The old village wells of H’r e hill tribes in Central Vietnam are considered to be sacred. Thanh Van reports

The local well is considered to be a divine one and there are a number of dos and don’ts that villagers must be aware of – the custodian is charged with making sure no one ‘dishonours’ the well. If someone does, the whole village must make amends. The custodian will be responsible for guarding the well from taboos and offering sacrifices before New Year’s Day and during harvest festivals in the middle of the third and eighth lunar months.

According to H’re beliefs, a divine well must exist before the village is founded – where there is water, you can live, as water brings everything into existence. The well must be situated in a sacred place so the water is of the best quality. “I cannot remember how many harvests have passed since this custom started,” says the present custodian, Dinh Van May of Ta Pa hamlet in Son Thuong village.

Despite the rural development programme that provides clean water for the five hamlets of Son Thuong village, today the divine well in the village is maintained as a place of worship. For a ceremony the well custodian will wrap a turban-like hat around the head, choose a young rooster with a long tail and gather some leaves, which must be cleaned with water from the well lest he incur the wrath of the well god.

The rooster’s blood is sprinkled around the well while water from the well is sprinkled onto the other offerings. He then prays to the well god so that the villagers will be healthy and families live together in harmony. In days of yore, when someone was ill the custodian would take them to the divine well and examine the patient by measuring his or her left arm against the right one.

The custodian could tell if the person had a disease if the arms didn’t match up! The custodian-cum-healer would use the left leg of a sacrificial rooster to ‘diagnose’ the patient. Then he used the right leg to find out what the ‘illness ghost’ wanted to ‘eat’ to be sated. This kind of healing specifically is not common today, however. But sick people still seek the well custodian’s help.

Some days ago, May claims to have cured a woman in the hamlet of a bellyache by offering sacrifices to the divine well. At Vo hamlet, another well custodian Dinh Van Dot is busy slaughtering a rooster hoping to heal his son of a sharp pain in his foot. After the ceremony, Dot tied his son’s wrist with a ‘ca sim ma hoa’ (a thread that ties the soul) so that his soul will not be lost.

Near the well are dried bamboo towers which were used in a ceremony to cure two locals suffering from malaria some time ago. Nowadays Dot says H’re people know that it is necessary to take sick people to the hospital to receive medical treatment. But that does not mean renouncing their belief in the well. When someone is hospitalised, a family member or friend will take the patient’s shirt, skirt or scarf to the well to exorcise evil spirits from the patient. For H’re people, medicine can cure bodily diseases but not sickness of the soul. For this you need the help of the divine well.

Though venerated as a divine well, everyday life activities such as eating, drinking, washing clothes can take place there. Though Dot reminds everyone of the rules. Women can wash clothes there, except their underwear. It is forbidden to make certain noises, like striking stones together or clapping, lest you attract the attention of the crows, who will try to catch the local chickens, or the tigers, who will come and attack the buffaloes.

People of one hamlet do not go to take water from the well of another lest the buffaloes and cows do not grow and people become unhealthy. But H’re people are always ready to offer the well’s water to thirsty passers-by and beggars as they consider it a good deed that should be encouraged. The victim of an accident should also be drink from the well immediately, but when they have recovered the victims must offer sacrifices to the divine well to rid themselves of any lingering bad luck. H’re people are very economical when preparing sacrificial items.

They usually offer smallish, young roosters. But for important sacrificial ceremonies pigs, buffaloes or cows will be used. Family disputes will also be settled with a large sacrificial animal. Dinh Minh Tam, Son Thuong village People’s Committee deputy chairman, explains how recently a local married woman was caught in bed with another man from the same hamlet. Her husband called for the village patriarchs and the well custodian to try both his wife and the other man for adultery at the well. The adulterous couple had to offer a large pig as a sacrifice to the well god.

Then water from the well was used to wash the two clean of their sins. The husband then re-accepted his wife while the ex-lover was banned from “wandering” near their house. Not every couple manages to patch things up so well. A custodian in charge of the divine well for over 10 years, Dinh Van Su of Ta Pa hamlet, relates how some married couples he knew said they would eat poisonous roots to kill themselves, if they did not get a divorce.

In that case, the custodian forces the couple to carry a big pig to the well and offer it to the well god before parting ways. They are reminded not to hate each other while living in the same hamlet as the divine well has witnessed and accepted their separation. One man from Tam hamlet fell in love with a woman from nearby Nua hamlet. Although betrothed to another he was determined to marry his sweetheart.

So he and his lover bought a pig and offered it to the well god so he was free to marry whoever he pleased. Although he would have to leave his hamlet and live with his new wife’s family lest he bring bad luck to his old hamlet.

VietNamNet/Timeout