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| Traditional dance of the Co Lao ethnic group performed at the Forest Worship Ceremony. |
Sinh Lung is 18 km from the district center. The people are mainly Mong and Co Lao. The Co Lao community is concentrated in Ma Che village and Ca Ha village with a total of 139 households/670 people. Like some other ethnic minorities living in Dong Van, the Co Lao people's lives are closely tied to the mountains, forests, trees and harsh cat-ear rocks. In the social customs and beliefs of the Co Lao people, the most typical is the Forest Worship Ceremony, which has existed for a long time and is still maintained regularly today. For the Co Lao people, the Forest God has a particularly important position, is the most influential god and is prayed to in most worship rituals. Every year, the Co Lao people will hold a forest worship ceremony on the 3rd or 9th of the 9th lunar month to commemorate and thank the gods for protecting the people for 12 months of peace and health... The forest worship ceremony reflects the spiritual world, beliefs, and social customs of the Co Lao people in the past and present. At the same time, through the organization of the forest worship ceremony, it also contributes to the preservation and conservation of traditional cultural capital, playing a major role ineducating the younger generation to remember history and protect the living environment...
Participating in the festival, witnessing the shamans reenacting the forest worship ritual, participating in traditional games, Mr. Yasushi Ogura, a tourist from Japan, shared: I have spent a long time learning about the traditional culture of ethnic groups in Dong Van district, participating in many festivals of ethnic groups. However, this is the first time I have participated in the Forest Worship Ceremony of the Co Lao people. The activities within the framework of the festival such as: Weaving competition, stick pushing, tug of war... are extremely impressive, interesting and unique. Through the festival, I see many good traditional cultural values of the ethnic groups that need to be preserved, maintained and promoted.
In fact, at present, the whole Sinh Lung commune only has a few elderly people who have a thorough understanding of the worship ceremony; at the same time, the awareness of some people is still limited in preserving the cultural identity of their ethnic group, especially the younger generation; some artisans have not actively participated in teaching traditional culture. Mr. Giang Mi Nung, Secretary of the Party Committee of Sinh Lung commune, shared: The commune has developed a plan to preserve the cultural values of the Co Lao people. Now that it has been recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, the commune will continue to have a plan to spread and raise awareness among people in preserving their ethnic culture. The Party Committee and the commune government have also guided people to combine the preservation of traditional culture with the protection of nature, preserving the traditional weaving craft to develop tourism . At the same time, actively directing schools in the area to implement the traditional culture of the Co Lao people into teaching.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hanh, Head of the Department of Culture of Dong Van district, said: The Co Lao ethnic group is one of the three ethnic minorities with very few people in the district, so the district has devoted many resources to focus on supporting the development, preservation and promotion of traditional cultural values of the people. Efforts are made to propagate and mobilize people to voluntarily participate. Encourage and motivate the young generation of the Co Lao people to participate in studying and contributing to preserving the precious cultural heritage of their people. The district coordinates with specialized agencies to systematically research, collect, record, describe, film and photograph the entire heritage, build a data bank, from which there are plans to preserve and promote the heritage to create a widespread influence in the community and open classes to pass on the cultural heritage to the younger generation.
It can be affirmed that the results in the implementation of the work of preserving and promoting the traditional cultural values of the Co Lao ethnic group, specifically the Forest Worship Ceremony, will be the premise and basis for promoting the creative spirit, the desire for development, and the dedication of folk artisans in preserving, conserving and transmitting culture to the younger generation; towards exploiting the advantages of unique national cultural identity associated with tourism and service development.
Article and photos: MY LY
Source: https://baotuyenquang.com.vn/van-hoa/202410/gin-giu-le-cung-rung-cua-nguoi-co-lao-o-dong-van-b242baf/
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