Village culture in Truong Son - Central Highlands

1(2).jpg — Rice hut in Bong village. Photo: VNG

Each village name is associated with the name of a stream, a ferry, a forest or simply an ancient tree that people use to name their village.

Symbol of prosperity and sharing

From the village names associated with mountains, forests, rivers and streams, it can be seen that the village is not only a residential space but also a place to preserve the memories and cultural roots of the ethnic group.

And in that vein of life, the rice hut (sometimes called the rice granary) is the nucleus that nurtures the sustainability of the village. This place is always carefully tended after the harvest.

There is a whole ceremony for the Rice God, the Ba Na To Lu people call it the Smath Kơ Chàm ceremony, which means the new rice celebration, one of the biggest festivals of the year. The Ko people in the Ngok Linh mountain range call it the Sa Aní ceremony, which means the ceremony to store rice and prepare for the new crop.

The granary is a part of the physical and cultural architecture of the village community. It is a symbol of the abundance of each family and a blessing from the God of Rice, giving people enough food all year round.

Many natural disasters, storms, floods, and droughts have struck remote mountainous areas, but the highland indigenous people still resist hunger thanks to building rice huts to store rice in this traditional way.

The Ba Na people often say that no one goes hungry when someone else's granary is full.

The ferry, the fire and the legends of the Central Highlands village

One cannot imagine a traditional village in the Central Highlands without a water wharf, which in some places is called a drop of water. People even have to choose a water wharf before establishing a village and some villages are named after a water wharf.

In addition to its function as a living space, this place is also considered a place for daily communication for villagers. They exchange information about the weather, crops and many other things happening around the community.

This is also the birthplace of legends.

The Forest God and the Water Wharf God are a couple in the beliefs of many highland ethnic groups. They have a ceremony to worship the Water Wharf God before the most important festival of the year.

The Co people on the eastern slope of Ngok Linh mountain do not have a rain-praying ceremony because they believe that the Water God will bring a devastating flood to their residential area. But during the Sa Ani festival, they hold a ceremony to welcome the Water God from the first drop of water in the village to offer to other gods in the house.

The celebrant leading the water pipe procession must inform the other family gods. It is believed that the countless lucky gods residing in their family also enjoy the blessings of the water god like humans.

From the Fire God in the kitchen to the Wine God brewing wine in preparation for the festival and Tet.

Perhaps the most obvious manifestation of the intangible culture of a Truong Son - Tay Nguyen ethnic minority village is during festivals. Community awareness is fully promoted in all behaviors of village members.

Someone once said that when sitting around a fire, people grow up much more than how they find their daily bread.

Indeed, the hearth fire never goes out in every traditional house of the Central Highlands village. The hearth fire is where the mysterious legends about the children of heaven that the Central Highlands people often dream of are spontaneously created.

A communal house in the middle of the jungle

The ethnic minorities of Truong Son - Tay Nguyen attach great importance to the communal house in their village. That is the long house of the Ede village head, the Guol house of the Co Tu, and especially the communal house of the Gie Chieng, Xe Dang, and Ba Na ethnic groups.

The communal house is the most prominent architectural symbol in the institution of a traditional village in the Central Highlands. The Ba Na people also distinguish between male and female communal houses depending on the layout of the village.

It is considered both a symbol of tangible culture and a place for activities and ceremonies expressing the intangible cultural nuances of the village community.

All important ceremonies of the villagers take place at the communal house because people believe that the communal house is the residence of the gods, Giang, who protect the village community.

The inauguration ceremony of the communal house can be considered a memorable event in the history of the village's formation.

The direct impacts of forest nature in daily life have led to concepts of the universe and human life. All are connected into a long chain of animistic beliefs and those concepts are transformed into spiritualized images on drawings and sculptures that decorate the outside and inside of the communal house.

It can be said that in one way or another, the Central Highlands culture originates from the village culture of the village community before it forms the ethnic culture and more broadly the culture of the entire highland region.

The village has become ingrained in the local people's consciousness.

For them, the village is not only a place to live, but also a final place to return to - an inherent need that has permeated deeply into the indigenous cultural space.

Source: https://baodanang.vn/van-hoa-lang-o-truong-son-tay-nguyen-3299048.html