Lung Tung - the rice field festival of the Thai people in Lai Chau

Lung Tung Festival is also known as Going to the Fields Festival. This is an ancient agricultural ritual, opening a new production season for the Thai people in Than Uyen district, Lai Chau province.

Lễ hội Lùng Tùng của người Thái ở Lai Châu - mở đầu mùa sản xuất mới

Lung Tung Festival of Thai people in Lai Chau. (Source: dantocmiennui.vn)

The festival is to pray for a year of favorable weather, good crops, good health for the people.

Than Uyen - the land of the Thai ethnic group for a long time. The Thai people here have many festivals such as: Lung Tung Festival, Han Khuong Festival, Kin Pang Festival, Xoe Chieng Festival... Lung Tung Festival was last held in 1958 and then gradually faded away. In 2018, this festival was restored by the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Lai Chau province, contributing to preserving, maintaining and promoting the cultural identity of the Thai ethnic group in particular and the ethnic groups of Than Uyen district, Lai Chau province in general.

Chairman of Muong Cang Commune People's Committee (Than Uyen District) Nguyen Tu Trong said that Lung Tung Festival is one of the important festivals of the Thai ethnic group, held annually in January (usually from January 6-10).

This year, Lung Tung Festival was held in Muong Cang commune on February 18 (the 9th day of Tet) in Cang Muong village field. This is an exchange activity, demonstrating the spirit of community connection, preserving and promoting the good traditional cultural values of ethnic groups, promoting and introducing the image of Than Uyen district to tourists inside and outside the province.

According to artisan Lo Van Soi, Muong Cang commune, the Festival is a unique and humane cultural feature of the Thai people in Than Uyen, which needs to be preserved, conserved, and organized regularly to spread the cultural beauty to the community and visitors from near and far.

Lung Tung Festival consists of two parts: Ceremony and Festival. During the ceremony, many rituals take place such as: Worshiping Lady Han; worshiping Thanh Hoang, gods, mountain gods, forest gods...

First, the village often holds a ceremony, in which the village elder or shaman must perform a ceremony to report to the gods and the land spirit, then organize the ceremony to worship Lady Han right in the village.

Lady Han is considered the representative of the divine force protecting the village. After the ceremony, the group of people carries the flags, drums and offerings to Lady Han to the field prepared for the festival.

Here, four more offerings are arranged, which are offerings to all living beings; offerings to the village's tutelary god; offerings to the gods of the immortal world, under the sea and on the ground; offerings to the mountain gods, forest gods, and land gods in the area from Binh Lu to Tu Le (the border of Than Uyen in the past), then come the rituals of plowing, sowing seeds... praying for a year of favorable weather, good vegetation, bountiful harvests, and good health for the people.

The festival begins with a ritual in which the village elders, who have prestige in the village and commune, beat drums and gongs to open the festival. Immediately after, representatives of the government and villagers go down to the fields to perform the ritual of plowing, sowing seeds, opening a year of favorable weather, lush crops, and healthy people.

At the festival, people and tourists can participate in folk games, cultural exchanges with performances imbued with Thai ethnic identity such as throwing con, fighting swallows, shooting crossbows, to ma le, tug of war, pushing sticks, xoe hoops, and enjoying local cuisine...

Than Uyen district has fertile rice fields such as Muong Than, Muong Cang... This place also has many local products, natural landscape systems such as rivers, lakes, green forests, high mountains, associated with villages with typical cultural features of the Mong, Thai, Kho Mu ethnic groups... This is a great advantage for developing Than Uyen tourism, attracting tourists to visit, experience, and relax.

Lung Tung Festival was restored and reorganized since 2018, contributing to preserving and promoting the cultural identity of the Thai ethnic group in particular and the ethnic minorities of Than Uyen district as well as Lai Chau province in general.

Source