Bronze drums and cauldrons for feeding soldiers in Muong Choong
As a stopover to collect food and recruit soldiers in the campaign to liberate Western Nghe An by the Lam Son army (1424-1425), Muong
As a stopover to collect food and recruit soldiers in the campaign to liberate Western Nghe An by the Lam Son army (1424-1425), MuongChoong has many places, artifacts, and stories related to these heroic years. Among them are two bronze drums and a cauldron used to feed the army, which are well known.
According to old man Vy Van Tuyen in Chong village, Chau Ly commune (Quy Hop), these two bronze drums were originally command drums of Lam Son insurgents. Each time the big bronze drum was struck, it made a loud sound that could be heard throughout Muong Choong and the surrounding area.
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Village elder Vi Van Huong in Choong village, Chau Ly commune (the man wearing a turban) |
The bronze cauldron used to feed the army is also very special, it is big enough to boil a large male buffalo each time it blows the fire. As artifacts associated with the Lam Son insurgents, the bronze drum and the cauldron used to feed the army are revered by the Muong Choong people as sacred objects and are only used for ceremonies at Choong Temple.
Every year, at the beginning of the Luc Ngoat Festival (the 15th day of the 6th lunar month), the villagers will prepare a ceremony and offer incense to ask for the bronze drum and cauldron to be brought back to serve the ceremony at Choong Temple (about 4km from where the drum and cauldron are kept); after the ceremony, they will carefully clean them and perform a ceremony to ask for their return to their original place.
Because it is a sacred object, its preservation is also very special, generation after generation only the Luong family in Muong Choong has the honor of guarding and preserving it. The bronze drum was kept in Tham Coong mountain cave (this mountain cave is now in Ban Den commune, Chau Ly); the bronze cauldron was placed solemnly on a large rock in the middle of a dense old banyan tree, this rock is still right next to the entrance to the scenic Thac Bia.
Over the ups and downs of time, these priceless artifacts have been lost. However, many elderly people in Chau Ly who spoke to us said that they had seen these sacred objects with their own eyes.
Cao Duy Thai
