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Jul 18, 2018 / 17:07

Prime Minister instructs organization of 2018 Gong Cultural Festival

The festival is to honor the cultural space of Gong of Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) in line with an action plan of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) to preserve and promote the gong cultural heritage in the province.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has instructed the Gia Lai People’s Committee to work with MCST and relevant agencies to organize the 2018 Gong Cultural Festival.
 
The 2018 Gong Cultural Festival is scheduled to take place in mid-November in Gia Lai province.
The 2018 Gong Cultural Festival is scheduled to take place in mid-November in Gia Lai province.
In addition, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has instructed the Gia Lai People’s Committee to efficiently utilize social sources along with part of the province’s coffer to organize the festival.
Accordingly, the 2018 Gong Cultural Festival is scheduled to take place in mid-November in Gia Lai province, with the unity of local ethnic communities as its main theme.
Various activities will be jointly held by five Central Highlands provinces, including a street festival featuring gong performances, re-enactment of some traditional rituals and festivals of 11 ethnic groups of the region.
In addition, the art of wood sculpture and brocade weaving will also be introduced during the festival, along with seminars on the conservation of gong cultural values and exhibitions on ethnic costumes.
In 2005, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decided to recognize “The cultural space of gong in the Central Highlands” of Vietnam as a masterpieces of the oral and intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Gong is also closely linked to the daily life of the ethnic people. It is believed that it can produce a language that can help connect humans to the supernatural world. People also believe a deity resides in each gong, who becomes more powerful as the gong becomes older.
Realising that the key force in preserving Gong are young people, Gia Lai cultural authority has attached great importance to engaging children and teenagers in gong sessions, as well as traditional folk singing and dancing classes.
Dak Doa district, Gia Lai province has been offering free classes to teach the gong and the traditional xoang dance to students from eight to 18 years since 2012. Each xoang class attracts up to 50 students, while the gong class has 25 male students, as only the men play the gong in Dak Doa, where most of the population is of the ethnic Ba Na and Jrai origin.