(HBO) – The Muong Cultural Heritage Museum, located in Thai Binh ward of Hoa Binh city (Hoa Binh province), is managed by Meritorious Artisan Bui Thanh Binh. Covering more than 4,000 sq.m., it features six main stilt houses displaying nearly 6,000 objects arranged according to different periods of the Muong ethnic group’s culture. The museum has become an attractive destination for Vietnamese and foreign visitors over the past years.



Meritorious Artisan Bui Thanh Binh, Director of the Muong Cultural Heritage Museum, shows students from the Hoang Van Thu High School for the Gifted how to make "banh uoi”, a traditional dish of the Muong people.

Binh said the Muong Cultural Heritage Museum, opened in 2014, is the second non-public in Hoa Binh province and the 24th private in Vietnam. It came as a result of his over-30-year efforts to collect antiquities of the Muong ethnic group from across Vietnam.

With six main stilt houses each of which has a different function, the museum meets diverse demand for exhibiting objects and performing arts of the ethnic minority. It showcases not only the items used in the daily life such as working tools, traditional costumes, and musical instruments, but also rare antiquities like bronze drums, gongs, and ceramics dating back thousands of years. Notably, the exhibits include a collection of more than 100 Muong gongs.

To bring the Muong cultural values closer to the public, Binh has been working hard to reform exhibition methods and activities of the museum. He has made museum presentation more interesting while holding a wide range of activities, including opening an outdoor area for displaying folk toys; organising folk games like "nem con”, "danh mang”, walking on stilts, and pole pushing; and instructing visitors in cooking traditional dishes of Muong people.

As head of the Muong village in the Hanoi-based Vietnamese National Village for Culture and Tourism, he has also been striving to spread the values of the Muong people’s culture far and wide.

In particular, Binh has directly taught how to play the Muong gongs to natives of Hoa Binh province such as the districts of Kim Boi, Tan Lac, and Lac Son, and Hoa Binh City. He has also been invited to teach the playing in other localities, including Hoa Thang commune of Buon Ma Thuot city, Dak Lak province; and Quoc Oai, Thach That, and Ba Vi districts of Hanoi. With his enthusiasm, he has inspired the interest in the traditional cultural heritage among generations of learners.

Binh has also assisted with Hoa Binh artisans’ reenactment and performance of Muong people’s festivals and epics on the rice culture at an event held in Bangkok; the exhibition of the Muong cultural heritage in the Vietnamese National Village for Culture and Tourism; and programmes introducing the ethnic group’s traditional music and cuisine in many provinces like Thai Nguyen, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai, Phu Tho, and Son La.

Thanks to those efforts, the Muong Cultural Heritage Museum has become a place for preserving the essence of the Muong culture and also an attractive destination for visitors once setting foot in Hoa Binh province./.

Related Topics


The Special Khai Ha fesstival of Muong ethnic minority in Hoa Binh province

Khai Ha festival is a long-standing traditional folk festival with the largest scale of Muong people in Hoa Binh province. In 2022, Khai Ha fesstival the Muong minority in Hoa Binh province was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In 2023 and 2024, the festival was held on the provincial scale, getting together 4 major Muong regions (Bi, Vang, Thang, Dong) to participate, and it has been an opportunity for the quintessence of Muong ethnic culture to converge and shine.

Excellent artisan spreads love for national cultural heritage values

With a great passion for national art, outstanding artisan Nguyen Manh Tuan in Voi area, Ba Hang Doi town in Lac Thuy district, has developed and promoted a Muong ethnic cultural space with over 2,000 artifacts which are familiar in the daily life in the Muong ethnic people.

Tan Lac district preserves Muong ethnic group’s cultural identities

Along with the process of integration and development, traditional cultural identities of the Muong ethnic community in general, and Muong ethnic people in Tan Lac district in particular, are at risk of falling into oblivion. Therefore, many clubs have been established in the locality to preserve and promote the beauty of the ethnic group’s cultural identities.

Swing festival – unique cultural tradition of Muong people in Lac Son

Held every three years, the swing festival in Muong Voi, Vu Ban town in Lac Son district is "one-of-a-kind". From the 5th to the 7th day of the first lunar month in the Year of the Dragon, thousands of residents and tourists flocked to the locality to experience the unique cultural festival.

Muong Vang preserves, promotes cultural values of festivals

Many festivals take place in the first lunar month of the year in Lac Son district, attracting a large number of both home and foreign visitors to come and experience the locality’s unique cultural values.

Co Lao Temple gets historical relic status

The People's Committee of Lac Thuy district on February 29 held a ceremony to receive a certificate recognising Co Lao Temple as a provincial historical relic. Within the framework of the ceremony, leaders of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Lac Thuy district, delegates, and locals offered incense at Co Lao temple.