(HBO) – Mong Hoa Commune has been known as the "cradle” of Muong ethnic culture in Ky Son district for a long time. With 70% of Muong ethnic people living in the area, the living conditions were so difficult and mainly based on agriculture producing but still making great effort to preserve the traditional culture identities, Mong Hoa commune is keeping and transferring a lot of typical values of Muong ethnic minority, especially the Gong culture.


The old artists of Muong Gong team, Du 6 village, Mong Hoa commune (Ky Son) teaching the old gong songs for the young generation.

Muong ethnic people in Mong Hoa Commune currently store a lot of material and intangible cultures which are rich and various. In addition to the beauty of the costume, language, customs and habits, the people here still consider gongs as an indispensable part of the spiritual life of Muong ethnic people. Gongs have appeared in all the activities of the people’s life. At present, the number of gong artists in the area of Mong Hoa commune is more than 50 people and there are 4 villages to set up gong teams which are active in practicing their performances in the big festivals of the year. That are villages of Du 5, Du 6, 7A and 7B.

The gong team of Du 6 village was established in 2010. Only beginning with the passion of traditional musical instruments, the team went to every household to borrow the gongs for practice. Mme. Nguyen Thi Le Sinh, one of the initial key members shared: When I was at the age of 13, I have followed my aunts, my grandmothers to watch the gong performances in the large festivals in the village. Since then, I was "deeply in love” and passionate with our hometown gong echo. When the gong team of Du 6 village was founded, we could participate in opening the class to teach how to play traditional gongs of Muong ethnic minority. At first, only 12 main members of the team were being taught. After some time, we noticed that many young ladies in the village wanted to attend, we opened one more class to teach for about 30 people and we were presented 6 gongs. The people in the village contributed to buying a gong sets of 12 gongs for the team to perform.

The gong team of Mong Hoa commune has been developing strongly, is one of the main teams of the district to perform at the large festivals of the province. Their achievements include the second prize of the National gong performance competition in Hoa Binh in 2009, the latest first prize of Muong gong festival in the anniversary of 130 years’foudation of the province. This is an opportunity for the artists to exchange the knowledge, improve the profession, contribute to the maintenance and development of traditional art values of the ethnic minority.

The ancient gong songs, such as Moong, charms, walking,etc are always the main songs that the commune perform at the festivals. Each song has different ways of beating but there is a harmony among the gongs in the set. According to the shares of the artists, Moong Muong gong song is the most difficult one to beat because this song is very long, specially one player uses his hands to shake 2 gongs at the same time. This could only be beated by the very experienced artists with a lot of skills. At present, the old artists are teaching three young artists how to play this song.

For Muong ethnic people in Mong Hoa commune, gong culture is considered as an indispensible cultural identity in their daily life. Therefore, the protection, as well as the development is extremely meaningful, contributing to improve the spiritual life of the local ethnic people. 

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