Lesson 2: Nine-Room Temple Festival and the "signal" of Xang Khan
The Thai ethnic group accounts for the largest proportion of all ethnic minorities residing in Nghe An; at the same time, this is also an ethnic group that still preserves and restores many cultural features with strong traditional identity values, typically the restoration of the Nine-Room Temple associated with the restoration of the festival.
According to legend, the Nine-room Temple was built in the 14th century on Pu Cho Nhang Mountain (Khoang Village - Chau Kim - Que Phong) to worship Then Pha (heaven), Nang Xi Da (daughter of heaven) and Tao Lo Y - the person who founded the village and established the Muong. The temple is called Ten Xo Quai (Hien Trau Temple), because the temple has 9 rooms, so people also call it Ten Cau Hoong (Nine-room Temple).
The Thai people in Que Phong still pass down a story from ancient times, when the people of nine villages and ten Muongs held a festival to worship the sky, suddenly a dragon flew in and took away Muong Ton's white buffalo. Seeing a bad omen, Tao Muong immediately ordered the buffalo to be killed in a ceremony, praying to the sky, the gods and ancestors to move the temple to another place. At that moment, a white-necked crow came and picked up a piece of buffalo bone and flew away, dropping it on a small hill south of Muong Ton, also called Pu Cam (Golden Mountain), commonly called Pu Quai (Buffalo Mountain), now in Pieng Chao village, Chau Kim commune (Que Phong).
Nine villages and ten villages came to the Nine-Room Temple to perform a ceremony to worship Heaven.
In the past, the Nine-Room Temple Festival was held every three years in the eighth lunar month. This was an occasion for people from nine villages and ten Muongs to return to their ancestral land to hold a ceremony to worship heaven, worship their ancestors, and pray for favorable weather and good crops. Through the ups and downs of history, the Nine-Room Temple became more and more degraded and damaged, and the festival and beliefs gradually faded away. However, in the minds of the Thai ethnic group in Northwest Nghe An, the temple on Pu Cam mountain still exists and the restoration of the sacred temple has become a burning wish and desire. The people's wish came true in 2004, when the Nine-Room Temple was restored to include nine rooms, a two-room worship house (one room to worship Uncle Ho and one room to worship Buddha). Two years later (2006), the Nine-Chamber Temple Festival was restored on a large scale and has since become a traditional festival taking place in the middle of the second lunar month every year, for people to remember their ancestors and origins, and also an occasion for early spring entertainment, preparing mentally for the new production season. In 2008, the Nine-Chamber Temple was recognized as a Cultural Relic by the Provincial People's Committee.
The highlight of the Nine-Chamber Temple Festival is the buffalo offering ceremony. After the buffalo is brought down to bathe at the Ta Tao river wharf (Quan wharf), it will be led in a procession to near the temple yard. The buffalo is tied tightly around a wooden pole, boys and girls dance around it to the rhythm of the gongs and cymbals, which are getting louder and louder. The buffalo slaughtering ceremony is carried out amid the cheers of everyone attending the ceremony. After the buffalo slaughtering ceremony, the buffalo meat is cut up and divided among the Muongs to perform the ceremony. At each temple chamber, when the shaman performs the ceremony, behind her are usually 6-8 girls singing the accompanying song, telling about the journey to Muong Troi, which includes both river and land routes. When the shaman arrives at the boating place, the girls sing "Hap Thap Nhua", which means pushing the boat, and when they reach the King's place, they sing "Chua Phua", which means bowing to the King. The ceremony takes place in a very sacred atmosphere, all participants respectfully pray for peace and prosperity. When the ceremony was over, everyone happily joined the festival. It was a unique cultural and artistic exchange program with the bustling sound of gongs; the Nhuon and Xuoi melodies, the charming Xoe melodies and the graceful, rhythmic bamboo dance. Next was the performance of traditional costumes by Thai girls from nine villages and ten Muongs. With rhythmic, graceful steps and a healthy figure, the Thai girls from the Northwest of Nghe An contributed to honoring the harmonious, discreet but no less delicate beauty of the costumes passed down by their ancestors for generations. Outside, the camp was bustling and bustling, with traditional games and sports such as tug of war, wrestling, throwing con, pushing sticks, carving beds, shooting crossbows, and drinking rice wine attracting thousands of people to join in cheering. At the Nine-Room Temple Festival, there were also products with the rich flavor of the mountains and forests through the skillful hands of Thai women such as bamboo rice, mooc sausage, grilled meat...
It can be said that the Nine-Chamber Temple Festival is an ideal condition for Que Phong district to promote traditional education, especially for the younger generation; at the same time, it also meets the spiritual and religious needs of all classes of people. Besides, the festival also contributes significantly to the preservation of cultural identity as well as promoting the tourism potential of the district in particular and the Northwest mountainous region of Nghe An in general. And through this, Que Phong has more opportunities for cultural exchange, strengthening solidarity between ethnic groups and connecting friends.
As for the Xang Khan Festival, this is a unique spiritual belief of the Thai ethnic group. The festival is an opportunity for the villagers to thank the efforts of the shamans - those who play the role of connecting the real life of the village with the spiritual life - where the river god, mountain god, forest god and ancestors exist. Normally, the Xang Khan Festival is often held 3-5 years/time in early spring. When the rice grains are in the granary, the weather is warm, all things are growing, the shamans choose a good day and month to hold the festival. The Xang Khan Festival is usually held at the house of the most prestigious shaman in the village, called the shaman master. A few days before the festival takes place, boys and girls in the village come to the shaman's house to help him complete the preparations. They pound rice, beat drums, make gongs, carve rows that resound throughout the mountains, rivers and streams to let the gods and ancestors know that the village is about to hold a festival. Wherever the sound of drums and gongs echoed, people came to join in the fun.
When holding a ceremony, in the middle of the shaman's house, a flower tree made of bamboo or reed called "xang tan" is erected (similar to the Kinh people's "neu" tree), around which are carved and hung many kinds of flowers and forest products (birds, fish, rice, etc.) made of paper or carved from wood. When the "xang tan" is ready, each shaman in traditional costume begins the ceremony by opening the jar of rice wine. The shaman holds a fan in his hand, wears a turban on his head and performs the offering. The content of the shaman's offerings during the "xang khan" ceremony is to praise and express the villagers' gratitude to the gods and ancestors who have given people water, forest trees, products, sunlight and taught them how to cure diseases and save people... While the shaman is performing the ceremony, everyone present around plays gongs, blows pipes, flutes and sings traditional Thai folk songs (khap, lam, nhuon). Then everyone held hands and spread out their arms, joining in the rhythmic and graceful Lam Vong dance around the gas tan tree. When the festival was about to end, the host picked each flower and product tied on the gas tan tree and gave them to everyone, symbolizing luck and goodness that would come in the coming time. Some seniors who understood Thai culture in Tuong Duong and Ky Son districts added that after performing the gas khan ceremony at the master's house, everyone lined up in a procession throughout the village, passing through the gates of each house to bring joy and luck to all families and villages.
It can be seen that the beliefs in the Xang Khan Festival of the Thai people originate from the concept of animism (all things have souls) and demonstrate the spirit of solidarity and attachment between members of the community. However, due to many different reasons (both objective and subjective), the Xang Khan Festival has gradually disappeared in Thai villages for the past 30-40 years. It only exists in the memories of the elderly and is occasionally recreated through performances on stage. Recently, realizing the role of the Xang Khan Festival in the cultural and spiritual life of the Thai people, some localities have been forming the idea of restoring the Xang Khan Festival. Typically, Ky Son district is currently building a project "Preserving and developing cultural values associated with tourism development". One of the important contents of the project is to prioritize research on restoring traditional festivals of ethnic groups, including the Xang Khan Festival of the Thai people.
Within the framework of this project, from 2010 to now, the Thai people in Na village - Huu Lap commune (Ky Son) have organized the Xang Khan Festival twice. Mr. Vi Dinh Toi, who played the role of shaman in the two times of organizing the Xang Khan festival in Na village, said: "I really do not have any documents guiding how to conduct the Xang Khan, but when I was young, I often followed the shamans when performing the ceremony, so I still remember it very clearly. Through the two times of organizing the Xang Khan, I saw that the people of Na village responded very happily and enthusiastically, the solidarity of the village was even tighter...". In addition to Ky Son district, we learned that Quy Hop, Quy Chau and Que Phong districts are also currently implementing collection and research to restore the Xang Khan Festival. This is a very encouraging sign for the Thai people, because they have the opportunity to find a unique cultural and religious feature that at one time seemed to have been lost.
Cong Kien
