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| Choro people in Long Khanh city exchange and perform gongs to celebrate Sayangva Festival in Vinh Cuu district. Photo: Phuong Hien |
Not only preserving and conserving heritage values, over the years Dong Nai has been making efforts to promote and pave the way for the development of ethnic minority cultures, linking community tourism , contributing to fostering national pride for the younger generation.
Reviving traditional festivals
In mid-June, although the Sayangva Festival (rice worship) of the Choro people in the province ended more than a month ago, joy and pride are still spreading throughout the houses and villages. Because recently, the Sayangva Festival of the Choro people in Long Khanh city, Xuan Loc, Thong Nhat, Dinh Quan, Cam My, Vinh Cuu districts has been officially listed as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Village elder Dieu Liet, Tuc Trung commune (Dinh Quan district), who has been keeping the Choro gong fire for more than half his life, proudly said that Sayangva is the biggest festival of the Choro people, maintained and preserved for many years. Every Sayangva season, the Choro people in Dinh Quan gather together, offer sacrifices to the rice god, and wish for a good harvest and a peaceful family. The festival atmosphere is bustling with the sound of gongs, the dances, the fragrant smell of sticky rice and the flickering campfire...
“People are very excited when Sayangva Festival becomes a National Intangible Cultural Heritage. I myself have many times joined the people to bring the sound of gongs, cymbals and reenact the traditional festival of the people to participate in exchanges and introductions in many provinces and cities such as: Hanoi , Kon Tum... I hope that in the coming time, there will be many tourists coming to visit, experience and join hands to preserve the festival as well as the unique cultural activities of the Choro people" - said village elder Dieu Liet.
Not only the Choro people, many localities such as Long Khanh, Bien Hoa, Tan Phu, Long Thanh, Xuan Loc..., all have festivals typical of ethnic groups. Notably: Ong Pagoda Festival of the Hoa people became a National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2023; Cholchnamthmay, Sendolta, Ocomboc festivals of the Khmer people; Ramandan, Maji festivals of the Cham people... Currently, the cultural sector has been preparing scientific documents to propose to include in the List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage the Vegetarian Festival at the To Su Temple, Bien Hoa city and the Long Tong Festival (Going to the Field Festival) of the Tay people in Dinh Quan and Tan Phu districts.
According to Director of the Department of Ethnic Minorities and Religions Nguyen Van Khang, in the current trend of integration and development, the work of preserving and promoting traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities still faces many difficulties. A part of the young people in ethnic minorities pay little attention to the traditional culture of their ethnic groups. Ethnic artifacts are becoming increasingly rare, some festivals have not been maintained, and the elderly who are knowledgeable about traditional culture are getting older.
On June 13, the Provincial People's Committee issued a plan to summarize the ethnic work program in Dong Nai province for the period of 2022-2025. Thereby, it aims to comprehensively evaluate the leadership, direction, implementation, effectiveness, point out limitations and shortcomings; propose solutions to continue promoting the ethnic work program in the province for the period of 2026-2030.
Linking conservation with sustainable tourism development
In order to meet the living needs of the people, Director of the Department of Ethnic Minorities and Religions Nguyen Van Khang said that Dong Nai has invested in building and putting into use 15 cultural houses of the ethnic groups Stieng, Choro, Ma, Cham, Muong... in 6 districts of Tan Phu, Dinh Quan, Xuan Loc, Long Thanh, Vinh Cuu and Thong Nhat. In the past, Dong Nai has equipped dozens of sets of gongs, drums, pentatonic sets... for the ethnic cultural houses and places where the people live. Currently, the ethnic cultural houses have become places to organize many cultural and artistic activities and classes to teach gong playing, folk singing and dancing in ethnic languages, brocade weaving, and knitting for the children of the ethnic groups.
In fact, in the period of 2021-2025, Dong Nai has inventoried more than 260 traditional festivals of ethnic groups, built community tourism models associated with heritage, such as Muong ethnic cultural village; Ta Lai Eco Lodge - a model that has just been honored as Responsible Tourism Southeast Asia 2025. Not only improving the livelihoods of people in Ta Lai (Tan Phu district), this sustainable ecotourism model also contributes to preserving local cultural values such as: brocade weaving of the Ma and Stieng people; weaving; opening classes to teach traditional crafts to children and teenagers...
In addition, Dong Nai has had many policies to restore and preserve the spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities at risk of being lost. Specifically, it has developed a plan to organize classes to teach spoken and written languages to Cham and Khmer ethnic minorities; provided financial support and created favorable conditions for local Chinese language facilities to operate; and broadcast ethnic television programs in Chinese and Choro languages on Dong Nai Radio and Television. In addition, to preserve their mother tongue, ethnic minorities have also opened classes to teach their own languages and written languages to their children at cultural houses or Chinese facilities, and Vietnamese-Chinese bilingual schools.
Dong Nai focuses on supporting the construction of community bookcases for ethnic minority areas. Currently, the whole province has 24 communes in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, classified according to the development level in the period 2021-2025. Most communes are supported to equip bookcases and provide books. Notably, Vinh Cuu district is equipped with 7 bookcases with 790 books; Cam My district is equipped with 9 bookcases with 230 books; Trang Bom district is equipped with 6 bookcases with 319 books; Dinh Quan district is equipped with 6 bookcases with 275 books...
Ly Na
Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/van-hoa/202506/gan-bao-ton-voi-phat-huy-gia-tri-van-hoa-dan-toc-thieu-so-cc13922/
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