“Weekend Gong” - unique cultural and tourism value of Gia Lai

In recent years, community-based conservation and promotion of cultural heritage (CH) has become a growing trend in the world and is one of the solutions promoted by UNESCO to effectively exploit heritage. To sustainably conserve and promote the value of CH, there needs to be a relative cohesion and consensus of the community where it exists. The initiative and creativity of the community will create unique characteristics for each type of CH, each community, and each nation.

Gia Lai province has issued a Project to preserve and promote the heritage value of the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Space in Gia Lai province for the period 2023 - 2025 (Photo: Internet)

The program “Weekend Gong – Enjoy and Experience” organized by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Gia Lai in recent times is an activity that brings positive values, widely welcomed by the public. These are activities that demonstrate the important role of the community in creating, protecting, maintaining and regenerating cultural heritage to contribute to enriching and expressing the creativity of the community. More specifically, the program “Weekend Gong – Enjoy and Experience” also spreads the message “Preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage based on the community” widely to the public.

Gia Lai province has issued a Project to preserve and promote the heritage values ​​of the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Space in Gia Lai province for the period 2023 - 2025; aiming to preserve and promote the good traditional values ​​of the Central Highlands Gong Cultural Space heritage in the area, in line with socio-economic development, international integration trends and associated with local tourism development.

The program “Weekend Gongs – Enjoy and Experience” is a rotating activity between the artisan groups of 02 local ethnic groups (Bahnar and Jrai) taking place every Saturday night. The program is a synthesis of many activities: gong performance combined with suang dance; folk singing; traditional musical instrument performance; visitors can take photos with the artisans, participate in the suang dance experience, play gongs…

The special thing is that the artisans participating in the program all wear traditional costumes, all activities take place in a natural, open space, without drama, without the intervention of a director. The community participates voluntarily, consensually, freely, equally and mutually beneficially, meaning that there is no pressure or compulsion but there is a high consensus and everyone enjoys and benefits from the heritage they hold in a fair and non-profit manner.

In addition to calling for sponsorship and contributions from benefactors, the program organizers placed a basket at the performance night to call for support (congratulations) from the audience. The amount of support was counted publicly at the end of the performance, handed over to the performing artists and announced on the media. This action demonstrated the solidarity and contribution of the community, and was a small resource to urge and encourage artists to maintain and pass on the heritage to the next generations.

In addition to creating a weekend “entertainment” highlight to attract night tourists, as a way to preserve and promote the value of gong cultural heritage, “Weekend Gong – Enjoy and Experience” is also an opportunity for village artists to have a space to practice their heritage, freely create the heritage they are holding. However, to achieve these results, those who directly participate also face many challenges and difficulties in terms of funding, human resources and concerns about maintaining operating time.

It is known that all the funds in the program are mobilized from social sources, from training artisans to practice, perform, travel to printing and designing billboards and promotional posters. However, socialization (mobilizing donations and sponsorship) is not always favorable, so there are times when the program does not go as expected. Should there be long-term programs in the future, so that the program "Weekend Gong - Enjoy and Experience" is like a source that flows forever to encourage and nurture the souls of the community that holds the heritage.

Dan Hung