People belonging to the Muong ethnic group account for over 63% of the total population of Vietnam’s northern province of Hoa Binh. The old Muong culture has cultivated and preserved its unique indigenous culture, one of whose distinctive features is a tradition of oral mythology known as Mo Muong.
Mo Muong has been approved by the Government to seek UNESCO’s recognition as a world cultural heritage.
Mo Muong ritual contains many values of the folk cultures (literature, music, dance belief and folk knowledge). It comprises of three types, including “Mo nghi le” (Mo ritual), “Mo ke chuyen” (Mo epics) and “Mo nhom” (which focus on describing scenery).
Mo Muong reflects the outlook on life, worldview, and folk knowledge of Muong people. A Mo artist is a folk intellectual person and respected by the people. Mo Muong is performed in belief activities and association with the human life cycle. According to the statistic, Mo Muong recitations are widely used in 23 of the Muong people’s rituals, most of them in funeral.
Statistics of the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism showed that the number of shamans has decreased from 284 to 190 artisans in the 2012-2018 period, many of them very old.
In order to preserve and develop the unique cultural values of Mo Muong, the provincial authorities have defined mo Muong as a piece of cultural heritage in need of safeguarding and promotion in community life. The Resolution of the 16th provincial Party Congress for the 2015-2020 period also stressed that local authorities would prepare a dossier on Mo Muong to submit to UNESCO for recognition as a the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
In 2018, Mo Muong clubs were established, typically Lac Son Mo Muong club with 36 participating artists; Dich Giao Mo Muong club with 20 artisans .... In these clubs, the shamans collect, rediscover the ancient lines of Mo Muong and compose new chapters. A number of versions of mo have been recorded with 115 chapters and over 44,000 lines.
Hoa Binh province currently has five Mo elite artisans. The province also has built up a script of the Muong ethnic group, which has an important meaning in writing Mo Muong. The provincial authorities has launched a project on preserve and promote cultural values of Mo Muong in the 2019-2025 and the following years.
PH (baodantoc.vn)
