Catholic priest helps preserve ethnic culture

Father figure: Catholic priest Nguyen Duc Ngoc poses with Chu Ru children. — File Photo

LAM DONG — Catholic priest Nguyen Duc Ngoc has built a wooden museum displaying ancient items of the ethnic Chu Ru group in the Central Highland province of Lam Dong's Ka Don Village.

On show are hundreds of the Chu Ru's belongings collected by Ngoc, including farming and hunting tools, musical instruments, jewellery, costumes and culinary utensils.

Elderly villager Ko Tum said: "The museum is very helpful for ethnic Chu Ru and Co Ho people, particularly the young, who often come here to understand about their ancestors and history."

Ngoc first gained exposure to traditional Chu Ru culture nearly 40 years ago when he was assigned to work at the parish in Ka Don Village of Don Duong District.

Apart from collecting items, Ngoc is compiling documents to write a book in Chu Ru language to systemise and analyse the value of the culture and life of the people.

He said each item in his museum could tell an interesting story about the Chu Ru's tradition and how they lived in the past.

"It's very difficult to find such ancient items as a wooden buffalo bell. I had to travel to each house of each villager to find it.

"I'm very happy because apart from helping people preserve their ancient things I can also help explain the culture to students from Da Lat and HCM City who visit my museum to learn and compile documents for their university assignments," Ngoc said.

Many researchers of ethnic culture from HCM City and abroad had also visited his museum, he said.

Ngoc has also set up a room to translate documents of the majority Kinh group and other groups' cultures and agriculture into the Chu Ru language.

Speaking and writing the language helps him teach villagers to apply advanced technology in agriculture production to improve their living standards.

Villager Tum said: "Ngoc often visits our vegetable gardens and rice fields to show us how to apply modern technology to gain higher productivity."

Tum expressed the group's gratitude to Ngoc for his love of their culture and his contribution to the protection and preservation of the Chu Ru's tangible and intangible heritage and the villagers' well-being. — VNS

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Coffee museum first placed in HCMC

Tourists take photos of the coffee display at Trung Nguyen coffee shop at Nguyen Van Chiem St., District 1. - Photo: Tuong Vi

Trung Nguyen’s Creative Youth Coffee House next to Diamond Plaza has transformed itself into a coffee museum for the next month.

The garden coffee shop that is on the narrow street between the Youth Cultural House and Diamond Plaza, has 100 items about coffee on display including grinders and roasting machines.  The pieces are part of a collection of 10,000 items about
coffee that belongs to a German coffee lover, Jens Burg.

Burg provided part of his collection to help Trung Nguyen Corp. set up Vietnam’s first coffee museum in Buon Ma Thuot in the Central
Highlands province of Daklak, where the coffee maker harvests most of its beans.

Two billion people world-wide drink coffee, so the exhibition is bound to have appeal. The displays show where coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia and follows its history with stories of different coffee concoctions using butter, milk, herbs and wine.

The café has a large outdoor area shaded by umbrellas and trees and a large glass walled lounge that looks across the garden area. In addition to the different kinds of Trung Ngu
yen coffee, there’s a food menu that features Gia Lai dried noodles, a dish that’s loved by highlanders.

The coffee museum opening in March in Buon Ma Thuot City will be called the Global Coffee Sanctuary and cover 50 hectares. Brazil, Japan, Russia, the U.K, Australia and Switzerland already have coffee museums but the sanctuary will have the largest number of items on display.

“We have made Buon Ma Thuot into a city of coffee to build the
coffee brand for the city, for Vietnam and the world,” Dinh Van Khiet, vice chairman of People’s Committee of Daklak Province, said.

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Viet Nam's first coffee museum set to open

DAC LAC - Viet Nam's first coffee museum will open soon in the central- highland city of Buon Ma Thuot.

More than 10,000 rare exhibits that illustrate the history of coffee have been transferred to the museum's proprietor - the Trung Nguyen joint stock company - from the world's biggest coffee museum owner Jens Burg of Germany.

About 100 objects from the collection are on display at Trung Nguyen Coffee, No 7 Nguyen Van Chiem Street, District 1, HCM City.

Visitors are shown how coffee has been made from the beans to a cup throughout history.

"We define Buon Ma Thuot with its variety of coffee and its contribution to building Viet Nam coffee's world brand as coffee city," said Dac Lac Provincial People's Committee deputy chairman Dinh Van Khiet.

Professor Thai Quang Trung welcomed the national coffee museum.

"Coffee has two values that need to be confirmed," he said.

"It's herbal value and value to inspire people to create and develop."

Brazil, Ethiopia, Britain, Germany and Japan have coffee museums. - VNS

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Opening of Hanoi Museum celebrates capital’s birthday

Inside view of the Hanoi Museum

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Hanoi Museum – with an impressive collection of 50,000 artistic and historical artifacts tracing the history of the country and its capital through several stages of its cultural development – opened Wednesday morning to coincide with 1,000th Thang Long-Hanoi anniversary.

Speaking at the ceremony, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong who cut the inaugural ribbon, referred to Hanoi as the cradle of Vietnamese culture with a history of thousand of years, beginning with Loa Thanh-Co Loa citadel 2,300 years ago.

“We must have a large museum to store and preserve both tangible and intangible cultural heritages of Thang Long–Hanoi and pass them on to the next Vietnamese generations,” he said.

“Failing to do so would be a disgrace.”

Occupying an area of 54,000 square meters, the 30.7 meter-high structure housing the museum was built in the shape of an inverted pyramid with total capital of over VND2,300 billion (US$118 million).

It is comprised of a two-storey basement and an additional four floors above-ground. A spiral walkway along the walls allows visitors a wider view of the facilities as they travel between floors.

Among its prized artifacts are a 2,000 years old bronze collection and a ceramic collection dating from the 11th-19th centuries including porcelain vases, candelabra, and flower pots.

Attesting to Vietnam’s ongoing diversity, cultural relics of various ethnic groups such as the Cham, Mong and Dao also are on display at the museum.

In addition to exhibits, the museum houses research facilities, restoration facilities, a library and functional rooms for meetings and workshops. The outside area is dedicated to an outdoor exhibition of Hanoian ornamental animals and plants.

The large cultural project with unique architecture, designed by Germany’s GMP International GmbH-Inros Lackner and the Vinaconex Corporation, is the largest and most modern of its kind in Vietnam.

Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Pham Quang Nghi, Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen The Thao, Construction Minister Nguyen Hong Quan, Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Hoang Tuan Anh, UNESCO representatives and several local officials and international guests attended the museum’s opening ceremony.

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Ethnology museum hosts Mid-Autumn celebration

Hands-on fun: In addition to taking part in folk games and performances, children will learn how to make traditional toys at the museum. — VNS Photos Ancient games: Children play tug-of-war at the Museum of Ethnology.

HA NOI — The Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology in Ha Noi will host its annual celebration of the Mid-Autumn festival through next Monday, with a theme this year of Viet Nam – China Colours.

This year's programme will include traditional games of both countries, as well as toys such as lanterns, kites and Chinese masks, and performances of lion and dragon dances and water puppetry, making this a great opportunity for children to explore the similarities and differences in the Vietnamese and Chinese cultures, according to the museum.

Visitors to the museum during the celebration will have the opportunity to compete and win prizes in Chinese games, dress in traditional costumes, and hear story tellers share legends of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The museum will also screen films about the cultures of Viet Nam and China and – new to the venue this year – will host a performances of boi singing, a traditional music of southern Viet Nam.

Visitors will also be able to experience the brewing and drinking of Pu'er tea from China's Yunnan Province, as well as participate in traditional cake-making classes. Representatives of the Naxi culture of southern China will also talk to visitors about the ancient hieroglyphs of the culture and the Mid-Autumn Festival of their homeland.

People who purchase tickets in advance for Monday will enjoy a compelling programme including a lion dance, animal circus, Chinese opera, lantern parade, and sampling of Vietnamese and Chinese mooncakes.

The celebration is being held with the co-operation of the Ethnic Museum of Yunnan, the Yunnan Opera Institute, and the Chinese Embassy in Viet Nam. Tickets are available at the Viet Nam Museum of Ethnology for VND25,000 for adults, VND3,000 for children, and VND5,000 for students.

For this year's celebration, the museum will make an extra effort to serve disadvantaged children, and will present 100 gifts to kids from craft villages and vocational training centres. — VNS

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Museum shows Hanoi history display

A photo is on display at the exhibition - Photo: The organizers

A display that covers four eras of Hanoi’s history is on at the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi, reports VietnamPlus.

The exhibition is titled “Thang Long-Hanoi, the era of Ho Chi Minh and the defense of the country”. The first part displays the royal decree to move the capital plus old idioms, proverbs, Vietnamese folk verses, quotations, maps and images from ancient Hanoi.

The second part displays images and historic items from Hanoi during the revolution against the French colonialists, the process of government establishment, the August Revolution, the National Day and activities after liberation day.

The third part depicts Hanoi during the war against the Americans, the period of building socialism and supporting southern Vietnam in fighting the enemy.

The last section depicts modern Hanoi as “City for Peace”. In 1999, Hanoi was granted UNESCO’s “City for Peace” award in recognition of the work done in the struggle for peace, building equality in the community, urban construction, environmental protection, culture and education promotion, and caring for youth.

The exhibition was organized by the national archives center III, Ho Chi Minh Museum and the State Document Management and Archives Department of Vietnam to mark the millennium anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

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