Cherish the pieces of Co Tu culture

Tourists exchange cultural performances with Co Tu artisans at Toom Sara Village. Photo: TRUONG SON

Village kitchen down to the street

Cold March night. In the middle of the empty space between the tall buildings in the western neighborhood of An Thuong, a fire was lit, occasionally glowing red from the wind blowing from the sea.

Diners sitting around the banana leaves suddenly stopped talking when the sound of birds echoed. Many foreign guests were amazed and praised "perfect" when they knew that the sounds came from a forest leaf on old man Po's lips.

As much as they were impressed by the dishes with the rich Co Tu flavor, they were equally impressed by the elder's performance. "This is one of the activities of the Village Kitchen in the Street - a project of Toom Sara Village to bring the cuisine and unique characteristics of Co Tu culture to the center of Da Nang City," said Mr. Huynh Tan Phap, the initiator of the project.

As a person with profound knowledge and knowing how to select stories to convey to tourists, old Po makes listeners engrossed in exploring the Co Tu culture without getting bored.

For example, with just the story of spreading banana leaves to serve food, the old man helped many people understand that: in Co Tu culture, the two sides of the leaf are distinguished, face up and face down, to symbolize worshiping gods or inviting guests. And when pointing to the pole, old man Po made the young audience excited about the meaning of the colors...

Old Briu Po ​​(middle) performs the unique leaf trumpet of the Co Tu people in front of tourists. Photo: TRUONG SON

“With unfamiliar guests, talking about Co Tu culture should not be heavy on information but should be easy to understand with metaphors. Dad should make it interesting, people will find out for themselves…”, old man Po concluded.

Telling stories about Co Tu culture is a small part of the project. Huynh Tan Phap - a young man born in the 80s from Thang Binh, is fascinated by the culture of the highlands, although he is not a mountain person. Phap said, as the name suggests, "Village kitchen in the city" is a place where chefs living in the highland villages of Quang Nam are invited to Da Nang.

He arranged a place to rest and paid them a high salary so that every day they could prepare dishes with the flavor of the mountains and forests, such as: bamboo rice, stream fish, forest frogs, grilled meat, dried beef... The "drink" section had drinks such as: traditional rice wine or wines soaked from native plants such as Morinda officinalis, Codonopsis pilosula...

Ms. Alang Thi Bap (53 years old, living in Dong Giang district, Quang Nam) displayed wild vegetables, tubers, fruits... and said that these agricultural products were harvested from the fields, brought to the city, and then a group of young people invited by Mr. Phap put them on livestream to sell.

Co Tu show

At night at Suoi Hoa tourist area (Hoa Phu commune, Hoa Vang district, Da Nang city), a group of tourists were attentively listening to the narrator telling about the origin of the Co Tu people, when suddenly from afar a small fire followed the cable car and ignited a pile of firewood that had been piled up in the middle of the grass.

The stage was lit up, dozens of men and women in traditional Co Tu costumes formed a circle, singing, dancing the "tung tung da da" dance, and playing gongs.

Village elder Alang Dung (63 years old, residing in Phu Tuc village, Hoa Phu commune) concluded the program with an ancient story about unique customs, stories of ethnic groups adapting to the great forest for generations, and culinary dishes with a strong flavor of the mountains and forests...

This art program is called Co Tu Show, created by Huynh Tan Phap over the past few years with the participation of about 50 Co Tu people, all residing in Phu Tuc village.

Mr. Huynh Tan Phap introduces the project Forest, Breathe! aiming to regenerate forests and help people have new livelihoods. Photo: TRUONG SON

“During the 1 hour and 30 minute performance, the Co Tu actors truly dominated the stage. We believe that when they perform with pride, they will be the ones to introduce and promote the unique cultural features of their people in the best way,” said Mr. Phap.

A more interesting way to interact is after each performance, the Co Tu artists stay behind to answer questions from visitors. In the scent of wine, both guests and hosts join in traditional dances…

Ms. Zơrâm Thị Nguyệt (35 years old, dance team leader) said that all 25 members of the team are excited because every Saturday night they have extra income. “Earning money from dancing and receiving compliments and questions from tourists, we are very happy,” Ms. Nguyệt said.

As for village elder Alang Dung, his joy is spending most of his time in Toom Sara village doing the work "true to the nature of a native Co Tu person".

“Early in the morning, my father goes to the forest to cut grass and plant trees. At night, he practices performing arts in front of the gươl (village house) built in the traditional style from ancient times. Here, my father feels like he is living like his fathers. On top of that, he has an income, so he is very happy!”, Mr. Dung shared.

Toom Sara is the passion of Mr. Huynh Tan Phap for the art of architecture and sculpture of the Co Tu people. Many years ago, to build this village in accordance with the old model, he spent a lot of effort rolling around the great forest to find and buy old houses.

Phap said he was lucky to receive sympathy from everyone, especially artisans with skills in restoring and reviving an entire village.

“The luckiest thing was that I found a traditional mirror that was about to be demolished because it was deteriorating. I bought it, brought my brothers down from the mountain, and meticulously restored it for a whole month,” said Mr. Phap.

Forest, breathe!

At night, with a cup of rice wine, when he was a little tipsy, Huynh Tan Phap confided that he respects the Co Tu culture but must improve the livelihoods of the people. Right from the beginning of doing community tourism, he always kept in mind that whatever he does, he must spread values ​​while creating income for the people.

Toom Sara Village is a place to promote indigenous Co Tu culture in many creative ways. Photo: TRUONG SON

Therefore, on February 25, when launching the project “Forest, Breathe!”, Huynh Tan Phap talked a lot about phases 3 and 4 (from August 2025 onwards). In these two phases, the Co Tu people will officially benefit through forest tourism products on an area of ​​75 hectares and the activities that Toom Sara Village is implementing.

This is also the realization of the initiative “Livelihood from the forest” initiated by Huynh Tan Phap. This initiative not only focuses on planting native forests but also aims at exploiting forest resources reasonably, protecting nature in the long term…

Huynh Tan Phap shared: “I imagine the forest as being suffocated by the rough arms of humans. The forest needs to be breathed in, encouraged to “breathe” from the model of native, multi-layered forest planting combined with symbiotic plants under the forest canopy such as Morinda officinalis, pennywort… to both protect the soil, retain water, and create biodiversity…”.

I read the entire draft of the project "Oh Forest, Breathe!" and found there a Huynh Tan Phap full of ideas. Still traces of caution, putting feasibility first and above all, still a Huynh Tan Phap passionate and dedicated to the Co Tu culture.

Agricultural products from the Tay Giang highlands (Quang Nam) are sold at An Thuong Western Street (Da Nang). Photo: TRUONG SON

Therefore, it is not surprising that the first phase of the project includes events honoring the forest protection culture of the Co Tu people, such as: the Breath of the Forest music night; reenactment of the Bhuoih Ca Coong festival - a thanksgiving ceremony for the mountain god and the forest god; a driftwood carving art creation camp...

The journey of a tree's life is a long one. Hopefully, with the imprint of the ASEAN Community Tourism Award given to Toom Sara village (January 2025), France with its initiatives to cherish the cultural fragments of the Co Tu will be successful as expected...

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/nang-niu-nhung-manh-ghep-van-hoa-co-tu-3151150.html