Source water

VHXQ - Sacred forest, where the first drops of water seep through the rocks, gather into streams, and then become springs that flow into the big river.

Ca Dong people attend the water trough worship ceremony. Photo: PHUONG GIANG

The water in the forest opens up life, the crops, continuing and passing through many generations as a unique belief, a worship. Lessons longer than each person’s life unfold from the water…

Water trough worship ceremony

The road to Tak Nam village (village 3, old Tra Don commune, now Nam Tra My commune) is as thin as a forest vine hanging over the mountain. Early in the morning, the dew still clings to the leaves, and the villagers have gathered in large numbers at the entrance of the village. That day, it was the water trough worship ceremony.

The water trough worshiping ceremony has long been an important annual ritual of the Ca Dong and Xo Dang ethnic communities in Nam Tra My. Village elder Vo Hong Duong said that the water trough worshiping ceremony is like a New Year's Day for the Ca Dong people, marking the transition between the old year and the new year.

However, this festival is usually limited to a village. Each village will hold the water trough worship ceremony at different times, between December and February of the following year. “The water trough worship ceremony is to thank the heavens and the gods for blessing the villagers. The ceremony is also an occasion to thank for a bountiful harvest, healthy villagers, and a peaceful and safe life for the whole village,” said village elder Vo Hong Duong.

Along the village road, a group of young men were carrying bamboo tubes that had just been cut from the forest. The bamboo tubes were straight, lush green, and were carefully hung about 1 meter above the ground. The bamboo tubes were a “sacred object” to carry water back to the village after the ceremony.

Water plays a very important role in the lives of people in the highlands. Photo: ALANG NGUOC

I watched them tie each rattan string, adjust each end of the tube with seriousness, all practice in silence. No need to speak, no need to remind. They themselves resounded within themselves the rules they had to follow, passed down from their grandfathers, their fathers, from those who came before them. Practice and continue…

In another corner, women are pounding rice, the sound of pestles echoing regularly. Rice is selected from the new crop to offer to the new water. Wine is brewed in each house, the alcohol will mix with the kitchen smoke to make it stronger and warmer when inviting the water god.

When it was time for the ceremony, the whole village followed each other to the forest. The path leading to the source was a familiar path that many generations had passed through. They walked under the large roof of the whole community, which was the forest. The place for the ceremony was just a small stream. The water was clear and cool. The village elder placed the bamboo tube into the stream, carefully guiding the water down the bamboo tube. At the end of the tube, the stem had been skillfully trimmed, swelling up like a flower. When the first drop of water flowed into the tube, everyone bowed their heads.

“The water has returned, the new year has returned,” a young Ca Dong man standing next to me spoke up. The solemnity of the whole community performing the ceremony under the small stream was like a reminder of the Ca Dong and Xe Dang people’s attitude towards the forest, of their respect and gratitude to the forest god and the water god.

The village elder said that the customary law stipulated that no one was allowed to trespass or cut down water sources indiscriminately. If they broke the law, they would have to pay the village a fine in chickens or pigs, and would have to reflect on themselves and accept their guilt for damaging the source that fed the entire village.

Follow the tide on the mountain

The Co Tu people believe that each stream has its own soul. Village elder Y Kong (Song Vang commune) said that many lands are named after rivers and streams, such as Kon River and Vang River.

Water is the source of life for the mountain people. Photo: The Xe-dang people work on terraced fields in the Ngoc Linh mountains.

The stream was there before people, there since the ancestors of the community, so people must always be grateful for the water source. Like a map in the mind, where there is water, there will be people. Where the water is kept, there will be a village.

Like many other ethnic groups, water plays an extremely important role in the consciousness and life of the Co Tu people in the western part of Quang Nam. Even small groups that go into the forest to find honey, collect rattan, fish, and catch mountain frogs always find a way to camp and stop near a water source.

I had the opportunity to follow Alang Lai, a young man from Song Kon commune, into the forest. Lai stopped for a few seconds in front of the stream, prayed softly, then tilted the jar he carried with him to get water. Lai said that water belongs to the forest, to the gods, and that if you want to take anything from the forest, you must ask for it, not arbitrarily. Asking is to remember that you receive the grace of the forest, of heaven and earth.

During the nights sitting by the fire with the Co Tu people, I heard the village elder say that the floods that have been pouring in in recent years are the anger of the forest.

There were unprecedented and ferocious floods. It was a reminder that the gods were angry, the price to pay for the insatiable greed of humans when encroaching on the forest. It was an experience paid by years of drought or crop failures due to flash floods… And also a reminder from the village elder, as a decree about how to treat Mother Forest, with love and worship.

In the memoir “My Friends Up There”, writer Nguyen Ngoc mentioned “moi water”, the water that “oozes from the foothills of sand, clear, cool, and pure enough to be cupped in the palm of your hand, tilted back and drunk right away.”

A ritual of praying for luck from the gods with the first drops of water from the source. Photo: THIEN TUNG

He talked about the water in the sandy land, the tiny drops of water that created great life at the end of the source. And the source of that stream of water was far away up there. It was the forest.

The highland spring is not only a natural entity, but is always present as a reminder: the green forest gives birth to water, carefully pouring each drop of water into the river, the river nourishes the green banks downstream, and nourishes countless lives at the end of the source.

The fertility of the lowlands has a silent contribution from the tiny water veins halfway up the Truong Son mountain range. The highlanders, more than anyone else, have understood this first, as a matter of course. They have lived with their own respect for the Mother Forest, to appreciate, to preserve the source, to cherish every drop of water upstream.

Bowing down before a drop of water from the source, learning the humility of the highlanders, to be grateful to the Truong Son forests, to be grateful to the "Mother" who has cherished each drop of water for millions of years, for the plains...

Source: https://baodanang.vn/nuoc-nguon-3312314.html