The San Diu people are one of 53 ethnic minorities in our country. In Quang Ninh, the San Diu people live together with the Dao, San Chay, Kinh, Tay... ethnic groups and account for about 1.6% of the province's population, residing mainly in the districts of Ba Che, Tien Yen, Dam Ha, Hai Ha, Van Don and Ha Long City.
The San Diu people have the custom of building houses on hillsides or foothills. In the past, houses were often built on a small scale, with simple beam and column structures, then tied together with rafters or forest vines. The roof was thatched with straw, thatched grass... The walls were made of earth, bamboo strips were erected, and straw mixed with mud was pressed in. The houses and auxiliary structures were in the shape of a U. The main room had an ancestral altar, a table and chairs for receiving guests. The rooms on the left, right and the auxiliary rooms were often arranged with beds for family members and household items, and jars for seeds.
San Diu men often wear dark shorts or long pants, elastic waistband, with two pockets; dark shirts that reach the thighs, with one pocket. Women always wear two shirts: an inner shirt, an outer shirt in indigo or dark, that is longer than the knee. They wear a black turban made of diagonal fabric, in the shape of a crow's beak. Old people often wear shirts with the left flap crossed over the right, while young people do the opposite. Belts are purple, red, lily-colored, or have colorful decorative patterns. On holidays, New Year, village festivals or weddings, women wear brocade or velvet scarves, red bibs; wear jewelry such as earrings, bracelets, necklaces, crosses, and silver rings. In particular, the betel bag is embroidered with colorful threads, with many beautiful patterns. The shaman's outfit has an additional hat to the sky, and the cassock is decorated with motifs of people, horses, dragons, phoenixes, etc.
Regarding folk cuisine, the San Diu people have rice, khau nhuc, thinh (fried meat), sour meat, mugwort cake, colored sticky rice, humped chung cake, tai long ep cake, local chicken soup cooked with wine and mugwort leaves, salted meat, sweet potato porridge, cassava. Daily drinks are green tea, guava leaves, and thin porridge. Wine is used a lot during holidays, New Year, and festivals. In particular, the San Diu people in Tien Yen have restored the traditional craft of making wine with yeast leaves. All are made from available ingredients and many dishes have become specialties, indispensable when welcoming distinguished guests or during holidays and New Year.
In production, the San Diu people have traditional occupations such as growing rice, going to the forest, raising silkworms, weaving, dyeing indigo and weaving. In Tien Yen, the San Diu people have an additional occupation of fishing. In terms of spiritual culture, the San Diu people believe in the theory of "all things have animism", the three religions have the same origin, worship ancestors, besides worshiping the door god, the land god, the kitchen god, and the midwife. The shaman also worships Buddha Quan The Am, the Three Purities and the Patriarchs, which are higher than the ancestral altar.
The San Diu people of Quang Ninh have a rich folk art heritage, expressed in all aspects of performance, folk dance, painting, and folk literature. In particular, singing "sông cô" is a form of antiphonal singing, each song is a poem of love exchange.
Regarding folk dances, the San Diu people have dances such as Hanh Quang, Tam Xich stick dance, Cay Sa offering dance, Lamp offering dance, Offering gifts dance, Ngu Dau dance... In terms of folk visual arts, perhaps the most prominent feature, both in quantity and reaching certain values in aesthetic quality, is the art of carving on seals, tablets, and Giao Long. Especially the art of paper carving, decorating the house during Tet, weddings, ordination ceremonies, and funerals.
In general, the San Diu culture is quite rich, expressed in customs, practices, and ceremonies. The main occupation of the San Diu is farming, so there are many agricultural rituals. In a year, the San Diu have many ceremonies such as: Dai Phan Festival, peace-praying ceremony, crop-praying ceremony, Tet Muoi Tu (14th of the 7th lunar month), plow-washing ceremony or spirit possession ceremony...
The biggest festival of the San Diu people is the Dai Phan festival, which means the big rice festival (full), which is essentially a harvest praying ceremony usually held on a day off from farming, after the planting season, the harvest season or in the spring. The Dai Phan festival includes 4 main ceremonies: the procession of the Son Thai Nhan statue, the slaughtering of animals, the sword climbing ceremony, and the coal wading ceremony. The Dai Phan integrates many typical cultural elements such as: customs, worship rituals, music, singing and dancing, and fine arts. In addition, the San Diu people of Quang Ninh also have a cap sac ceremony, similar to the Dao people, to mark the maturity of men in the village community.
However, the folk culture of the San Diu people in Quang Ninh is facing the risk of being lost because most of it is only passed down orally along with the process of development, urbanization, and modern life. On June 21, 2023, the Provincial People's Committee issued Plan No. 161/KH-UBND on piloting the construction, preservation and promotion of cultural identity values of 4 ethnic minority villages associated with community tourism development, mountainous areas of Quang Ninh province, period 2023-2025. Among them, there is the San Diu village in Vong Tre hamlet, Binh Dan commune, Van Don district.
In the process of preserving and promoting the culture of the San Diu people in Quang Ninh, there are individual efforts. Dr. Tran Quoc Hung, Director of the Center for Research, Preservation and Development of San Diu Culture in Vietnam, a son of Quang Ninh, has had many programs to collect and preserve San Diu culture, Quang Hanh communal house culture (Cam Pha City) and has researched with his colleagues the Latin alphabet for San Diu pronunciation to teach and preserve the San Diu language for the younger generation.
Source
Comment (0)