THE BLANCE BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW ISS ESCPECIALLY EVIDENT AMONG VIETNAM’S ETHNIC MINORITIES IN THE COUNTRY’S REMOSTEST REGIONS

This was my second trip up to the mountains of Ha Giang province. Something about the place struck me the first time I was there and I just had to go back. This time I invited my French friend Atonio Blachez to take a motorbike trip with me.

At the end of wet season the rice terraces of Hoang Su Phi wear green coats as far as the eye can see. This part of the trip, in the southwest of Ha Giang at an elevation of several hundred metres, brought us to somewhere akin to Eden, with singing waterfalls and lush jungle invaded by gaint ferns that took us back to prehistoric times !

Dong Van Karst Park Plateau

The firtile countryside was in contrast to the second part of the trip, which took us over two mountain passes almost 2,000 metres above sea levelto the lunar landscape of the Dong Van National Park. Protected by UNESCO, the Dong Van Karst Park Plateau is well known for erosion giving the rocks in the landspace their characteristic dome-shaped form. We felt the harsh conditions of life at such a high altitude, riding through mist and rain that soaked us to the bone.

Antonie was impressed by he majesty of landscape as well as by various ethnic groups, which include Tay, H’Mong, Lolos, and Nung.

The multi-ethnic character of Vietnam is the most fascinating aspects of the country. Recognised in the Constitution, about 54 ethnic groups live on Vietnamese soil and all benefit from its development.

The Tay people in Ha Giang

“What strikes me most is the adoption of modernity in an ancient life that seems immutable” Antonie said. Each house has a satellite dish. Famers walking to the market in traditional outfits have a mobile phone glued to their ear. Paths and roads are well maintained, most of them paved.

In her book “Globalization and the Integration of Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam” anthropologist Sandrine Basilico use the word “ Viêtcommunication” to describe the process of integration if minorities into the Vietnamese nation “With this concept we mean changes […] inside ethnic minorities, but also within the ethnic majority who gets enriched [..]”

In addition to economic, cultural, educational and health policies of the State, she also emphasises the aspect of trade in goods in a market economy that effects “the culture, the way of life of the minorities with the appearance in the home of modern and westernized objects”

A distinct feature of Vietnam is the respect for traditions, which remain strong despite modernisation that is often desired by minorities themselves.

By chance, we stopped at a village of Tay people where a funeral was taking place. The abundance of offerings, of the paper votive objects, the presence of Taoist shaman, and the solidarity of the villagers to the family of the deceased testify to the permanence of traditional beliefs “The failure comply with them could incur the wrath of the spirits, spirits and ancestors on whole family or village or ethnicity” whote Ms. Balisico.

As sociologist J.Baudrillard demonstrated in his book “The system of Objects”, the possession of new objects are also symbols of a way of life and generate signs of a new culture.

Hence, material transformations induce a cultural change that can be catastrophic for traditional communities under pressure from both economic and media constraints. The concepts of “intangible cultural heritage” is recent and only in 2006 did UNESCO adopt the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

This heritage “include tradition and expressions inherited from our ancestor and passed on to our descendants, such as orals traditions, performing arts, social practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts”

Villagers come to help family’s deceased preparation for the funeral

The funeral made me understand the real meaning of statement. The Tay rituals reflect their belief in the cyclical nature of life. The funeral is the largest, most complex, and most expensive. It reflects many elements related to their ancestral cult. It is also desire to free and escort the deceased’s soul to the blissful land. The funeral rite steps are: Anouncing the death, inviting a shaman, shrouding the dead person, establishing the altar, preparing votive offerings, going on a specified diet, carrying out cenemonies (by a Tao) and burial.

The deceased was a father of a family of four girls and a boy. They crafted large effigies in votive paper, like kites, which will follow their father in the afterlife. The number of offerings, such as fruit, cake, alcohol and, especially, sacrificial animals – a buffalo and three pig – express the family’s wealth and importance.

A small house made by bamboo used for covering the coffin

In a procession of ries from mourners and the sounds of haunting gongs shrill flutes, offerings were brought to the altar of the deceased in a tiny room into which all participants gather. The Taoist master then began to chant magical invocations written in Chinese ideograms.

A grave of the Tay people

Intoxicated by the incense-filled air and stunned by the hallucinogenic music, I seemed to be one with the gathered assembly in a mystical fervor. As a photographer, documenting and the authenticity of their culture at the moment reward in itself for undertaking this trip.

Despite the growing global consciousness and the need to preserve intangible heritage, some decisions on the development of Ha Giang province appear completely out of place. In the master of plan for development to 2020, the region wants to build a casino in Dong Van, in the very heart of the national park, simply to attract money and tourists from China !

Defendinh minorities’s right should also be about preserving their culture and soul in the face of globalization.

The Guide

“HANOI PROMENADE” BY MARTIN RAMA, HAS RECENTLY BEEN PUBLISHED IN VIETNAMESE AND THE ENGLISH VERSION IS ON ITS WAY. “THE GUIDE” US PLEASED TO PUBLISH AN EXCERPT : THE CHAPTER ENTITLED “CHAOS”

For most foreign visitors, the first image of Hanoi is one of chaos, absolute chaos. Rivers of motorbikes thunder through its streets (sometimes, through its sidewalk) paying little attention to traffic lights and other niceties of road safely. Those motorbikes may be modest in size and in engine power, but they look unstoppable nonetheless. Even their names (Angel, Magic…) evoke a detachment from the constraints of manmade rules, if not an imminent trip to heaven. The aspiration that goes with saying “I have a Dream” is clearly not about changing the world, but about running over it. Perhaps this is what the constructors of popular motorbike model had in mind when they aptly named it…Attila !

“The first image of Hanoi is one of chaos, absolute chaos”

The sidewalks themselves do not look more reassuring. Apart from serving as improvised parking lots for legions of motorbikes and cars, they host all sorts of activities which are typically held indoors in other latitudes. Cooking and eating above all. Amids the exhaust fumes, the dust and the dirt, it’s difficult to believe that any of the food stalls would pass a basic hygiene test. The cleaning of dishes, with the same bucket of water serving for hundreds of bowls and glasses, could make the eating experience even more intimidating, at least to foreigners. And that without mentioning the bystanders who only meters away spend hours meticulously removing lice from each other’s heads.

Stalls on sidewalk

Construction on both side of the street is usually as messy as the street itself. The city’architecture heritage, which had survived two wars and a bombing campaign without irreversible damage, is under siege from uncontrolled market forces. Poverty has resulted in myriads of small living quarters of terrible quality piling up over colonial buildings and former gardens. At times, these nondescript volume of plastic, plywood and tin look simply look like vertical garbage dumps. Prosperity did not necessarily arrange matters, as traditional markets and colonial villas are now being demolished to make room for totally insipid buildings.

Well, this is the impression when one actually managers to see the buildings. More often than not, whatever there is on both sides of street id hidden behind layers of strident nylon billboards and an impossible cobweb of electricity and telephone wires. It even takes some time for the eye to distinguish, among the maze, the rusty loudspeakers from which a seemingly endless stream of squeaks and screeches pours on mornings and evenings. An inheritance from the war period, this rudimentary communication system hammers Hanoians twice a day with propaganda and public announcements that become totally unintelligible when mixed with the cacophony of rush hours.

Hanoi Opera House – A Friend colonial construction

However, most foreign visitors soon realize that this chaos is actually governed by subtle, not explicit but widely shared rules. And once those rules are understood, making sense of it all becomes easy.

Yes, traffic is a mess. But it genera;ly flows like a river, smoothly going around obstacles rather than hitting them. A pedestrian who wants to cross the street only needs to enter into the stream in a slow and predictable manner. Motorbike drivers will then marginally adjust their course and pass centimeters away on either side. The effect is even more striking an intersections, where armadas of motorbikes cross through each other without an accident, their timing as perflect as in Vienna’s baroque horse ballets. Watching Hanoi’s spontaneous traffic choreography, one can only marvel at the analytical capacity of motorbike drivers, who are constantly assessing multiple trajectories and in no time identifying a collision-free path through them (while texting message with their mobile phones, mind you…)

It does not take long to realize that the food one can eat in sidewalk food stalls is as good as in the most sophisticated restaurant, if not better. Hygeine conditions may not be ideal, but the ingredients are usually so fresh that it does not really matter. And while surroundings may be messy, they are a fascinating window on the everyday life of many ordinary Hanoians who prefer sidewalks to their crowded interiors. Peddlers do their jobs, mothers feed their children, men play Chinese chess, the elderly wander in their pijamas…And where else other than in Hanoi’s sidewalks can one see an old gentleman with a traditional goatee lovingly grooming his just bathed poodle with a pink hairdryer ?

Peddler in Hanoi

As for the accumulation of crappy living quarters, it has actually save hundreds of magnificent buildings from being demolished. Some cononial villas are so well wrapped up in new dwellings and improvised shops that it is almost impossible to see them from the street. Before any investor can buy the property rights of all the families and businesses around them one can hope that Hanoi will have adopted stronger measures to protect its architectural heritage. In the meantime, it quickly becomes a stimulating exercise to mentally “peel” layer after layer of plastic, plywood and tin to reconstruct the original shapes and proportions of the villas buried underneath.

True, many sidewalks in Hanoi look as if they had been bombared. But this ia due to the ongoing effort by the local government to put all wires underground. Many cities in the industrial world still procrastinated about doing the same, on the excuse that could be unaffordable. Much poorer Hanoi has no hestitation, and the effort is bound to make the city look even more beautiful over time.

A view of Ha Noi by night

What will happen to the rusty loudspeakers as wires go under and poles are removed is still unclear. But there is one noise that is able to offset their stream of squeaks and sreeches, and that is the blaring singing of millions of cicadas in the evening. And on some peaceful dawns, when downtown roosters have not yet stopped crowing, the loudspeaker system also seems compelled to show restraint. In lieu of the endless propaganda and public announcements, on those happy mornings it just delivers a pretty song for the city to gently wake up.

The Guide

Bac Son Valley in the northern province of Lang Son is entering its peak rice harvest season.

Located in Bac Son District and 160km from Ha Noi, the valley has beautiful paddy fields surrounded by high lime mountains. The paddy fields have various kinds of colours – yellow, brown and green – as some rice fields have ripened, and others are still growing or have been harvested.

Standing on the top of a mountain, a visitor can see the paddies, the river meandering among fields and houses as well as surrounding mountains.

The valley's inhabitants are mostly ethnic Tay who live in traditional houses on stilts.

VNS