VietNamNet Bridge - Writer Nguyen Ngoc looks at the impact of economic development on culture and traditional heritage.

Writer Nguyen Ngoc

To preserve ‘The Vietnamese living treasures of humanity’ might be too aspirational a name and intention for a project. But then, I am very much a pessimist. A friend of mine, Tran Phong, an artist, recently published a photo collection on festivals in the Central Highlands of Tay Nguyen. He asked me to write a few words for its introduction, not because I am an expert on artistic photography, but because both he and I love and worry deeply about the protection of those ‘treasures’ that he spent 30 years capturing in all those hilly corners of the highlands.

Today, it would be almost impossible to get them back irrespective of how much time and money one could spend or how advanced is one’s equipment or technology. For some are lost and many are close to extinction. Among those treasures, one could count the tomb statues that stand majestic ally, as if they had been there since the dawn of time, the real ‘rong’ houses (communal stilt houses) that have nothing to do with the government replicas for tourists or the original festive poles found in the villages of the E-de, M’nong, Banar, S’dang, Jarai and among other minorities.

So old yet so modern, magnificent and beautiful. In my short somewhat sad introduction for Tran Phong’s photo book, I wrote that today there is a real cultural struggle, or to be more accurate, a struggle between culture and economy, preservation and development. Certainly, culture is always in an inferior position in many respects. Culture has already been defeated and knocked down, not just in Tay Nguyen. I only mentioned this place because it is the one I know best, but all over this country, similar struggles are taking place every month, day and moment. If we continue on this path, one day we shall wake up to find ourselves empty handed.

All this despite our increasing standard of living complete with the luxuries of 21st century life, our GDP rising to match and surpass others, and our cities beginning to look as modern as their counterparts elsewhere in the region and the world. If we wait till we achieve these goals, we will surely find ourselves looking back with sorrow. We will then realise we have impoverished our minds and souls by losing our very roots and the invaluable treasures of our culture. We will be living in a glittering desert of life, strewn with the detritus of our spirit, that which makes us intrinsically, uniquely Vietnamese.

Dead treasure

The fact is that the ‘dead treasures’, the cultural essence found in such tangible wood, stone and copper objects do not require much effort for conservation as long as we don’t focus on economic development at any price, to the exclusion of all else.

But even more important are the ‘living cultural treasures’, priceless because of their intangibility, fragility and finite nature. What is more fragile and prone to death than man? And man is the sole and ultimate creator of culture. This morning, Do Hong Ky, a renowned and devoted epic collector told me that Dieu Kau passed away a month ago at the age of 85. It would not be exaggerating to say that the death of Dieu Kau marked the loss of a unique cultural treasure not just for the M’Nong minority of Tay Nguyen, but for the entire nation. And perhaps even more.

He was a man who possessed a wealth of knowledge of M’Nong culture, folklore and epic tales. His unique mind was an encyclopaedia of more than 100 epics of his ethnic group. And we have lost such a man! Fortunately, many have been able to record his stories, especially the M’Nong epics that the man kept for so long to himself. But who knows what tales and wisdom he took with him to the grave? In all likelihood, a very important part of the traditional M’Nong culture has followed him, never to return.

This is an extremely rich and profound culture among all minorities in Tay Nguyen. In addition to Dieu Kau, his elder brother Dieu Klut and younger brother Dieu Klung also possess great knowledge about their culture. That is good to know, but we are equally concerned about their existence. All are over 80 years of age and could enter the other world at anytime. No one can tell how long this family will last. But are there any organisations or people attempting to preserve these last ‘remnants’ of the M’Nong culture? A culture that provides a deep reservoir of epics unseen anywhere else in the world.

Bulldoze the past

Right now there is a huge bauxite mining project in Dak Nong, the age-old home of the M’Nong and their epics. Thousands of hectares of forest land will be cleared and hundreds of villages will be relocated. The soil will be dug up to a depth of dozens of metres to expose the mineral. People are talking of constructing huge aluminium factories and bustling industrial townships.

The question is, during the designing and implementation phases of the project, did anyone think of the preservation of the M’Nong culture? Silly question I know, after all what would Dieu Kau, Dieu Klut or Dieu Klung mean to such a huge bauxite project in their own homeland? These brothers are small and meaningless in the face of such a high and mighty project implemented on land that they know better than anyone alive.

Similarly, Y Nie in Dak Lak, an expert on Ede epics, A Luu in Kon Tum, known for his vast knowledge on Banar tales, and Ker Tik and Y Kong, the renowned sculptors of the K’Tu minority, are all deemed unimportant by development projects.

I have written about the M’Nong epics because they are so unique and surprisingly rich. I have discussed Tay Nguyen because it is the place I know a little more about compared to other regions. But what is happening to the ‘living cultural treasures’ in Tay Nguyen is happening all over Viet Nam as we rush forward, hell bent on catching and dominating the future, marching lock-step to the drums of ‘economic development’.

The reason I call myself a pessimist is because the problem has become so serious. The comparison between the M’Nong epics and the bauxite project in Dak Nong shows us that the delicate song of culture is drowned out by the combined roar of globalisation, modernisation, industrialisation, money, power and development. And in this contest, culture is an endangered species on the brink of extinction.

I think it is necessary to have such a pessimistic view in order to underline the seriousness of the problem. We are losing too many things! Things that we will never be able to recover. We can reconstruct a facsimile of an ancient temple or rong house but we can never resurrect a dead man. Pessimism is sometimes necessary.

The only important question now is: what hope is there for the future? Let’s do something to rescue the extremely precious and invaluable treasures that are, this very minute, as you sit reading my words, dying. Let’s pass our pessimism to those who are still ignorant and indifferent. Let’s raise our voices to warn all of society about it. Each of us should know that those ‘living treasures’ are vanishing. Please save their lives in practical and concrete ways.

Look the problem straight in the eye, then use our pessimism to marshal a stronger determination!

(Source: VNS)