As the Muong ethnic people make up more than 63% of Hoa Binh province’s population, joint efforts have been made to preserve the Muong language. The Muong community in the province now use both Vietnamese and their mother tongue daily with the latter preferred in communication in family life.
Students at a Muong language class.
In 2016, Hoa Binh province developed and officially put into use the Muong ethnic script which helps Muong ethnic children learn and use the Muong language – a way to preserve and promote national cultural identity.
According to folk culture researcher Bui Huy Vong, from Huong Nhuong commune, Lac Son district, the Muong ethnic script plays an important role in preserving the intangible cultural heritage of Mo Muong accurately, completely and scientifically.
Mo Muong is a job and also a performance practised at funerals, religious festivals, and life cycle rituals by the Muong ethnic group. The art consists of Mo prayers and performances, by Mo practitioners, or Mo artisans. Through generations, Mo prayers have been passed down verbally in the community.
Vong said that the script of Mo Muong can be used and translated into other languages to facilitate the establishment of scientific documents about Mo Muong. Moreover, with the scrips, the Muong language can live forever with other Muong cultural values. Seeing the fact that a group of the young generation of Muong people or local State employees doing mass mobilisation work cannot speak the Muong language, the provincial People’s Committee in 2019 approved a project on Muong language teaching and learning in the 2018-2025 period with a vision to 2035.
In 2023, Hoa Binh Pedagogical College opened Muong language classes for local officials, civil servants and public employees.
Do An, a student of a Muong language class, said that he now can speak Muong language which is useful for his work. Moreover, it helps him understand more about the customs and culture of the Muong ethnic group.
According to the 2024 - 2025 plan, the province’s Department of Education and Training will open other classes for 2,500 local officials, civil servants and public employees plus 2,500 teachers of schools across the province.
In addition, the province also pays attention to popularising and mobilising the community to preserve the Muong language, particularly through folk songs.
As a land deeply intertwined with human history and Vietnam’s millennia-long journey of nation-building and defence, Hoa Binh is often revered for its epic tales and legends.
Residents of Hoa Binh boast a rich cultural identity, reflected in their unique language, traditional attire, customs, and folk melodies – described as "sweet as honey, clear as a mountain stream.”
Lac Son district’s Vu ban town held the 2025 Truong Kha temple festival on April 12–13 (the 15th–16th days of the third lunar month). Since its revival in 2019, the festival has been organised every three years, preserving valuable intangible heritage while meeting the community’s cultural and spiritual needs.
The clothing of women reflects the culture of the Muong, Thai, Tay, Dao, and Mong ethnic groups in the northern province of Hoa Binh.
Gongs hold a special place in the cultural and spiritual life of the Muong ethnic people in Hoa Binh province. More than musical instruments, they are an indispensable part of community rituals and collective memory, echoing through generations as a spiritual thread linking the past, present, and future.
Preserving and promoting the cultural values of the Muong ethnic group has become an urgent task in the current context, as many traditional values face the risk of fading away. This effort requires not only protecting the cultural identity but also eliminating outdated customs and developing a modern cultural lifestyle, contributing to sustainable values for the Muong community in Hoa Binh province.
The Muong ethnic culture, deeply rooted in Vietnam’s mountainous north, continues to be preserved and revitalised by dedicated individuals and communities determined to safeguard their ancestral identity.
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