Specific
values of the cultural space of the
Central Highlands gong which is a part of
Vietnam???s cultural heritage and quintessence has been recognised by the
international community.
On 25th November 2005, the UNESCO decided to recognize ???The cultural space of
gong in the Central Highlands??? of Vietnam as ???Masterpieces of the Oral and
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity???.
Traditional Values of Central Highlands Gong Culture
Throughout the Central Highlands of
Vietnam, Gong ensembles are parts of various
ceremonies and closely linked to the communities??? daily life and the cycle of
the seasons. The instruments, measuring 25 to 80 centimetres, are played by men
as well as women.
The culture space of the Gongs of central Vietnam is about original musical
forms, which are performed against the background of the linguistic and ethnic
diversity of the region. Diversity is also found in the compositions and customs
of the Gong ensembles, in their performance techniques, in the musical genres
and in the ritual functions of the gongs.
In the realm of Vietnam???s musical instruments, the gongs are very well-known for
their outstanding value and regarded as the privileged language bridging
humanity and the supernatural world. The gongs are made from a mixture of bronze
and silver, with some distinctive features. The peoples living in the Central
Highlands of Viet Nam possess many sets of gongs, which would be performed
differently. A set of gongs consists of two to twenty units.
The most outstanding value of gong culture showcases masterpieces of human
creativity. The masters of gong culture are the ethnic people of the Central
Highlands. Although they can not cast gongs themselves, they raise the value of
a product into an excellent musical instrument with their sensitive ears and
musical soul. In the hands of talented folk artistants, each gong plays the role
of a musical note in an orchestra to perform different pieces of gong music.
As for ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands, gongs and gong culture
present a means to affirm the community and its cultural identities. As time
went by, gongs have become an attractive and appealing symbol of the culture of
the Central Highlands. It is an activity associated with cultural and spiritual
life, and beliefs of ethnic people when they are born, grown up and return to
the soil.
Customs of Central Highlands Gong Culture
The Central Highlands gong comes from long-standing historical and cultural
traditions. In the past, community of people in the Central Highlands knew how
to play the gong. Its sound is either deep or strong, moving and combining with
the sounds of streams, wind and the hearts of people so that it can live with
the heaven, the earth and people in the Central Highlands.
However, different ethnic minority groups arrange different orchestras.
Listening to the sound of the gong, people in the Central Highland can know
which ethnic group is playing.
Gong players in the majority of ethnic groups in the Central Highlands are male.
Only in a minority of ethnic groups in the region, gong players are female.
Visual description of the Background Picture
It is a bright sunny day and a group of men are outside playing brown
tambourines. Only five of the seven men are clearly visible. Their bodies
describe a semi-circle facing the left of the picture. They all wear calm
expressions. Each man holds the tambourine in his right hand, hitting it with a
short thick piece of wood held in the left. The tambourines all have white
characters written on them. All the men are wearing the same costume: a
dark-blue long-sleeved shirt with multicoloured cuffs and a red square piece of
material with golden buttons down the front. Some of the men wear caps; the
first man from left to right wears a yellow cap, the second from right wears a
blue cap. In the background we can see a forest with blue sky just visible
through the dense foiliage of the trees. Smoke is spiralling upwards from the
dirt floor. On the far left of the frame we can see the entrance to a hut.
The Central Highlands??? gongs, together with the epics, the treasure of folklore,
folk sculpture and folk knowledge, constitute the unique cultural heritage that
have attached to the life of the highlanders for over thousand years.
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