Recorded in highland cultures

(Baonghean) - Helping people improve their lives, encouraging them to produce handicrafts (brocade weaving, knitting, etc.), building village conventions, establishing anti-drug shock teams, etc. are clever ways to preserve cultural identity in highland villages...

The poor commune of Yen Tinh, Tuong Duong district is not as peaceful as its name suggests. Life here is sad, and in recent years has been further devastated by flash floods and drug abuse. By the end of 2013, the entire commune had 84 infected people. Currently, 3/4 of the cultural villages have had their titles revoked for various reasons... This lingering burden of thoughts only eased when we returned to the Pa Ty cultural village, where we heard the village chief Vi Van Dau talk about building a cultural life and preserving the traditional beauty of the local people.

Pa Ty is an ancient village, no one knows when the ancestors of the Thai people came to live and build stilt houses on the banks of the Cha Ha River. Today, Pa Ty is one of the four central villages of the commune, with over 70 households and nearly 300 people. The life of the villagers is very difficult, and is often threatened by flash floods every year. Although poor, Pa Ty village has its own pride, which is a very progressive cultural life, close-knit neighborhood relationships, and a cultural identity passed down from generation to generation. In 2006, along with three other villages in the commune, Pa Ty began to build a cultural village and in 2008 was recognized as such. And up to now, in the whole Yen Tinh commune, only Pa Ty village has maintained this title... In the early days, building a cultural life for the residential area in Pa Ty was very difficult because people did not know or understand the concept and how to do it. Receiving the policy from above, the village cadres were very worried. The Party cell convened a meeting with village elders and prestigious people to discuss ideas and get opinions on how to do things.

Great Unity Festival in Khun village, Chau Hoi commune, Quy Chau district.

The first is to encourage everyone to live hygienically; the next is to build harmonious families, take care of economic development, children's education; next is to preserve the good traditions of the Thai people, gradually eliminate backward and inappropriate customs, and implement family planning... Mr. Kha Van Nghe, Secretary of the Party Cell of Pa Ty village, said: "The ideology is clear, the villagers have high consensus. The village has agreed to build a village covenant consisting of 19 articles covering all the above contents to compete to implement. Thanks to that, the cultural life in the village has changed positively: All households dig holes to make toilets and bury garbage. District and commune officials bring models such as raising chickens, black pigs, frogs, cows, and planting forests for people to follow; the commune and village stand as guarantors so that people can borrow capital for production, farming, etc.

Children's education is focused on, the village has established a study promotion committee that works closely, regularly organizes assessments, rewards, checks, and reminds children to study. All families sign a commitment not to let their children drop out of school, and for families with too many difficulties, the villagers join hands to contribute rice so that their children can go to school. From having many children who were out of school, after 2 years, all children in Pa Ty village returned to school, in 2008, 3 children were admitted to universities and colleges... Building a new cultural life has built up village and neighborhood relationships, pushing back backward customs. In funerals, weddings, and building new houses, the village has a rule that each household must contribute rice and money to share joy and difficulties.

Pa Ty village chief Vi Van Dau beats the drum to hold a village meeting.

Being recognized as a Cultural Village is difficult, maintaining the title is even more difficult. Village chief Vi Van Dau shared: The economic life of the people is changing slowly, the poverty rate is still over 50%. But the most worrying thing is still the drug problem... In 2008, there was a young man who injected drugs. The village coordinated with the family to regularly encourage and implement home rehabilitation and by 2010, the addiction was successfully cured. To prevent drugs, Pa Ty village established an active prevention and control team of 10 people, regularly monitoring the situation in the village, when strangers come in, they stay close to the situation, if there are suspicious signs, they immediately report to the commune police to check. Up to now, Pa Ty is a "clean" area of ​​drugs.

Saying goodbye to Pa Ty, following the melody of the stream and the river in the "Great National Unity" festival, we went to Dong Minh village, Chau Hanh commune, Quy Chau district. Dong Minh village has been a provincial cultural village since 1998 and is now a typical cultural village of the district and province, having been reported and commended at many levels. Dong Minh village has changed a lot but its traditional values ​​are still preserved. When each family in the village has a wedding, a funeral, building a house, or giving birth, the whole village considers this a common event: each household contributes 10 thousand dong, in addition, this person sends a kilo of sticky rice, that person a chicken, another person a bundle of firewood, or directly comes to help clean, cook...

Village chief Hun Quang Duong said: “To preserve cultural identity, the village requires that on holidays and Tet, everyone must wear traditional costumes, drink rice wine, play ball throwing games... However, such festivals are gradually decreasing because the economic life of the people in the village is still slow to develop, the poverty rate is still high (20 households); The awareness of a part of the people about building a cultural life is not good; they do not actively participate in the movement. To overcome this, Dong Minh village has actively propagated to raise awareness for the people; actively promoted increased production, crop conversion, and commercial livestock farming. Up to now, these limitations are gradually being overcome...

Village chief Duong took us to the house of village elder Luong Van Tuyen (76 years old). Mr. Tuyen is a "living book" about customs, practices, activities, and culture of the Thai ethnic group in the village. Although he is old and weak, Mr. Tuyen is still very active in participating in activities to preserve and promote the cultural values ​​of his ancestors. Currently, Dong Minh village has a club to preserve and maintain cultural beauty with more than 30 people participating in the activities. Talking about cultural preservation, Mr. Tuyen is very concerned. Since 2011, with the help of the Provincial Ethnic Minorities Committee, in Quy Chau district in general, Dong Minh village has opened many Thai language and script classes. Thanks to that, many people in the village can read and write their mother tongue... The current difficulty is that the local Thai language and script teaching clubs lack funds to operate.

Looking at Mr. Tuyen and Mr. Duong passionately composing new lyrics to old melodies, we know that to preserve the beauty of highland cultures, we need dedicated people and good, creative ways of doing things.

Thanh Chung