The vitality of Mo Muong villages
Mo Muong is a folk cultural performance activity practiced in rituals associated with the religious life of the Muong people. Mo performance space takes place in community life, in each family to practice a certain ritual.
Meritorious Artisan Bui Huy Vong, Huong Nhuong Commune (Lac Son) said: For generations, until today, the role and position of Mo Muong still maintains its position and role in the spiritual life and beliefs of the Muong people. Mo Muong contributes to forming and nurturing the character and soul of many generations of Muong people and the land of Hoa Binh. It is the crystallization of experiences in labor production, cultural behavior, philosophy of life, expressing a passionate love for life, love for people, homeland and country; expressing the spirit and character of the people and the Muong region of Hoa Binh. From the past to the present, generations of Muong people have preserved, passed down by word of mouth and sustainably promoted the value of Mo Muong, creating the vitality and widespread influence of this extremely valuable intangible cultural heritage.
Recently, Hoa Binh province has promoted the promotion of unique local cultural values, including Mo Muong, to serve tourism development. Mo has been performed on stage at a number of festivals in districts and major festivals of the province such as the Khai Ha Muong Bi Festival (Tan Lac), or recently the Can Wine Festival program in the Culture - Tourism Week of Hoa Binh province in 2024. This work contributes to the preservation and promotion of Mo Muong Hoa Binh.
In particular, the Mo Muong clubs established and put into operation in the districts have contributed to preserving and conserving the good values of Mo in today's life. At the end of the year, despite being busy with work, the members of the Mo Muong Thang - Cao Phong Club took the time to share with us about their activities. Meritorious Artisan Bui Ngoc Thuan, Chairman of the Mo Muong Thang Club, said: Since the end of 2021, the Mo Muong Thang Club of Cao Phong district has been launched and put into operation with 25 members. These are Mo Muong artisans in 9 communes in the district. The members actively participate in the activities of the Club, regularly exchange experiences and content of Mo Muong songs; organize exchanges with Mo Clubs in the province. After more than 3 years of operation, the Mo Muong Thang Club currently has 44 members participating in activities, among whom are many young Mo masters who have a good grasp of Mo songs and practice Mo rituals well. In 2024, the Club will submit procedures to competent authorities to request recognition of 4 shamans as Excellent Artists, ensuring the important criterion of teaching the profession to students.
Not only in Cao Phong district, currently, in the province, many Mo Muong clubs have been established in the districts of Lac Son, Tan Lac, Yen Thuy, Kim Boi with over 100 members. Based on the activities of the clubs, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has oriented Mo masters in Muong regions to collect, research, edit and build books about Mo of each region with its own characteristics. Over time, the model of Mo Muong clubs has operated effectively, collecting many valuable documents, and artisans have actively participated. Not only stopping at activities in the area, the clubs have organized exchanges, discussions, sharing and received new information. This was very difficult for Mo masters to sit together in the past, because each Mo master had a separate position, which was spiritual. But now, most Mo masters have harmony, connection, sharing - this is meaningful and effective in preserving Mo Muong values.
Honoring Mo Muong values
In recent years, Hoa Binh province has issued many important documents in the cultural field, in which Mo Muong is identified as one of the heritages that need to be preserved, maintained and promoted in community life, such as Directive No. 08-CT/TU, dated January 20, 2016 of the Provincial Party Standing Committee on strengthening the leadership of Party committees at all levels in the work of preserving, conserving and promoting (BT&PH) the values of Mo Muong cultural heritage (DSVH) in the province. The Provincial People's Committee has established the Mo Muong Hoa Binh Steering Committee; develop a plan to establish a scientific dossier of Mo Muong Hoa Binh cultural heritage to submit to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for inclusion in the list of national heritages in 2016. In 2018, the Provincial People's Committee approved and issued the Project "Preserving and promoting the value of Mo Muong Hoa Binh cultural heritage in the period of 2019-2025 and the following years". In particular, the province issued the Project to preserve and promote the cultural values of the Muong ethnic group and "Hoa Binh Culture" in the period of 2023-2030 in the province, allocating investment resources to culture, including Mo Muong...
Mo Muong was performed in the program "Ruong Can Festival Night" at the Culture - Tourism Week of Hoa Binh province in 2024, contributing to spreading the value of the heritage.
With the investment attention of the province and the participation of the entire political system, the work of preserving and promoting the value of Mo Muong cultural heritage has achieved remarkable results. Since 2015, the province has received the certificate of sponsorship from the Vietnam Federation of UNESCO Associations for the "Mo Muong Hoa Binh" cultural heritage. On January 19, 2016, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued Decision No. 246/QD-BVHTTDL to include Mo Muong in the list of national intangible cultural heritage. Since 2020, implementing the Prime Minister's Directive, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue a Plan to coordinate with the provinces and cities where Muong people live, including Phu Tho, Thanh Hoa, Son La, Ninh Binh, Dak Lak and Hanoi to develop a National Scientific Profile on Mo Muong Cultural Heritage to submit to UNESCO for inclusion in the list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity in need of urgent protection. After the Plan was issued, the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism continued to advise the Provincial People's Committee to establish a Steering Committee to compile a National Profile of Mo Muong Cultural Heritage to submit to UNESCO. The Steering Committee has directed the coordination with related provinces and cities to successfully organize the domestic workshop on the topic "Mo Muong in the religious life of Muong people in the past and present" and the international workshop on the topic "Mo Muong and similar forms of belief in the world" held in Hoa Binh city. The workshop received the participation of many Mo Muong artisans from provinces and cities; scientists, researchers, managers at home and abroad.
Comrade Luu Huy Linh, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said: From February 2022 to March 2023, the Provincial People's Committee directed the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to coordinate with the Institute of Music to establish a group of officials, experts and artisans to carry out the extraction and translation of documents, thereby building scripts, commentary, editing scientific films about Mo Muong cultural heritage, completing the Mo Muong heritage dossier. On March 31, 2024, the Mo Muong national intangible cultural heritage dossier was directed by the Prime Minister to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue a diplomatic note to submit to UNESCO for consideration and recognition as an intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent protection of humanity. It is expected that by 2026, Mo Muong cultural heritage will be listed by UNESCO. This will open up more opportunities for the protection and promotion of the value of the heritage. This will help raise public awareness of the preservation and protection of the precious heritage of our nation. Mo Muong is not only committed to be implemented by the law of the Vietnamese State, but also according to the general regulations for world cultural heritage, the whole community will participate in protecting and promoting the good values of the heritage.
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