Traditional Thai culture: Can the ancient soul be preserved?
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| Bamboo dance Photo: Bui Minh Ngoc |
To this day, many traditional cultural features of the Thai people are no longer maintained and preserved with their original values. Legendary stories, writings, ancient texts of the Thai people,... are in danger of disappearing. When we came to learn about the traditional culture of the Thai people in Con Cuong and Tuong Duong districts, most of the people could not remember the ancient stories related to the origin of their ethnic group. To know the origin of place names or festivals of the Thai people, we could only rely on the village elders who were near death, in poor health and could not tell much.
Similar to the alarming state of folk literature, a very familiar, close part that has a great impact on the material and spiritual life of the Thai people is festivals. In which, the Xang Khan festival has a great influence on the spiritual life of the people. This is a festival of shamans, but attracts a large number of people to participate and has a great influence on the life of the community. According to the ancient Thai language, "xang" means to advise, ask, and "khan" means to answer, to receive. Xang Khan is a worldly joy organized by shamans. This festival is usually held for 5 to 7 days and at least once every 3 years, in the 11th lunar month, when the rice fields and upland rice have been harvested. The purpose of organizing the festival is to pray for peace, to ask the gods to bless the people with good health and a bountiful harvest. It is an opportunity for talented shamans to cast spells to suppress evil spirits, and at the same time to commemorate and thank the gods for their help in their practice. The festival is like a qualifying exam to "issue certificates" to qualified shamans. Each participating shaman must sing and respond continuously for at least 3 days and 3 nights without being allowed to repeat any sentence. The process of organizing the Xang Khan festival is very elaborate with many activities, roughly divided into two parts: the ceremony and the festival. The ceremony is for the shamans to chant, and the festival is a combination of the shaman's performances with the recreational activities of the villagers. The Xang Khan festival contains many mystical elements but is imbued with the cultural identity of the Thai people and has a high sense of community. Unfortunately, for decades now, this festival has not been maintained.
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| The Thai people's offering tray to Pu (the village god) at the beginning of the year. Photo: Tran Ngoc Lan |
Currently, our Party and State are advocating the restoration and preservation of traditional cultural values of ethnic minorities. In recent years, with the efforts of the cultural information sector and local authorities, we have achieved some remarkable results such as: Thai language classes were established in Quy Hop district, Thai folk song clubs in Con Cuong district and some other places, many musical instruments were preserved and kept,... In mass art competitions, traditional folk songs are encouraged and take up a large part of the program's time... However, the implementation still faces many difficulties and problems such as limited investment funds for collecting and preserving culture, and not many Thai people who thoroughly understand their own traditional culture. Therefore, the issue of preserving and developing the cultural features of ethnic minorities is still an open problem. Most recently, Professor Luong Van An, who lives and works in Hanoi, intended to spend 100 million VND to coordinate with the People's Committee of Con Cuong district to restore the organization of the Xang Khan festival, but could not do so because he could not find anyone with experience in organizing this festival, and the number of shamans currently practicing the profession is also very rare. Moreover, to organize a large-scale festival like the Xang Khan festival, a budget of 100 million VND is not enough.
HH - Ly Hong Diep -Literature Class CLC50, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi
