Thai Nghe An women create and preserve cultural identity
(Baonghean) - They are skilled craftsmen in weaving, embroidery, creating unique products such as dresses, brocade... And they are also amateur artists of famous dances such as bamboo dance, xoe dance, or singing traditional folk songs.
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| Thai girls in traditional costumes. Photo: Dinh Tuan |
Creating and preserving identity
Nowadays, Thai men and young people have switched to wearing costumes.
For lowland people, the loss or survival of traditional costumes is a matter of
The roles of middle-aged and older women. The older ones wear brocade dresses regularly, while the younger girls mostly wear costumes.
traditional on holidays, Tet
Normally, in the village, it is rare to see these sets.
traditional costumes. The elderly want to wear traditional costumes.
because they consider it an important value of Thai women and also a sign to distinguish them.
different from other peoples. And they are the ones who are trying to find the
ways to preserve your clothes.
Thai women also play an important role in preserving some handicrafts.
Traditional practices such as brocade weaving, embroidery, sewing and it is associated with conservation
Traditional costumes. The Thai people's weaving, sewing, and brocade embroidery profession is developing.
early on, not only did they satisfy their own needs, but they also created goods to exchange.
with neighboring communities, even selling to Laos, Thailand...
In society
Traditionally, a Thai girl was taught brocade weaving by her mother at a young age.
Before getting married, they have to weave and embroider dozens of sets of blankets, mattresses, pillows and
dresses as dowry for their husband's family. They also sew and embroider their own clothes.
The most beautiful dress is also a criterion when people choose a lover or life partner.
But today, these professions are being lost rapidly.
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| Thai girls pose in the stream on the first day of spring. Photo: Dinh Tuan |
Another important role of Thai women is to preserve folk cultural elements such as traditional dances, folk songs such as hat lam, hat xap, hat xuoi, etc. The reason why Thai dances attract viewers is because of the flexibility of the women combined with colorful traditional costumes.
Or Thai folk songs that have been passed down from generation to generation also have a great role of women. When they go to the fields, they sing songs to call friends; during festivals and New Year, men and women sing love songs... When singing, there is often the participation of both men and women, but many times women play a more important role in preserving some songs.
In the current festivals of folk arts and culture, women participate more. Mrs. Vi Thi Quyet (68 years old) in Que Phong confided: "To restore folk songs and dances, I have to find the elderly to collect traditional songs and the elderly are also happy to teach them to me. But now it is difficult to teach them to the young generation because the young generation is absent and they do not like this very much." Recently, in many villages, women's organizations have established Thai folk song clubs. However, after a period of operation, the clubs have also fallen into a deadlock.
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| Bua Cave Festival (Quy Chau). Photo: Nguyen Book |
Challenges to overcome
quickly, so the roles of Thai women in preserving traditional culture
The tradition is also strongly challenged. First of all, it is the influence of the market economy. In villages with a slow market economy, tourism has not yet appeared and cultural exchange is still at a low level, so traditional cultural elements are still retained more. Meanwhile, in villages with more developed trade and service elements and stronger cultural exchange with the Kinh people, traditional culture is also lost more quickly.
The second challenge is the discontinuity in values and experiences between generations.
different, which is basically between old people and young people. The old people
(over 50 years old) are people who are preserving many traditional cultural elements.
They experience traditional society and inherit cultural elements.
traditional.
Therefore, they always try to preserve their cultural identity and hope to
want to pass on to the younger generation. But young people (under 30 years old) are currently
Nowadays, it does not accept many traditional elements and is tending to
accept many new cultural elements from Kinh people and from modern life.
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| Charming Thai girl in stylized traditional costume. Photo: Dinh Tuan |
The elderly also have less contact with other communities, while the young go out and integrate with other communities more, so they want to integrate rather than return to traditional culture. This is increasingly becoming a big barrier to preserving ethnic culture.
Solving this problem depends largely on the will and path, the capacity to receive and develop of middle-aged women. They have both traditional cultural elements and the ability to receive market cultural elements. If they can connect the two generations, old and young, through cultural activities of economic nature or economic activities based on culture, then the cultural identity of the Thai people will have the opportunity to revive and develop.
The beauty of Thai women from behind |
| Thai girl next to traditional brocade weaving loom. Photo: PV |
People often look at a woman from the front to admire her beauty. The beauty of a pretty face, of white skin, of attractive eyes, or the beauty of full, vibrant breasts, of jet-black or chestnut hair... But few people are delicate enough to admire the beauty of a woman from behind.
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| Thai girls preparing to go to the spring festival. Photo: PV |
For Thai women, looking ahead is not enough, even just a small part of it. When they are young, they carry rice, paddy, and firewood to help their parents, carry their younger siblings on their backs, still do housework, still study. When they grow up, they get married and carry the work of their husband's family. When they have children, they carry many other lives on their backs.
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| Charm. Photo: PV |
In traditional culture, it is their shoulders that carry so much beauty, it is those shoulders that create many cultural features that become characteristics of the whole community. In front of them, they are still shy, avoiding talking about themselves, but behind their backs, Thai women still carry the burden of a society, a tradition.
That burden does not make women shorter, does not make women uglier, on the contrary, it makes them nobler, more beautiful. That is the beauty of sacrifice.
