Touneh Ma Bio – Nonetheless gong robust
Touneh Ma Bio – Nonetheless gong robust
Touneh Ma Bio – Nonetheless gong robust
(Vietnam Tourism Evaluate) – The march of progress can appear relentless. Hand in hand with globalization, it may well sweep away the previous and really feel like an onslaught of sameness.
Stand within the departure lounge of an airport and you’ll overlook the place you’re; stroll by way of a giant metropolis shopping center and you can be anyplace: it’s the identical manufacturers, the identical multi-national firms, the identical quick meals shops, even the identical background music whether or not you’re in Seoul or Seattle.
This familiarity might make for smoother connections, however it may well experience roughshod over native cultures and sensibilities. Particularly in danger are these with distinctive traits – their very own gown, meals, music and lifestyle and which can range from the default setting in their very own nation.
Resistance can seem futile, however remoted pockets usually are not giving up. A few of the extra endangered are clinging fiercely to their heritage and, seemingly, their very souls. Touneh Ma Bio is certainly one of them.
Born in 1958, the youngest of six youngsters, she lives in Don Duong district, Lam Dong province, in Viet Nam’s Central Highlands. A modest, humble woman, she describes her job as “to prepare dinner wine and train Tamya-Ariya dancing and gong-playing.” She does an terrible lot greater than that.
A member of the Chu Ru individuals, certainly one of Viet Nam’s smaller minority ethnic teams, she is battling what she calls “the winds of overseas tradition” and she or he’s not being blown away. Preventing on a number of fronts – she’s singing, dancing, making wine, enjoying the gong and blowing the trumpet. She just isn’t going quietly and nor are her individuals.
She realized from her mom, listening to tales earlier than being lulled to sleep. Her uncle taught her the intricate rituals of the gong. After collaborating in native folklore festivals, by her early teenagers she had developed an actual ardour for the music. As soon as she had mastered the strategies, she would cross them on to youngsters, “with the hope,” she says, “that the following technology will inherit the cultural traits of the Chu Ru individuals.”
Like a lot of her tribe, Madam Ma Bio values the way in which the music and dances of the Chu Ru are joyously carried out and the bonding they bring about. She units nice retailer by selling them, saying: “The competition is a spot of reunion and neighborhood togetherness, which can also be a time for individuals to relaxation after arduous days working within the fields.”
At instances, although, it may well really feel like a shedding battle. She has been to villages the place girls and boys urged her to take heed to trendy music and purchase the newest digital gear. Again within the Nineteen Eighties issues had been even worse: “We had been taken benefit of by unscrupulous individuals,” she recollects. “Households in my [Lac Xuan] commune needed to promote gongs for survival. Even damaged ones had been bought. Seeing what was occurring, I went to every home to advise them to maintain their gongs. One household was so poor they had been compelled to promote their gong for meals so I instantly bought a small patch of land to purchase it again. Something to avoid wasting a treasured Chu Ru gong”.
As these hostile winds threatened to kick up a storm, Madam Ma Bio admits to “being afraid that the village, the festivals and conventional folks songs I like would fade away in the event that they weren’t preserved. I’ve a burning need to revive conventional values so I took it upon myself to show the kids in my commune.
“To this point, the kids in my (Diom A) village within the Lac Xuan commune have mastered many songs and dances, and know find out how to play the gong and blow-pipe themselves. Hopefully, they would be the subsequent technology to protect our conventional cultural values.”
In addition to the musical aspect, she is lively in preserving typical Chu Ru artefacts, a few of that are lots of of years previous. Even the stilt homes date again not less than a century. She says: “I feel that if I’m nonetheless wholesome, I’ll proceed to dedicate myself to preservation and hope to switch the soul of the nation to the following technology.”
Progressively, her enthusiasm gained individuals over and now she feels that “younger individuals in Diom A really feel the magic of the gong and an increasing number of are coming to my lessons. Younger individuals in neighbouring villages additionally apply to check. There at the moment are about 70 college students who know find out how to play, and dance to, the gong. My gong crew has been to Ha Noi and different locations to carry out and take part in festivals.”
Madam Ma Bio has waged a heroic rearguard marketing campaign for the preservation of her tradition – and she or he’s removed from completed. Thanks, in no small manner, to her the Chu Ru persons are removed from forgotten.
Viet Hung
