Unique Cam Lung festival of Lu people in Lai Chau

Among the 20 ethnic groups living in Lai Chau province, there are 4 ethnic groups with a population of less than 10,000 people: Cong, Mang, Si La and Lu. The Lu people in Lai Chau have more than 1,300 households, nearly 7,000 people, accounting for more than 1.49% of the province's population, mainly distributed in Tam Duong and Sin Ho districts.

To this day, the Lu people still preserve many beautiful traditional cultural values. One of those unique cultural features is the Cam Lung ritual, also known as the forest worship ceremony.

The Cam Lung Festival of the Lu people in Lai Chau is recreated at the Vietnam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism. Photo: LVH

The Cam Lung Festival is one of the three most important festivals of the year for the Lu people in Lai Chau, along with the New Rice Festival (Kin Khau May) and the Buffalo Offering Festival (Mo Khoan Khoai). This ceremony is held on the 3rd of March and the 6th of June of the lunar calendar every year.

In Ban Hon commune, Tam Duong district - where the largest Lu ethnic community in the province lives (approximately 90% of the commune's population), the Cam Lung festival still retains intact the ancient rituals.

The Lu people believe that mountains and forests are the soul of all things, protecting and sheltering humans to exist and develop, and are the dwelling place of supernatural beings. The organization of the Cam Lung festival is to pray for favorable weather, good crops, peaceful villages, and a prosperous life for the people.

Items in the Cam Lung ceremony symbolize fertility. Photo: TL

During the Cam Lung festival, each family will send a male representative to participate in the worship ceremony, and when he returns, he will receive blessings for those at home. At the festival, villagers see their position in the community and coordinate their work, thereby increasing the connection in the community.

According to shaman Tao Van Seng (Na Khum village, Ban Hon commune), for the Lu people, the Cam Lung ceremony has always been held very solemnly. In each village, there is a forbidden forest, a sacred forest, where the forest worship ceremony is held. This is usually a natural forest near the village, where there are many large trees, near a water source.

The ritual is performed by 5 shamans, including 1 main shaman and 4 assistant shamans. They are all men, usually strong and prestigious people in the community.

Cam Lung Festival is an occasion for girls to choose their most beautiful traditional costumes. Photo: TL

To select a shaman, the villagers will let each person pick up a handful of rice, then count it, and choose the 5 people with the largest number of even grains to be the shaman. This form of recruitment is called “kiep khau” in the Lu language, and has been passed down through many generations, to ensure fairness whenever it is necessary to select a prestigious person to undertake the work assigned by the community.

The Cam Lung ceremony begins at sunrise and takes place no later than noon. The offerings are prepared in advance, including a black pig, three chickens, three bundles of incense, a roll of black cloth, white wine, sticky rice, silver paper, etc. In addition, there are 16 sets of cups stacked on top of each other symbolizing yin and yang, heaven and earth.

The rituals in the Cam Lung festival of the Lu people are closely communal, thoughtful and have many taboos. In the process of preparing offerings, chili peppers must not be used as spices, rice must not be burned, and wine must not be burnt, then everything will be good. During the festival days, no one in the village is allowed to cut trees, dig the ground, or let livestock roam free.

Traditional fan dance of the Lu ethnic group in Ban Hon commune, Tam Duong district. Photo: TL

Participants in the ceremony also do not wear white clothes, do not go barefoot, and do not bare their heads. During the process of preparing the offering to the forest god, after cutting the chicken's and pig's blood, a portion of the blood will be smeared on the bamboo fences with green branches attached, hung at the entrance of the village, around the place of the ceremony and in front of the house porch to warn of the time when strangers are forbidden from entering or leaving the village.

The ceremony consists of two parts, the living offering and the cooked offering, with sacred rituals. When the offerings have been prepared, the auspicious hour has come, the shaman burns incense and prays to invite the gods who govern heaven and earth, rivers, trees, and the ancestors of the Lu clans living in the village such as: Vang, Lo, Tao... residing in the sacred forest of the village to recognize the faces and offerings that the villagers offer.

The shaman then allowed the participants to cut the throats of the animals to perform the ripening ceremony. The offering tray was placed on a table for the shaman to pray to the gods and ancestors of the families to enjoy the ceremony and bless the people with good health, family harmony, favorable livestock farming, and good crops.

After completing the offering, the participants will eat rice and drink wine right in the forest and do not forget to share the food with family members who cannot directly participate, so that everyone in the village can enjoy the blessings of heaven, earth and gods.

Stick pushing - a traditional game of the Lu people during festivals. Photo: TL

During the next two days of the Cam Lung festival, all villagers, from children to the elderly, men and women, wear their most beautiful traditional costumes and participate in folk games such as: walking on stilts, throwing balls, playing badminton, pushing sticks, tug of war, performing arts...

The Lu people believe that after organizing the Cam Lung festival, the villagers will live more united and love each other more. Along with the prayers in the Cam Muong festival, all families must try to educate their children to have a better life. This is a beautiful feature in the culture of the Lu people, which needs to be preserved and developed.

T.Toan

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/doc-dao-le-cam-lung-cua-dong-bao-lu-o-lai-chau-post305744.html