, so they seldom go down the mountain.Market is not only the place for buying and selling, exchange of commodities, but also the meeting place of relatives and young people, the place of entertainment, communication with somebody, learning, playing clarinets and flutes to find one’s spouse.

Showroom No. 3

IN HOUSE

Exhibition no 3: Traditional herbal medicine    

Exhibition no 4: Folk literature, music and art

Folk literature people is diversified nd rich in types and contents, including: mythology, fairy tales, legends, epics….

In this ethnic group ,many people know how to find and process berbal medicine (artemisia, nut grass,amomum, formes japonicus…) to treat diseases.

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