Nine-Chamber Temple Festival - Rich in "colors" of the Northwest of Nghe An

For every Thai person in the Northwest highlands of Nghe An, the land of Muong Ton in Que Phong and a part of Quy Chau district will forever be a place to direct their consciousness to the time when their ancestors founded the land. And the Nine-Room Temple is an indispensable part of the sacred belief...

Legend of Nine Chambers

All legends as well as historical data prove that Muong Noc (Que Phong) is the first land where Thai people came to open up villages and establish villages, so that today there is a large and densely populated Thai community in the West. And for every Thai person, this is always a place to turn to in their hearts, to make a pilgrimage to their roots every year, to hold a festival to worship heaven, to worship ancestors and to pray for blessings for nine villages and ten villages.

Chinh Gian Temple Festival. Photo: Le Ba Lieu.

The Nine-Chamber Temple, called "Ten Xo Quai" (ie Hien Trau Temple), is located on a small hill, also known as "Pu Pom", in the south of Muong Ton, on the Nam Giai River. This section of the river is called "Ta Tao" wharf, or Quan wharf. Until now, no one knows exactly when the temple was built, but there is a very interesting legend about the process of moving the temple to build a new one. From around the 18th century onwards, the temple was built on a hill over 350m high, called "Pu Cho Nhang", located northwest of Muong Ton, more than 2km from Khoang village (Chau Kim).

On the day of the festival, when preparing to perform the buffalo offering ceremony to the gods, while bathing the buffalo at "Bang Coc" in the Nam Giai river section flowing along the foot of the Khoang village hill, suddenly a dragon flew in and took away the white buffalo of Muong Ton. Seeing a bad omen, the Muong founder ordered the people to kill the buffalo to pray to the gods and ancestors to move the temple to another place. Legend has it that a white-necked crow came and picked up a piece of buffalo bone from the old temple, flew away and dropped it on a small hill south of Muong Ton. The Nine-Room Temple has been built there until today.

Rich in rituals, imbued with festival identity

It has become a custom that during the ceremonies of worshipping the sky and Tao Lo-i, the first and indispensable offering of the Muong Ton people is always a white female buffalo - the offering in the most sacred ceremonies. The other two Muongs, Muong Quang and Muong Puoc, also offer white buffaloes but they are males. The remaining Muongs offer black buffaloes, especially the buffaloes must not have any defects, especially those caused by tiger attacks. In addition, each Muong must have 9 piglets, 90 small chickens and 90 grilled river fish.

The highlight, outstanding and very unique of the Nine-Chamber Temple Festival in Que Phong is the buffalo offering ceremony. The first day of the festival is reserved for "passing the gate", and on the second day, the "Hap quai" ritual is performed, which is the ceremony of presenting the buffalo before offering it. The "sha owner" leads the village elders, the buffalo bathers and the elders holding torches to circle the buffalo three times to show their agreement to offer the buffalo.

Then, Mr. Ap took the buffalo to bathe at the Ta Tao river wharf and tied the buffalo to the "Lac quai" - the buffalo tying post. In front of the 9 posts, there were 9 ancient banyan trees of the 9 Muong. After "Mr. Ap" slaughtered the buffalo, the buffalo meat was placed on the highest step of the temple. The shaman performed the buffalo offering ceremony for 3 days and nights, then cooked it on the spot for everyone to eat, absolutely no one was allowed to take it home.

The Thai people's own religious rituals are also clearly expressed in the forms of hat xap and hat nhuon. In each temple, when the shaman performs the ceremony, there are usually 6-8 girls behind singing the accompanying prayer, telling about the journey to the Heavenly Mountain. In that journey, there are both waterways and roads. When the shaman reaches the boating place, the girls sing "Hap xap nhua", which means pushing the boat, to the place where the king lives, sing "Chua Phua", which means bowing to the king, etc.

If the atmosphere of the sacrifice ceremony in the temple is solemn, the entertainment activities of the festival are just as joyful. In the camp outside the temple, in addition to those of agencies, units and schools, there are also 14 camps of 14 communes and towns made into sturdy stilt houses, the inside is decorated according to the lifestyle of the Thai people, along with many products made by the people introduced so that visitors can enjoy right in the camp.

Every year, during the festival, each village will send out 9 contestants to compete in a crossbow shooting game, with the prizes being a square piece of cloth woven by the girls themselves, a silver medicine box, and a leather bag containing betel and areca nuts.

Other fun competitions such as tug of war, traditional wrestling, throwing con, bamboo jumping, ring dancing, throwing con, gong beating, carving beds, drinking rice wine, lam vong dancing, crossbow shooting, stick pushing, volleyball exchange, folk performances, mass art festival and beauty contest of nine Muongs come from 14 communes and towns in the district.

But the most exciting and affectionate are the folk performances imbued with the Thai ethnic identity, such as dancing, singing, and especially singing in the stream, singing, and wishing the Tao Muong a long life, and wishing the 9 villages and 10 Muongs peace and happiness. These recreational activities are held around the temple and in neighboring villages in the evenings, lasting until late at night.

Coming to the Nine-Chamber Temple Festival, visitors can also enjoy the form of singing poetry according to the epic plot of Thai boys and girls, especially the "Hap bao xao" song, which means love song. "Khoi dac tat lau hon Pu Quai a Moc, dac tan nam chu Muong Noc a xieng..." (Wishing to catch the dew on the buffalo temple so that the reeds can catch the wind, wishing to be the wife, the husband of a Muong Noc person who is famous for being beautiful in all 9 muongs...). The lyrics linger in the footsteps, the sincere, rustic singing voice, the passionate lyrics with the affectionate, swaying eyes have woven many romantic love stories...

Coming to the Nine-Room Temple Festival, each person will feel the unique features that no other festival has. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Yen - Chairman of Que Phong District People's Committee said: "The Nine-Room Temple Festival is organized to satisfy the spiritual and cultural needs as well as the emotional and aesthetic demands of the Thai ethnic people.

Through the festival activities, it will contribute to arousing the good tradition of "remembering the source of water" to show gratitude to those who have contributed to building villages and towns; at the same time, it will contribute to preserving and promoting the traditional cultural values ​​of the Thai ethnic group in the Northwest of Nghe An. This is also an opportunity for Que Phong to exchange culture, connect with friends, and strengthen solidarity among ethnic groups.

At the same time, through coming to the festival, visitors will be able to visit famous relics and beautiful landscapes in the area, thereby contributing to introducing and promoting the tourism potential of the mountainous border district of Que Phong."

Phu Huong