Final report GGSGES seeds research funding program for construction of global environmental study basis (Year 2018-2019) Study on the change of functional usage in community houses of Katu ethnic group in Nam Dong district, Vietnam and preliminary recommendation for their preservation and improvement April 2019 Research team Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tung, Hue University of Sciences Dr. Truong Hoang Phuong, Hue University of Sciences Ma. Tran Duc Sang, Vietnamese Institute for Art and Cultural Studies, Branch in Hue city Ma. Nguyen Huu An, Hue University of Sciences Ma. Tran Thi Thuy Huong, Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry Prof. Hiroshide Kobayashi. GSGES, Kyoto University Assoc. Prof. Miki Yoshizumi, CoHHO, Kyoto University 1 Contents Page Contents 2 List of tables 3 List of figures 3 Research title and research members 4 1. Scientific background 5 2. Objectives and Methods 6 3. Situation and evaluation of ecotourism in Thua Thien Hue province 6 4. Overview on Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue Province 12 5. Change of functional usage in community house 17 6. Conclusion 28 7. Reference 29 8. Appendix 31 2 List of Tables Page Table 5.1: Information of 26 interviewees and surveyed community houses 17 Table 5.2: Twenty surveyed community houses 19 Table 5.3: Current activities in community house of Katu ethnic minority 24 Table 5.4: Differences between current community house and traditional community house 26 List of Figures Figure 3.1: Distribution of eight main groups and the Katu ethnic minority 8 Figure 3.2: Layout of traditional Katu hamlet 9 Figure 3.3: Katu hamlet in A Tieng commune, Tay Giang district, Quang Nam 9 province Figure 3.3: Guol Patah (left), Guol Cho ri moc (middle), and Guol Duon (right) 11 Figure 4.1: Typical forms of the traditional community house in Nam Dong district in 17 the past Figure 3.3: Community house in A Rang hamlet, Thuong Quang commune 21 Figure 3.4: Community houses in A Xang hamlet, Thuong Long commune (old house 22 is on the left side and new house on the right side) Figure 5.5: Community house in Ta Ring hamlet in 2017 (left photo) and in 2019 (right 23 photo) Figure 5.6: Door is locked in Cha Mang hamlet, Thuong Lo commune 24 Figure 5.7: Local people are relaxing in Ta Lu hamlet, Thuong Nhat commune 24 Figure 5.8: Class in A Tin hamlet, Thuong Nhat commune 25 Figure 5.9: Weaving in Panoong hamlet, Huong Son commune 25 Figure 5.10: Difficult points for preservation of traditional community house 27 Figure 5.11: Ideas for future activities in the community house 27 3 Research title Study on the change of functional usage in community houses of Katu ethnic group in Nam Dong district, Vietnam and preliminary recommendation for their preservation and improvement Research members: Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Tung, Hue University of Sciences Dr. Truong Hoang Phuong, Hue University of Sciences Ma. Tran Duc Sang, Vietnamese Institute for Art and Cultural Studies, Branch in Hue city Ma. Nguyen Huu An, Hue University of Sciences Ma. Tran Thi Thuy Huong, Hue University of Agriculture and Forestry Prof. Hiroshide Kobayashi. GSGES, Kyoto University Assoc. Prof. Miki Yoshizumi, CoHHO, Kyoto University 4 1. Scientific background Viet Nam has 54 officially recognized ethnic groups of which 53 ethnic minorities account for about 14% of the total population. Among them, the Katu is the biggest minority group in Central Vietnam with the population of around 50,000 people. The live in the mountainous inland of Central Vietnam including Quang Nam province (Nam Giang, Dong Giang and Tay Giang districts) and the rest live in Thua Thien Hue province (Nam Dong and A Luoi districts) along the border to Laos. In Katu ethnic group, the traditional community house named Guol plays an important role for their lifestyle, spirit and culture. However, since “Doi Moi” period began in 1986, the State’s policies on mountainous and rural regions and the influence of various cultures have led to the change of Katu identity including traditional community houses. In Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province, some reconstruction projects using new materials have recently caused for rapid disappearance of many traditional community houses. Normally, these reconstructed projects built community house without any linkage with local people. According to our previous researches, leave roofs become decayed easily under revere climate, meanwhile, the Katu ethnic people feel pleased to get the modern tools and technique of Kinh people for construction work. Besides that, the Prime Minister of Vietnamese government decided to forbid all activities relating exploiting forest on July 2016. This has conducted a difficulty to collect good quality wood for constructing traditional community house. There are reasons why some traditional, mixed and modern types have been coexisted in each hamlet up till now. Besides, the functional usage of those traditional community houses have been changed while, the young generation of the Katu becomingly forget their own traditional and unique culture. This conducts the gradual loss of tangible and intangible values of the Katu ethnic group in the near future. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the situation of cultural change of the Katu based on the survey of functional usage of traditional community houses. In addition, a study on situation of policies about forest management should be added. Then, a suggestion for revised policy for mountainous of traditional community houses can be provided. In addition, there is a traditional community house has been constructed in AKA hamlet, Thuong Quang commune, Nam Dong district. This project is based on a cooperation between Kyoto Univ. (KU), Hue Univ. of Sciences (HUS), Vietnam Institute for Art and Cultural Studies (VICAS), and Nam Dong district. The community 5 house is constructed following traditional way of the Katu ethnic people. Thus, the project should be a great opportunity to record traditional skill and process to build traditional community house. A workshop should be organized to report traditional process for construction of traditional community house. Beside that, constructed guideline and online map of Guol house can be shared and transferred to local people and local government for their management and improvement of traditional and unique values. 2. Objectives and Methods There are 3 objectives of the research as follows: - Evaluate situation about culture, society, architecture and policies (forest management and construction regulation) of the Katu ethnic group in Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province; - Explore the change of functional usage in traditional community houses; and - Provide preliminary recommendations for sustainable preservation and valuable improvement of traditional community houses in specific and the Katu ethnic group in general. There are two kinds of documents are applied for solving the objectives: There are two kinds of documents are applied: - Secondary documents are conducted to obtain the background, history and situation of the Katu ethnic group in Thua Thien Hue province, especially in Nam Dong district. These documents are legal documents, reports, newspapers, magazines, basic maps and other forms of relevant data. - Primary documents are derived from field survey in Nam Dong district. Location of community houses in each hamlet will be marked for making online map. Meanwhile, key persons (patriarchs and hamlet leaders) will be interviewed to collect information about functional usage of community houses in past and present. 3. Overview on the Katu ethnic minority The Katu is the ethnic minority among 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, who has the Katuic language sub-group, belonging to Mon – Khmer language group, South Asia system, distributing along North Truong Son mount with ethnic groups of Ta Oi, Bru – Van Kieu from Quang Tri, Thua Thien–Hue provinces to Quang Nam province and 6 neighboring areas in Laos (Figure 3.1). In Vietnam, to 2009, there are approximately 61,588 people. In terms of population, the Katu ethnic minority ranks the 26th among 54 ethnic minorities of Vietnam. According to the Census in 2009, Quang Nam province had 45,715 Katu ethnics ranking the 2nd after Kinh people; Thua Thien–Hue province had 14,629 people living mainly in Nam Dong and A Luoi districts. In addition, there are the Katu ethnics who live in Se Koong and Xalavan provinces of South Laos with the number of 14,700. Ethnic identity is the essential criterion to locate a community as an independent group. The Katu ethnic minority has many transcriptions and names as follows: Co tu, Katu, Kato, Kha Tu, Phuang, Ha, A sap, A Pang, Attouat, Nguon Ta, and so on. Among them, the name “Co tu” is primarily used in administrative documents of the government, and the name “Katu” appeared in the studies of domestic and foreign researchers with different interpretations. Le Pichon (1938) said “Katu” really is not intended to refer to ethnic identity, which is referred to the wild [5]. Ta Duc (2002) suggested it is more likely that Katu is the old name of the Katu ethnics [11]. According to the residents’ interpretation Katu literally means people living in water-heads and above ("Ka" means people, "tu" is water-head), and this name derived from long-standing residential custom of this ethnic minority. Nguyen Huu Thong (2004), Luu Hung (2006) traced the interpretation of the meaning of ethnic minority’s name as well as comparing with the cases used in their daily language to determine that: the word "tu" in the Katu language is to indicate the position of the tips, such as "tu long" means tree top, "tom tu" means speaking from start to the end, "tu dak" means water-head [6, 7]. The word "coh" is to indicate the direction and azimuth. The combination of the words "coh" and "tu" is the palatable interpretation in the meaning of association in order to identify the residential area directs “coh” water-head “tu”.