Promoting Hoa Binh cultural heritage values: Part 3

Promoting Hoa Binh cultural heritage values: Part 3 - Reviving traditional values

3/23/2025 - 11:34:30 AM

Hoa Binh province has carried out multiple programmes and initiatives to revive its cultural heritage which has gradually fallen into oblivion through the ebbs and flows of history.

The Keng Loong performing art of the Thai ethnic group in Mai Chau district was recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage element, helping preserve and promote this heritage's values.

Between 2022 and 2024, several of Hoa Binh's cultural assets gained national recognition, with the folk knowledge of bamboo calendar, the Khai Ha festival of the Muong people, and the Keng Loong performing art of the Thai ethnic group in Mai Chau district inscribed as national intangible cultural heritage. The archaeological sites of the Trai hamlet cave and the Vanh village stone shelter in Lac Son district were classified as special national relics. Previously, two other cultural heritage elements, the Muong gong art and Mo Muong, had already been added to the national intangible cultural heritage list.

The province is now home to 45 cultural practitioners bestowed with the People’s Artisan and Meritorious Artisan titles, with ethnic minority artisans accounting for 94% of them.

Hoa Binh province has particularly focused on the project to conserve and promote the Mo Muong cultural heritage for 2019–2025 and beyond, especially since the Prime Minister ordered a dossier be built to seek UNESCO recognition of Mo Muong as part of the intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding. Meanwhile, it has also accelerated efforts to collect and document intangible cultural heritage.Currently, it has submitted two dossiers to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, proposing "thuong dang" and "bo meng" singing of the Muong people and the Muong skirt waistband weaving techniques to be added to the list of the national intangible cultural heritage.

Furthermore, the province has worked to raise public awareness of local historical sites. For the archaeological sites of the Trai hamlet cave and the Vanh village stone shelter, it has directed planning and implemented conservation measures while popularising the archaeological values of the world-renowned Stone-Age Hoa Binh Civilisation. Steps are also being taken to nominate the Tien Pagoda historical - cultural relics and landscape complex in Phu Nghia commune, Lac Thuy district, as a special national relic site.

With efforts to restore and preserve cultural identity, many traditional festivals have been revitalised, with the Muong people's Khai Ha (going down to the field) festival and the Tien Pagoda festival in Lac Thuy organised at the provincial level. Besides, more than 70 festivals are held annually, primarily folk celebrations of ethnic minority groups.

The province currently has 1,482 village-level musical teams that contribute to teaching, preserving, and bringing into play local cultural heritage.

The conversation efforts have been intensified with the groundbreaking of the Mo Muong cultural heritage conservation space connected with tourism services in Hop Phong commune, Cao Phong district, in January. Besides, the province has directed relevant sectors and localities to develop the Muong ethnic cultural space conservation and tourism development project in Phong Phu commune, Tan Lac district, along with a restoration project for the Trai hamlet cave and the Vanh village stone shelter. The locality is also planning renovation for many historical and revolutionary sites.

Yen Thuy District: Vibrant emulation movement to build cultured residential areas and families

With an increasingly vibrant and widespread emulation movement aimed at building cultured residential areas and cultured families, Yen Thuy District has been making steady progress toward improving both the material and spiritual well-being of its people, while fostering a civilized, prosperous, beautiful, and progressive community.

The joy of having a cultural house

Once lacking recreational spaces and community facilities, Residential Group 2 in Quynh Lam Ward (Hoa Binh City) has recently received attention for the construction of a new, spacious, and fully equipped cultural house. The project followed the model of state support combined with public contributions in both labor and funding.

Kim Boi: Cultural life building efforts produce fruitful outcomes

The "All people unite to build cultural life" movement, which has been effectively integrated with Kim Boi district’s socio-economic development goals, is fostering a lively spirit of emulation across local residential areas, hamlets, villages, public agencies, and enterprises. In addition, through the initiative, traditional cultural values are being preserved and promoted, while community solidarity and mutual support in poverty reduction and economic development are being strengthened.

Provincial leader inspects construction site of Mo Muong conservation space

A working delegation of the Hoa Binh provincial People’s Committee led by its Permanent Vice Chairman Nguyen Van Toan on June 11 inspected the progress of a project to build the Mo Muong Cultural Heritage Conservation Space linked to tourism services in Hop Phong commune, Cao Phong district.

A “fire keeper” of Muong culture

Born and growing in the heroic land of Muong Dong, Dinh Thi Kieu Dung, a resident in Bo town of Kim Boi district, in her childhood was nurtured by the sweet lullabies of her grandmother and mother. These melodies deeply imprinted on her soul, becoming an inseparable part of her love for her ethnic group's culture. For over 20 years, this love for her hometown has driven Dung to research, collect, and pass down the cultural values of the Muong people to future generations.

Bringing art to the people in remote and disadvantaged areas

In the final days of May, the Ethnic Art Troupe of Hoa Binh Province organized performances to serve the people in remote, mountainous, and particularly disadvantaged areas within the province. These were not just ordinary artistic shows, but they were the meaningful journeys aimed at spreading cultural values, enhancing the spiritual life of the people and contributing to the preservation of ethnic minority cultural identities.