A conversation with cultural researcher Phan Cam Thuong

For nearly three hours, cultural researcher Phan Cam Thuong, in a gentle, contemplative tone, shared his research with us and answered all our questions in detail about Vietnamese wine and related topics.

Cultural researcher Phan Cam Thuong

Listening to him speak was very captivating, with the perspective of someone who works in the field of fine arts.

"I am Phan Cam Thuong, and I often consider myself more knowledgeable about 'objects' than 'food and drink.' Perhaps because of my background in fine arts, I always see the world through shapes, colors, and materials. For me, food is something that can disappear, but the utensils that hold it are cultural 'fossils.' A vase, a jar, a bowl, or a cup is not simply an inanimate object – they are the most silent yet honest witnesses of history. When we see these folk artifacts being discarded, we are witnessing the loss of connections to our past roots."

The more I studied, the more I realized that within those old items lay a whole stream of life, with culinary culture, including alcohol—that intoxicating beverage—being its soul. As a unique culinary tradition, it's impossible to pinpoint the exact year and month when Vietnamese alcohol originated. It's not like a product with a date stamped on it. But based on archaeology, by observing how people crafted these objects, we can sketch out the origins of its history over thousands of years.

Fermented liquor: The origins of Vietnamese liquor.



If we want to trace back to the most primitive forms of Vietnamese liquor, we must look to the Muong people – a group of ancient Vietnamese who were not Sinicized. Their culture has preserved its most primitive and pure characteristics.

The Muong people drink rice wine, and their way of drinking reflects the innocence of the Stone Age. They don't drink from elaborate ceramic cups, but rather from bamboo straws. Rice wine is not distilled; it's fermented from leaf yeast. They cook rice (usually glutinous rice because it ferments quickly), mix it with various forest leaves to create yeast, and then ferment it in jars. The wine matures naturally, like fermented rice wine, but it's thicker and more pungent. When drinking, they choose very sweet, clear water from familiar highland wells, measuring it with a buffalo horn (usually a pair of horns to match) and pouring it into the jar so the wine concentrate dissolves.

This rice wine is light, with a refreshing taste, and is sipped like sparkling rice wine. Drinking rice wine is a communal ritual, imbued with the very breath of the ancient forest. In the epic poem " The Creation of the Land and Water" or the Muong shamanic chants , the origins of rice, clothing, houses, and wine are also recounted in mystical verses.

Wine served as a medium for humans to communicate with the gods, and it was also indispensable when the Lang dynasty rewarded those who contributed to weaving, growing cotton, and working diligently with jars of premium Lang wine – a type of wine usually only enjoyed by the noble class.

Not only the Muong people, but also the entire Central Highlands region, along with the Ba Na, Chut, and Ruc ethnic groups, have preserved the original features of this linguistic group and their ancient and traditional way of life.

In the epic poem Dam San , wine is mentioned with reverence: "As I pour out my wine, the gongs are struck." There, wine is not just a drink; it is the sound of the festival, the communion between humans and gods.

Distilled spirits and the Sino-Vietnamese cultural exchange

Phan Cam Thuong is passionate about pottery.

While fermented liquor evokes the rich aromas of Southeast Asian soil and vegetation, distilled liquor seems to bear the distinct mark of Northern Vietnamese culture. The question arises: Did the Vietnamese invent their own method of distilling liquor, or did they learn it from somewhere else? From my perspective, the Vietnamese habit of drinking distilled liquor certainly bears the imprint of the Han Chinese, dating back 2,000 years. The Han Chinese have a history of liquor production spanning at least 5,000 years. When they came to Vietnam, they brought with them an bureaucratic system and soldiers, and liquor was indispensable to them.

Alcohol is not only for drinking but is also part of the "Three Offerings" (alcohol, meat, sticky rice) used in sacrifices to heaven and earth. Sacrificial culture is one of the oldest, and alcohol serves as a spiritual guide. Interestingly, the words "boil," "cook," and "steam" are purely Vietnamese, not Chinese. This demonstrates that the Vietnamese people developed their own unique culinary art from a very early period. Ancient Vietnamese people also possessed a very special indigenous technique: the steaming technique.

The Muong people (ancient Vietnamese) steamed almost everything: sticky rice, vegetables, fish, meat... They used a large wooden or bamboo steamer, placed the food inside, and cooked it with steam. The steaming technique was essentially using steam to cook food. The process of steaming food to distilling alcohol was very close. When the Han Chinese brought the technique of brewing alcohol, the Vietnamese quickly combined it with their indigenous steaming technique to create the first batches of distilled alcohol.

Around the 7th century BC (the Dong Son Bronze Age, approximately 2,500 years ago), bronze began to gain prominence. Among the Dong Son bronze artifacts, there appeared tools capable of cooking and steam distillation. Earthenware was difficult to use for distillation due to its poor airtightness and heat conductivity, but bronze proved efficient. The appearance of bronze vessels and kettles with long spouts demonstrates that the distillation and enjoyment of alcohol had reached a very high technical level. Thus, from the 7th century BC, the Vietnamese people were already familiar with the widespread practice of brewing/distilling alcohol.

The traditional Vietnamese method of brewing rice wine involves a copper pot containing water and the "fermented ingredients" at the bottom, a perforated earthenware pot in the middle to allow steam to rise, and a basin of cold water on top where the alcohol vapor condenses upon contact with the cold water, then flows out through a bamboo pipe. This is also a very characteristic image of the Tay, Nung, and Thai ethnic groups.

Visiting the homes of the Tay and Nung people in the highlands, one always finds hot water readily available for washing hands and feet. This water is used to cool the water during the brewing process, and it is always replaced with fresh, hot water. This is a way of life closely associated with alcohol, passed down from generation to generation, a persistent cultural cycle. In the epics and legends of ethnic minorities, alcohol is mentioned frequently, while in the legends of the Kinh people, perhaps due to historical circumstances, the recorded information has been lost.

However, alcohol was certainly necessary. In wartime, alcohol was not only used for drinking, sacrificing, or celebrating with feasts for the troops, but also for treating wounds. In the old days of war with swords and spears, alcohol was the only thing available to cleanse wounds, besides heating weapons to a burning point to stop the bleeding.

What about containers for wine? Earthenware wine containers are the best. But you can't just say that wherever there's wine, there's a jar. Before the advent of large jars, people used small-mouthed water jugs with banana leaf stoppers. Archaeologically, many jars and water jugs have been found, linked to the storage needs of agricultural communities.

In tropical countries like ours, anything containing sugar can be used to make alcohol: rice, corn, cassava, sugarcane, etc.

Archaeology of wine vessels: Han tombs & Fengyuan culture

In Vietnamese archaeology, alcohol is not directly present but is subtly hinted at through pottery artifacts. Considering the containers themselves, we must divide the study into several periods to understand the interaction between indigenous forces and external influences from the North.

Before the Han Chinese introduced their culture, the Vietnamese already possessed a brilliant pottery culture. The Phung Nguyen, Dong Dau, and Go Mun periods – three pre-Dong Son eras spanning approximately 4,000-2,500 years – left behind artifacts that are still debated among researchers. Most notably, there is an item that locals call "pork leg" pottery (ceramic fork) because its shape closely resembles a pig's leg: a large, bulging head, a pointed tail, and a hole xuyên through it.

To this day, its function remains a mystery. If it held water or other beverages, it would all leak out. So what was the purpose of that hole? Could it be related to an ancient method of brewing or filtering wine? In any case, it shows meticulous preparation of tools for a complex culinary culture during sacrificial ceremonies to heaven and earth. During the Phung Nguyen period, there were high-footed bowls, the precursors of later vessels. While it cannot be definitively stated that our ancestors knew how to brew or distill wine 4,000 years ago, it is clear that these utensils were of a ceremonial nature.

Did they contain wine? It's hard to say for sure, but we know they were offerings, used to present a precious beverage to the gods. In the world of antiques, if we consider the objects used to hold wine, we see a clear presence of Han culture. In Han tombs (approximately 2nd century BC to 2nd century AD) excavated in Vietnam, people have found these vessels. My family also has a few tiny vessels, about the size of a palm, some larger with a high base and a flared mouth.

Sacrificial culture is one of the oldest cultures of humankind. To communicate with heaven and earth, people used "Three Offerings" (three sacrificial items: wine, meat, and sticky rice). The gourd served as a conduit, a connection between the mundane world and the supernatural realm. These artifacts were brought here by Han Chinese governors 2,000 years ago. The gourds in Han tombs were primarily used for offerings and sacrifices, not for everyday drinking. In feudal rituals, sacrificial wine had to be contained in a gourd.

A cup of wine and the national spring

Over thousands of years, from the rustic ceramic bowls of the Phung Nguyen period, the exquisite bronze gongs of the Dong Son period, to the traditional rice wine jars of the Muong people – wine has become an inseparable part of Vietnamese identity. Precisely determining the year when the Vietnamese first learned to brew wine is an impossible and perhaps unnecessary task.

Just know that when the Vietnamese began to worship heaven and earth, to wash their battle wounds, and to sit together around the fireplace in their stilt houses, alcohol was already there.

The Vietnamese people possess an indomitable spirit. We absorb the essence of the Chinese culture while preserving the core spirit of ancient Vietnam. Therefore, a cup of spring wine not only contains the intoxicating essence but also the rich history of nearly four thousand years. Drinking a cup of wine allows one to perceive the sunshine, the wind, the essence of the land, and the historical sediments in each drop of the intoxicating wine—in other words, drinking in the "cultural flow" of our ancestors.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/tro-chuyen-with-cultural-researcher-phan-cam-thuong-2489446.html