Yen Bai heritage land: Resolution for the Mong flute

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Bài liên quan

Yen Bai heritage land: Mong people’s natural landscape

Thao A So’s motorbike struggled to toss us back up to Sang Nhu village on a single road less than a meter wide, crisscrossing the mountainside. Even though the car sometimes wheezed and wanted to fall over and throw a tantrum because it was overloaded, the cultural officer of Mo De commune still talked endlessly about special stories in this highland.

The first story is the mountain road, resulting from the Resolution of the State and the people working together. Mu Cang Chai recently has a policy of supporting cement for communes and then mobilizing villagers to carry sand and gravel from the Nam Kim stream to build roads. The roads crisscross the mountainside, winding like threads. In the past three years, the Mu Cang Chai district has built more than 300 km of roads in this special style, helping to connect many mountain villages closer to the commune centers.

In the second story, So elaborates more proudly, as if he were the main character. The story of Thao Cang Sua, the first celebrated artisan of the Mong people in the highlands of Mu Cang Chai. The person who, if Thao A So had the right to rank, would certainly make Thao Cang Sua the best in the Northwest, even the best in Vietnam. He plays the flute and dances to the rhythm very well. In particular, Thao Cang Sua is the only person in Mo De who can make Mong flutes in the traditional style. People in Lai Chau, Dien Bien, and Lao Cai also have to come here to buy their flutes.

When I arrive, artist Thao Cang Sua and his third wife are sitting on the porch making flutes. Seeing a stranger, the old man hold his flute and made a cheerful gesture of welcome. The sound of the flute is sometimes bustling to welcome guests, other times it is low as if narrating stories about the land and people of the highlands. At the climax, the old man suddenly stands up, grabs the flute, and performs a traditional flute dance, as skillful and flexible as a young man, even though he is approximately seventy years old this year.

Like many Mong people in Sang Nhu village, Thao Cang Sua’s house is low, old and has almost no valuable items. In front are rice fields, and behind are corn hills. For a long time, the people in Sang Nhu no longer have to miss meals. Especially for the Thao Cang Sua family, since the Resolution of the Mu Cang Chai District Party Committee issued a policy of combining tourism development with the people’s cultural identity. Traditional artisans have become treasures and family life has changed completely. 

Thao Cang Sua does not speak Vietnamese fluently, but he boasts about performing with his flute across the Northwestern highland provinces and bringing home gold and first prizes for the district each time. Four times he went to Hanoi to perform, and all four times he brought back gold medals, and certificates of merit from the central and local levels to cover the wooden walls of the old house. He is also the best at picking Po Mu wood to make the body of the gong, choosing wild peach trees to make the gong belt, and choosing the best piece of copper to make the “tongue” for the most elite Mong gong. His wife, Vang Thi A, who was only in her forties, proudly says that Thao Cang Sua could fluently play 60 songs in filial piety. 

It is no exaggeration to say, along with Mr. Giang A Do, Mua A Long, Giang A Tua in Tram Tau district and Thao La Dao, or Chang A Lu, Vang Sai Cua in Van Chan, Thao Cang Sua is awakening the most unique cultural identity of the Mong people in this high mountain region.

Thanks to his remarkable achievements, when the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Yen Bai province built a profile of the intangible cultural heritage of the flute art of the Mong people in Mu Cang Chai, Tram Tau, and Van Chan districts, Thao Cang Sua is the most important person. Because among the 15 Mong flute artisans throughout the highlands of Yen Bai province, only Thao Cang Sua was awarded the title of excellence by the President. In Mo De commune, there are also Sung Cha Lenh and Vang A Lau who are also famous Hmong musicians, but they are still students compared to Thao Cang Sua. Thao A Su, a 12th-grade student who recently won the Gold prize at the Mong trumpet competition in Mu Cang Chai district, is Thao Cang Sua’s youngest son.

The resolution of the Mu Cang Chai District Party Committee assigned to the communes is to make the Mong flute sound heritage, the most unique sound of the mountains and forests at all costs. Once upon a time, there was a Mong family whose parents died early, leaving six brothers to live together. Life without a father or mother was boring, so the six brothers each made a flute to blow for comfort. One day, war broke out, and enemy troops in the North invaded, robbed, killed people, and burned down houses, villages, and six brothers’ families. The enemy killed some, some followed the insurgents. The enemy and the wanderers left only the youngest brother. Remembering my brothers, the youngest guy merged six flutes into one, becoming the flute of the Mong people today.

Mong people say it is the king of all kinds of flutes. Mr. Trinh The Binh, Head of the Culture and Information Department of Mu Cang Chai district shared. However, according to statistics, the Yen Bai province currently has only 21 artisans who know how to make Mong flute. In some places, there are not many people who are good at performing Mong flute.

To preserve and develop the people’s unique culture, in 2023 Mu Cang Chai district established 14 Mong flute performance teams in communes in the area. Mr. Binh analyzes that the people above are attached to three distinct identity values: terraced fields, traditional occupations, and performing arts associated with festival culture. The project to build Mu Cang Chai district into a tourist district and national tourist area identifies cultural identity as one of the three key factors, which is why there is a resolution of flute Mong and people like Thao Cang Sua become become a treasure, a nucleus to realize the goal of escaping poverty.

It is from artists like Thao Cang Sua, Mu Cang Chai district that a model of the performing arts heritage of the Mong people of Mu Cang Chai in Che Cu Nha commune, a model of sports products and folk games of the Mong people has been promoted, such as throwing pounds, pushing sticks in De Xu Phinh, experiencing farming on terraced fields in La Pan Tan, brocade weaving, winemaking, and blacksmithing in the villages of Lao Chai, Mo De, Khao Mang, etc.

The head of the Culture and Information Department of Mu Cang Chai district affirms that it must be true to the cultural spirit and the nation will survive.

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Every week, Thao Cang Sua goes to schools and highland villages to teach the younger generation of Mong ethnic people traditional flute dances and the art of flute making. In recent years, Mu Cang Chai has also built models of happy classrooms and tourism schools to educate and transmit cultural identity to young people. Cultural officials like Thao A So also have to study. Mo De, Lao Chai, and Kim Noi communes must establish performance teams and Mong flute classes. Like in Che Cu Nha and La Pan Tan, each commune has a traditional Hmong music performance team performing weekly at the central stadium or in community tourism models.

According to the Secretary of Mu Cang Chai District Party Committee, Mr. Nong Viet Yen, in the future, the cultural value and identity of the people will not only be a heritage but an asset.

More than anyone else, Mr. Yen is the person who best understands the value of national cultural identity for the development of Mu Cang Chai, especially in the context that this highland region is implementing resolutions to develop tourism in combination with the agriculture; tourism development combined with ethnic cultural identity.

Mr. Yen shares that he was touched when he went to Mu Cang Chai in the last days of his previous term. “Once I welcomed a group of American tourists. Three Western men with a Vietnamese translator. They were willing to spend more than 150 million to rent a helicopter to fly from Noi Bai to Mu Cang Chai, but only stayed here for two days and spent less than 200 USD. Why is that?” - the District Party Committee Secretary asked the core leadership team of the tourist land.

After half a term, Mu Cang Chai has an answer today. Going to the highlands, there is no longer the sight of looking at terraced fields, taking a few photos and then returning, no more the sight of poverty obscuring the identity of the people everywhere. Mu Cang Chai today is like a colorful painting. Natural colors, landscapes with thousands of hawthorn flowers in spring, the most beautiful colors of terraced fields in the pouring season and ripening rice season, the thick red flowers all winter. The natural scenery blends with the unique cultural colors of the people, mixed with the drunkenness of the festival. New rice celebration, Gau Tao festival, Mong flute Festival, “to day” flower festival, rice harvesting competitions, good plowing, beautiful embankment, Khau Pha Paragliding Festival, etc.

Mu Cang Chai is also preparing an application to recognize Mu Cang Chai terraced fields as a world cultural heritage and build a world biosphere reserve in Che Tao Species and Habitat Conservation Area with an area of over 23,000 ha. The entire highland region is transforming for identity, safety and friendliness.

And happy too. Thao A So, speaking as if he is a well-trained tour guide, says that Mo De commune is still poor, the poverty rate is still more than 66.5%, but people are changing, knowing how to take advantage of the situation, preserving landscapes and cultural identities for tourism. Then Mo De bamboo forest, Troi Thap, Mo waterfall, Horseshoe hill, hawthorn forest, and terraced fields will become resources for people to escape poverty.

Last year the district also established the Mong Ngua rice hammock tourism cooperative, one of the most beautiful terraced field attractions in Mu Cang Chai. 14 households and 3.2 hectares of fields are grouped together to serve tourists. Hundreds of young men in the commune have also been trained to become professional motorbike taxi drivers. Thanks to that, Hang Phu Loa village has also become a community tourism village.

“Previously, people were only used to being self-sufficient, but now they are used to producing goods and familiar with the market. Happiness is simply buying a bottle of cooking oil or fish sauce and no longer having to exchange pigs and chickens like before. After a day of work, the men learn to play the flute, and the women weave brocade,” the cultural officer of Mo De commune smiled gently and insisted on inviting me to a cup of traditional rice wine of the people. Wine brewed from rice grown on Mu Cang Chai terraced fields, at more than 1,000m altitude, Thao A So advertises as the quintessence of heaven and earth.

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Going to Mu Cang Chai this time, I connect with the couple Giang A De and Vang Thi Ly, owners of the homestay Hello Mu Cang Chai. Last year, accompanying a working group led by MARD Minister Le Minh Hoan to visit Mu Cang Chai, we were truly surprised to experience the model of combining tourism with the cultural identity of a young couple. Giang A De is famous throughout this highland region with the Youth Living Beautiful award from the Central Youth Union, the first person to establish a business to awaken the value of nature and homeland identity.

Giang A De says that in the past year, community tourism combined with the cultural identity of the people has developed very rapidly, not only have young pioneers been able to study and return to build their homeland properly, but women’s and farmer’s organizations also form cooperative groups to promote tourism.

Che Cu Nha commune, in addition to traditional brocade weaving cooperatives, also has cooperative groups for forging and casting agricultural tools that both preserve the cultural value of blacksmithing and serve experiential tourism. La Pan Tan commune has 28 accommodation service establishments following the community tourism model, a cooperative group to develop Mong flute, a traditional rice wine-making group, and a beeswax painting group. Mong young people also organize events, fashion festivals of the people, recreating games of throwing pounds, and playing mud games.

Through Giang A De’s introduction, we meet Hanzawa Satomi, a Japanese girl who volunteers for JICA and has been in Mu Cang Chai for more than two years. During that time, Hanzawa Satomi, together with women in the Che Cu Nha commune, implemented a cooperative model combining tourism with cultural experience. A Japanese girl coming to Vietnam for the first time, her luggage to Mu Cang Chai was extremely small, but after two years in this land, it seemed that the eating and thinking habits of the people were very familiar to Satomi. She supports people doing chain tourism, promoting the value of seemingly simple things such as brocade bags and beeswax paintings to sell to tourists. She introduced the beauty and unique culture of Mu Cang Chai to friends in Japan. Connect with people to make films about Mu Cang Chai to promote on social networking platforms.

From the success in Che Cu Nha, Hanzawa Satomi plans to go to other cooperatives, supporting people to develop other traditional occupations with a focus on combining tourism development. With so many plans, when will you get married and return to Japan? I asked.

Satomi smiled brightly and said “chi pau,” which in Mong language means “I don’t know” - perhaps she has fallen in love with Mu Cang Chai.