Vietnamese Country Report

DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE MINISTRY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM 51 Ngo Quyen St., Hoan Kiem Dist., Ha Noi, Vietnam Tel: 84-4 39438025; Fax: 84-4 39439929; Email: [email protected] project of INTANGIBLE cultural heritage inventory of the gongs (central highlands region of Vietnam)

Nguyen Thi Thu Trang, MA Officer Introduction of the tagret ICH The space of Gong culture spreads throughout the five provinces of Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong and Lam Dong in Vietnam. The owners of this precious and unique cultural heritage are 17 ethnic groups of Austro-Asian and Austronesian living in the central highlands region of Vietnam. Mainstream beliefs of the residents here came from the ancestor worship, sacred animal worship and shaman animism. This belief has formed a mystical world where the gongs are a bridge between the human and supernatural world. Contained in each of the gong, the gong is a god. The older the Gong is getting, the more power and sacredness it has*. Almost families in the communities have gongs, even some of the families have several group of gongs. This represents wealth, power and shielding material for protecting the family. Gongs attached to the community as a vital part of every human life cycle, and they appear in almost important s of the community, from the ceremony for babies, wedding ceremony, farewell deaths ceremony, buffalo stabbing festival, celebration of the new rice, warehouse closing ceremony, the celebration of building the new house, etc. ... and all the gongs are used as a tool to communicate with god. Gong is one of the important objects when studying about the Central Highlands as well as cultural life of the residents of the Highlands. Gongs of Vietnam are very unique compared to gongs in other areas because of the close and stable relationship among people in the community. This is reflected in the fact that each musician plays a gong. Each member of the orchestra

1 Vietnamese Country Report clearly remembered rhythms of each article and each ritual gong in harmony with the other musicians. Depending on each ethnic groups, gongs are beaten with awls or by hand, h gong orchestra has about 2 to 13 units with a diameter ranging from 25 to 120 cm. Residents of the Highlands do not manipulated gong but they buy from other regions of the Kinh, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, ethnic Lao and Cambodia, then they reset the gong to get the desired sound. Each village has a specialist on the gong (also known as editing and adjusting the sound of gong). The process of economic transformation, social and religious beliefs have changed strongly the lives of the community. The space of Gong culture in the Central Highlands is facing a risk of destroying. The preservation and transfer of knowledge and know-how of gong to the future generations is facing with many difficulties. Some artists who hold secret die, many people do not know completed process the traditional ceremony, the young generation with little or no attention to the gong by traction of modern life and culture introduced . In many places, gongs stripped from the original meaning and sacred cultural space. Gong has entered into the exchange traded materials, recycled for other purposes. In 2005, the Space of Gong Culture in the Central Highlands has been recognized by UNESCO as Masterpieces of Oral Heritage and Intangible of Humanity, now called the Intangible Heritage of Humanity Representatives. Action plans to preserve and promote the value of the space of gong culture are well developed and one of these is a project of cultural heritage inventory of the gongs.

Objectives of the Project The project measures the curent number of gongs in a specific area with the aim to see the status of the gongs in the cultural life of ethnic groups; the specific measurements of gong in term of the shape, side, the sound, the volume of each of the gong are recorded.These will be useful information for managers, scientists and especially the ethnographic music researchers as they want to study as well as manage gong in a specific area. However, these information

2 Vietnamese Country Report of the gong can be changed due to subjective and objective reasons, therefore, the correct data given at the right time of the survey. The inventory of gongs in the Central Highlands region is also a work required when the space of gong culture was recognized by UNESCO as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The inventory of the gong is followed the procedure of inventorying, but for their non-material values, a gong also be assessed by the sound of it. Gong has good sound is much more valuable than the one that owns a good appearance.

Methods of Project Implementation In 2007 and 2008, the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Art Studies has an investigation and inventory the gong of the four ethnic groups: Gia rai, Mnong, Xo dang, Ede in the area four districts of four provinces in the Central Highlands: ChuPah - Gia Lai, Dak R’lap - Ðak Nong, Ðak Ha - Kon Tum, Cu Kuin - Dak Lak with the following methods: - Studying ethnology music; - Having fieldwork ethnographic: description, observation, participation; - Statistics; - Analysis; - Doing sociology survey - Filming, photographing, recording ... Measuring, counting the gong, the number of gong in each family. The work was carried out under the following steps: + Take a photo of the gong, numbered and photographed each of the gong. + Get on the mechanical data: measured diameter, height of gong and its nipple. + Get the audio data: audio software used for recording directly the sound of each gong and the whole orchestra. + Learn about the origin of the gong and its economic value.

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Processing data of gong of each ethnic group in specific area. Basically, gong inventory report includes: + Data of gong on the territory of each village. + Picture of the gong’s owner, the image of gong or the house (in case the owner is away), information about the owner. + The data on each gong orchestra: the gong orchestra photos, information about the orchestra (gong orchestra's origin and value of use ...); chart of gong’s sounds of the orchestra. + The data for each of the gong: the image of each gong which is numbered, parameters of the gong, (height, diameter); diagram of resonant echoes, the duration of echo or sound, diagram describing the frequency of sound. The technical backbone of this program is based on software SpectraLAB-FFT Spectral Analysis System. It stores all data of the sound generated by an object like gong. These archives include audio resolution which is measured in Hz and the volume is measured in Db. Special feature of the variation of this spectrum (Hz, dB) is maintained over time the variability of real sounds. It is the essential tool for researchers to learn about sound. Also with the managers of gongs, with their eye, through the graphs, one can identify a relatively accurate value of the sound emitted from gong. Through these statistics, researchers, especially research on musical ethnography can identify the ethnic groups, geographic regions where people use gong for its appearance or its sound and volume. If there is a lot of gongs with sound standardized, then there will be the very rich tradition. Conversely, if only the bulk or the sound of the gong is not rich then the ancient and physical value is higher. Problems in quality and quantity of the gong has a very organic relationship with the ability to keep all the traditions. This will be studied with further analysis by the traditional music reseacher..

Outcomes of the Project Project results are presented in two formats: 1. The report is in writing material, stored in traditional library model.

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2. Electronically stored on the DVD for reference. On this storage format, in addition to the parameters shown on the text, people can hear the sound of each gong.

Conclusion + Relatively complete statistics on the number of gong finding in ethnic groups on specific areas. + The measurement of sound frequency and frequency diagrams of each sound of the gong. + The archive not only promote for the gong, but also to the data bank of intangible cultural heritage of Vietnam. This project just stop at the inventory numbers of gongs but it should be continued with the 2 activities: 1. Inventory of all the gong’s traditional piece of music; - Description the Technique of playing gong of each ethnic group; - Description of the other musical instrument playing with orchestra music gongs; - Indentification of technical adjustment of gong artisans (craft tools, experience); - The system basically gong’s traditional piece of music system. 2. Inventory of the cultural activities related to traditional gongs: - Description of the cultural activities related to the gong: the life cycle rituals, rites of agriculture; - Describe the religious rituals associated with gongs: a new house ceremony, God worship celebration... The outcome of this inventory is a system of data, digital image and video clips of all the traditional gong performed in cultural and religious activities of the community. This will serve as a valuable and completed sources of the space of gong culture in service of research, conservation and promotion.

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