A heart devoted to the calligraphy of our ancestors.
Mr. Vi Kham Mun (born 1944) was born and raised in Xieng Lip village, Yen Hoa commune (Tuong Duong district). From a young age, his family provided him with every opportunity for education, sending him to Con Cuong district and then to Huynh Thuc Khang School (Vinh City) to study. After graduating from high school, he received an acceptance letter from the University of Forestry, but due to some difficulties at the time, he had to put his dream of attending university on hold.
Upon returning to his hometown (1965), Vi Kham Mun actively participated in teaching elementary classes, then was transferred to study at Tan Ky Teacher Training College before returning to work at the Tuong Duong Highland Youth School (now Tuong Duong Ethnic Boarding Secondary School).
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Mr. Vi Kham Mun at the Lai Pao Thai language popularization class. |
Since retiring in 1993, Mr. Vi Kham Mun was elected as the Party Secretary of Xieng Lip village for nine consecutive years. Later, Yen Tinh commune, a particularly disadvantaged and remote area of the district, faced a severe shortage of teachers. Despite his age, Mr. Mun volunteered for a two-year contract teaching position, contributing to the district's education sector's efforts to overcome the teacher shortage in Yen Tinh commune. Upon returning, Mr. Vi Kham Mun was again entrusted by the commune with the role of Vice Chairman of the Commune's Education Promotion Association and in charge of the Community Learning Center.
In his role, Mr. Mun actively sought out books and newspapers to develop initiatives that promoted the learning movement in his commune. In particular, recently, when Tuong Duong district implemented a project to restore the Lai Pao Thai script, a distinctive script of the region, Mr. Mun was one of the most active participants.
Initially, he was just a student of Mr. Lo Van Thoai (who still preserves many documents and knows a lot about the Lai Pao Thai script). Thanks to his passion for the ancestral script, he continuously learned and has now become a reputable lecturer. He participates in compiling textbooks and is an active lecturer in classes teaching and popularizing the Lai Pao Thai script.
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Thai Lai Pao script writing competition at the Cua Rao Temple Festival. |
According to Mr. Mun, to effectively and sustainably preserve the Thai script, it is necessary to continue expanding the scale of teaching, awakening pride among the Thai ethnic people, and, if possible, incorporating it into the curriculum of secondary schools with a large number of Thai ethnic students. At the recent Cua Rao Temple Festival, Mr. Vi Kham Mun was one of the people who advised the district's Culture Department to organize a Thai Lai Pao script writing competition, which yielded truly positive results.
Whenever he has free time, Mr. Vi Kham Mun travels through the villages, seeking out elderly people to collect ancient stories, proverbs, folk songs, and nursery rhymes of the Thai people to pass on to future generations. Currently, he has collected quite a complete version of "Lai noc yeng" (The Song of the Myna Bird), a unique love story in verse of the Thai ethnic group, and has translated it into the Lai Pao Thai script.
He plans to publish "Lai Noc Yeng" in both the Vietnamese Quốc ngữ script and the Lai Pao Thai script in the near future. When asked about his future plans, Mr. Vi Kham Mun confided: "I will continue to collect oral literary works of the Thai people and 'standardize' them in the Lai Pao Thai script. To do this well, I need the sharing and cooperation of passionate people."
Cong Kien
